Public Spend Forum(PSF) is a public sector procurement global community and market intelligence platform dedicated to improving public procurement.GovShopis its free-to-use government market research tool for finding and connecting with suppliers. Here's the latest from PSF:
7MI Series – Essentials for Public Procurement
Public Spend Forum is running a series of articles on the 7 Economics and Market Intelligence Essentials for Public Procurement. Each one in the series will contain useful information via podcasts, written resources, templates and other materials. The series is a result of 20 years of work and research across the public and private sectors, and will be:
- Focused on the fundamentals of how markets work and basics of economics
- Fact-based and analytical as opposed to “hunches”
- Collaborative and two way with an emphasis on early supplier engagement
The first ‘Essential’ -#1 Understand the Need Before You Buy– discusses what some may describe as the most important part of any procurement: understanding the need and what matters most, which based on their experience is critical to conducting effective market research. It highlights three critical questions we must ask at the beginning of each acquisition/procurement and gives advice on how we should answer them. There is also a handy template available to download. Read thathere.
MSDUK calls on public sector to make supplier diversity key in wake of BLM movement
MSDUK, a non-profit which has worked with over 125 global corporations and over 3,000 ethnic minority businesses over the last 14 years to champion supplier diversity, is calling on the public sector to do more to make supplier diversity a key part of their core strategy. Founder Mayank Shah says one of the biggest challenges is a lack of data on business ownership in the UK. How can you produce policies to support disadvantaged business groups, if you do not collect or analyse any data? he asks. Quality data helps to develop informed policies that have a lasting impact. Read morehere.
Covid-19 verified supplier list
Public Spend Forum has been working with the National Governor's Association, the Defense Joint Task Force and a number of non-profit organisations, such as American Hospital Association, to "verify" suppliers and maintain/grow a list of over 3000 suppliers and 10,000 products related to Covid-19 supplies and services. Here’s how it works:
How you can search, download list and place requests:
- Searchon free GovShop Platform: Please visit GovShop.com to search listhere
- Place a request or RFP,directly on GovShop onthispage. The team will use their matching algorithms to recommend suppliers as well as to disseminate the request to verified suppliers
- Request List:Please emailcovid19@publicspendforum.netto request a full list in Excel that you can search and filter and share with your state agencies
- See latest updates including new suppliers, contractshere
And in other news ...
UK Government awards £252m PPE contract to private equity firm
UK missed out on EU schemes to secure supplies of PPE owing to defunct email addresses
Tunga launches new e-learning platform for software developers in Africa
More than £15m in fraud and errors across Scotland’s public sector since 2018
Thousands of business advisers to offer free services to small firms in government scheme
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund open for digital innovation to transform Britain's supply chains
CIPS and ITN Productions launch 'Supply, Support and Sustain’
Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy advises free services to small firms
Ask Public Spend Forum
Contactsupport@publicspendforum.netif you’d like to understand more about public procurement, the effect of the pandemic, where to find suppliers for a specific category, or any other burning issue you have.
We’d also love to hear from you if you have a success story within your organisation you’d like to share.
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