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English Heritage (“EH”) exists to make sure the best of the past is kept to enrich our lives today and in the future. EH is the government’s advisor on the historic environment operating through 9 Regions throughout the UK..

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Work Done

Nigel Hewitson, Legal Director at English Heritage, inherited the Procurement function. He commissioned JMCL, to look at what EH was spending its £60 million annual budget on, whether efficiencies could be made and what the Procurement strategy should be in the long term.

“JMCL’s analysis identified our key challenges and highlighted the opportunities that were available to us. It revealed, for example the extent to which our buying was not consolidated. As a regional organisation, we had lots of suppliers for the same goods and services; even when regions were using the same suppliers, they were doing so from several different locations and not co-ordinating their approach,” says Hewitson.

“We identified a number of significant cost-saving opportunities and we set out practical plans to achieve them,” says Jonathan Michael, Managing Director at JMCL. “These were not just in spend categories but in the fundamentals of procurement, such as processes, structure and supplier management.”

English Heritage was keen to encourage its own staff to feel responsible for the money they were spending. With this in mind, JMCL recommended that the organisation set up Category Teams to look at the various areas where costs could be reduced. There were five priorities – telecoms, printing and publishing, building and grounds maintenance, building and grounds capital projects and car hire.

At this point, the Buy Smarter campaign was launched. Category Teams were created for the five priority areas, each consisting of approximately six people, including a senior person in the relevant field, a member of staff with some knowledge of procurement and a specialist JMCL consultant

JMCL managed “Buy Smarter, sponsored by EH’s Board, reporting to Michael Crich Director of Resources to:

• Establish category teams and train the EH members of the team
• Facilitate and provide procurement expertise to enable the teams to deliver the savings identified
• Introduce and use e-auctioning

• Establish a long-term structure and strategy for the procurement function and recruit a Head of Procurement

JMCL delivered an excellent induction/ training day walking everyone through procurement techniques, mapping the way forward and explaining what was expected of individuals” says Hewitson. This was based around a well-honed sourcing methodology that has subsequently been adopted by English Heritage. Our sponsor DCMS attended the training as did a representative from OGC. JMCL followed this initial training with a further training day for those who came into the project later. “

Throughout the Programme JMCL facilitated the Category Teams, guided the Steering Group and was available to provide expertise and extra resource. The firm recommended that EH recruit a Head of Procurement and worked closely with Nigel Hewitson throughout the recruitment process. Following appointment JMCL have handed over to the new Head and continue to provide invaluable advice when called upon.

Customer Testimonial

Nigel Hewitson has commented:

Our sponsoring Department, DCMS, described what JMCL have done in procurement with English Heritage as “best practice”. They have expressed an interest in introducing JMCL and their methodologies to the rest of the Department.

JMCL are very focussed on the customer and provide a high level of accountability in all that they do. This makes them very responsive and easy to deal with. Throughout the work, which covered an elapsed time of c. 20 months, they have been professional and courteous and acted with openness, honesty and integrity.

JMCL ensured that they gave us the correct resources on the project all the time. Together with the skills transfer and savings which they delivered we obtained excellent value for money. They never failed to deliver what they promised and often exceeded expectations. This means that we will continue to benefit from their involvement far into the future. They have been a pleasure to deal with and both I and the members of my procurement team are still regularly in touch with them discussing procurement issue and developments.

English Heritage Finance Director David Kuenssberg agrees: “We have tried to save money through procurement exercises before but with only limited success. The difference this time was that JMCL co-ordinated participation across the organisation, rather than just in Finance or Procurement, and so we were able to get buy-in from the start,” he says.

Results Achieved

Following several months of hard work across the entire organisation Buy Smarter achieved £1 million annual savings against EH’s budget. The result equate to 5 per cent of the annual budget and 20% of addressable spend. Since then savings have continued exponentially, this

“In terms of money saved, Telecoms. was a typical success. First we discovered that we were literally paying hundreds of bills to BT and once we had consolidated them, we qualified for a ‘large user’ discount. Then JMCL led the Category Team through an e-auction. We ended up saving ourselves around £300,000 over two years,” he adds.

Quote

I call the work done by JMCL “ the gift that keeps on giving” since savings keep pouring in based on the methodology and training JMCL provided. Unlike many consultancy firms, JMCL actually transferred their knowledge to us so we could do the job on our own. That is an admirable quality,” says Michael Crich, Director Resources at EH and now Corporate Director, Resources at Cornwall Council.

“We could never have done this without JMCL. I could not have wished for a better partner,” says Nigel Hewitson Legal Director of EH at the time and now a partner at City Law Firm Norton Rose

“JMCL Consulting has combined cutting-edge procurement techniques, honed in the private sector, with a thorough understanding of public sector legislation and policy.”