Overview
The increased importance attached to collaborative procurement is a direct result of the Public Sector Procurement Reform Programme. Collaborative Procurement is about achieving value for money for the Scottish public sector through partnership working between buying organisations, centres of expertise (CoEs) and suppliers, for Category A commodities. Procurement Scotland will draw on expertise across the public sector to leverage volumes and secure benefits from economies of scale through harnessing combined sector purchasing power. Much has already been achieved through the work of the evolving CoEs.
National Category Forums
A key enabler to collaboration is the formation of National Category Forums (NCFs) for each category area, comprising amongst others technical and procurement members from both the Centres of Expertise (CoEs) and individual local organisations. This is seen as a vital channel to build stakeholder requirements and good cross sector relationships. Each NCF provides a forum for sharing information, experiences and understanding of a particular category A commodity area. This allows NCFs to appropriately influence procurement strategies to achieve optimal collaborative contracts. Note that similar forums are used for category B & C commodities and are called User Intelligence Groups (UIGs). The UIGs also have a role to play in representing sectoral requirements for category A commodities.
NCFs ensure specifications and service levels meet buying organisation requirements and support the management of supplier performance and innovation. The requirement for NCFs is even more essential in collaborative procurement where commodity management and contract strategy involves input from different buying organisations with differing needs. The NCFs ensure all interests are represented.
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