Online office procurement saves Cancer Research UK over £2.5 million
Howard Lake | 16 July 2006 | News
Cancer Research UK has saved over £2.5 million per annum through a series of online auctions to purchase office supplies, IT hardware and laboratory consumables.
The charity has worked with procurement consultants Aria Insite since December 2004 to improve the way it manages its procurement budget, which in 2005/6 was £130 million.
Following a detailed spend analysis across all of its UK laboratories, Cancer Research UK and Aria identified the range of items that would be most suited to an online auction. Aria then brought in Vendigital, a specialist procurement company with particular expertise in online auctions, to manage the full auction process from end to end.
Advertisement
The first online auction to source office supplies delivered 30% savings to the charity. The auction to source IT hardware including desktops and laptops saved Cancer Research UK a further 20%, and another 33% was saved via the auction for laboratory consumables and equipment such as chemicals, plastics and personal protection equipment.
Through the latter auction, the charity also managed to reduce its number of suppliers from over 200 to fewer than six.
Belinda Turner, Procurement Director at Cancer Research UK said: “Initially, there was some scepticism that online auctions could deliver such huge savings. Now with three projects under our belts, we are convinced that this approach is extremely valuable.
“We are now developing a more holistic approach across all our procurement – this is not about centralising procurement, rather about sharing best practice with our individual buyers and helping them to buy more cost effectively.”
Peter Garnett, Managing Director at Aria Insite, said: “The auctions are only successful because Vendigital follows rigorous processes before, during and after the actual events. This process involves supplier headhunting, managing supplier participation, running the auction event, final assessments of suppliers with the best prices through to ensuring the successful implementation with the chosen suppliers.”
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.