A change is as good as a rest
David Parker, Buying Solutions' Head of IT Frameworks (Hardware) offers advice on buying personal systems hardware, as savings opportunities are readily available.
Procurement of desktop and laptop systems provides terrific opportunities to achieve significant value for money results.
But one thing is essential. Don't rely on simply beating down your current supplier's prices. Many organisations have 'standardised' on a particular manufacturer and just keep going back again and again without testing the market. The evidence is compelling – those who use a true competitive process get a better deal, full stop.
There are many examples of organisations just ticking along with the same supplier and equipment – even though the original business case is several years old and requirements, technology and specifications have moved on.
These days IT hardware is incredibly reliable and build standards are extremely high across most manufacturers. Equipment failure is rare and the fact is that there is very little inside the boxes that is truly unique to one particular supplier, so it is difficult to justify standardising on a particular supplier or manufacturer and paying a premium for doing so.
Arguments that 'support costs' (internal and/or external) would increase if customers swapped to another supplier are common. Well they might but the actual increase could easily be off-set by the reduction in the purchase price. If external support costs - extended warranties for example – are included in the purchase price then actual costs may be reduced. There are good examples of successful networks that have more than one supplier's equipment on it and in the current market it is wise to keep suppliers keen.
If all customers bought the best value offering available from the Catalist Great Deal promotion for IT, it is estimated that the total saving would be £15 million in just 90 days.
That's 750 more teachers in the classroom or 750 extra nurses on hospital wards.
Why not take another look at Buying Solutions' Great Deals? They have been put together in order to save valuable resources that can be recycled into front line public services.
We can offer business case advice and can help you address any concerns you may have about changing current suppliers, manufacturers or levels of service. Our team of skilled professionals are here to help and the deals we have put together represent some of the best in the public sector. Take a look by visiting online.ogcbuyingsolutions.gov.uk/information/greatdeals.
Please email us at itfw@ogcbs.gsi.gov.uk if you have any feedback regarding this article.
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