June 10, 2013
In the most recent post in the Procurement Insights EU blog, Colin Cram discusses the recent Lord Browne Report on non-executive directors working with the UK government. For those who may be unfamiliar with the term, non-executives are drawn from numerous industry sectors (see graphic below) to provide expertise for an annual fee of roughly […]
June 6, 2013
When Colin Cram and I first talked about launching the new Procurement Insights European Union Edition, one of the first questions we asked ourselves is “how can we be different.” I am not talking about a new marketing angle or an esthetically pleasing visual experience – although the blog format does have a certain appeal. […]
May 23, 2013
This past year has been somewhat of a watershed year for the Procurement Insights blog as well as its sister radio show The PI Window on the World. For example, we surpassed the 1,000 post mark with the blog that was launched with little fanfare in May 2007. That is a lot of “virtual ink” […]
May 10, 2013
How often should major projects never have been started? I can think of several and there may be another about to start. The Ministry of Justice is planning to spend £675m ($1bn) on a compliance and enforcement project/contract to collect outstanding fines http://justice.governmentcomputing.com/news/moj-issues-675m-contract-for-compliance-and-enforcement-services which, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation last year, amount to almost […]
May 6, 2013
What is world class procurement? That is the question that was asked last week at a conference that I was chairing. The topic was world class procurement in the NHS. Some people would argue that if an organisation has efficient and modern processes and procedures, category management, a highly qualified workforce, good information and performance […]
April 25, 2013
Editor’s NOTE: As a follow-up to my April 23rd post “Where did purchasing go wrong: Businessman sells £50 Million of fake bomb detection equipment to governments around the world,” contributing columnist Colin Cram has by way of today’s post provided his take on the James McCormick case. The recent fraud case where businessman, James McCormick […]
April 19, 2013
The UK government appears to be moving towards centralising civil government procurement in all but name. It was less than 3 months ago that I proposed* to a UK Parliamentary committee (the Public Administration Select Committee) the creation of a ‘Crown Procurement Service’ for the whole of the public sector. This proposal, based on my […]
April 15, 2013
Editor’s Note: Part 1 of this series was posted on Thursday, April 11th My report on procurement proposed more outsourcing and a team was set up to drive this forward. However, the government was unable to overcome resistance to it. By the time John Major had taken over, in 1991, my estimate was that much […]
April 11, 2013
In 1980 I joined the Cabinet Office in 1980 as part of a team set up to support the efficiency and reform agenda of Margaret Thatcher’s newly elected government and to supplement the work of the then Sir Derek Rayner, the Prime Minister’s efficiency adviser. Continuing in that role within the Cabinet Office and then […]
Towards Tesco Reborn, or why Procurement Insights is your number 1 source for well . . . procurement insights by Jon Hansen
June 17, 2013
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It is a very exciting time for the Procurement Insights brand, especially with the recent launch of our new European Union Edition. Besides having has its Chief Editor one of the top public procurement experts in the UK (and perhaps even beyond) in the person of Colin Cram, we are going to be announcing 10 […]