What we do in the Operations Team

We provide solutions for our customer’s procurement and technical needs throughout all stages of their projects. Public procurement is legislated and for projects that are over the Government set thresholds for works, services and goods procurement can be lengthy, a drain on our customers’ resources and expensive.  That’s why we offer more efficient routes to market that are quicker, easier but most important of all, compliant with the legislation.

There are four key areas of the operations team here at SEC. 

1. Technical Team

Our technical team offer expertise, advice and services to help prepare our customers for their upcoming project. They create specifications, cost models, provide advice on asset management, leasehold consultation, review pricing that’s received from tenders, offer market intelligence on trends and patterns and market conditions and they offer training on contract management, schedule of rates plus lots more.

2. Procurement Products

Our offer is based upon providing ease, options and value and one of our unique selling points is that we’ll always make sure we’re compliant and so are our customers.

We procure frameworks covering a wide range of different disciplines from decarbonisation, internal and external building works, consultancy services and compliance.  Frameworks provide a faster route to market for our customers because once we’ve procured the framework we’ve completed a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of the over threshold procurement stage. We create specifications and cost models, and assess the quality and financial standing of our suppliers to create a shortlist – meaning our customers can be safe in the knowledge that we’ve tested the market and utilised our buying power through our reputation within the sector. 

Procuring a framework can take anywhere from 12-18 months which is also the same amount of time that our customers could take with their own over threshold procurement projects.  So we’ve completed the hard work for them!

We also create dynamic purchasing systems or dynamic markets that allow more specialist suppliers to be accessed by our network.  These are dynamic as they allow for suppliers to be added at any time and also means our customers can ask their preferred suppliers to join it so they can then bid for opportunities that are advertised on the relevant dynamic model.

3. Procurement Projects

Our customers benefit from our frameworks and dynamic models as they can then complete a mini competition or direct selection with our selected suppliers that have been tested for suitability and quality.  A direct selection process can be completed in as little as 3 weeks and a mini tender can be completed within 12 weeks – which saves them a lot of time and money overall. 

Our customers benefit from our procurement expertise, support and advice throughout the procurement process, and we help them throughout all stages including pre, during and post procurement. Our aim is to act as an extension of our customers’ teams offering advice on tender documentation, evaluation processes, assisting with moderations and finalising awards in a relationship-centric approach.

4. Procurement Strategy

Our vast network includes lots of different stakeholders from different organisations meaning we collaborate with them and seek different ways to grow and improve our offer.  Our aim is to be innovative and create solutions for customers and help our sector tackle the various challenges they face.

We do this by attending different working groups, meeting and connecting with external stakeholders and partners, moving towards obtaining our Gold Standard Accreditation, delivering training on procurement, working with government departments on influencing and shaping policy and reviewing external factors to help inform our customers and revise our own strategy and offer.