Skills Development Workshop Timetable

Description coming soon.

Iain joined the Scottish Procurement Directorate in June 2007 to establish the Single Point of Enquiry service to suppliers to the Scottish public sector. Prior to this Iain held various policy posts in the Scottish Government’s Enterprise and Industry division, working with the engineering, shipbuilding, construction and chemical industries. He has also worked closely with the major Scottish business and industry representative organisations. Before joining the Scottish Government in 2000, Iain spent the bulk of his career in the aerospace industry where he held senior posts in procurement, logistics and business re-engineering.

Pauline is Chief Executive of Social Firms Scotland and represents social enterprise on the Government’s Public Procurement Advisory Group, Supplier Engagement Working Group and the newly established Single Point of Enquiry (SPoE) Champions Group – all of which provide important fora for an ongoing dialogue regarding public procurement as they affect suppliers. Her earlier career included marketing management in the further education sector and community regeneration. Social Firms Scotland is a national intermediary which provides advice, business development, representation and leadership for the Social Firms sector. Social Firms Scotland is a founding member of Ready for Business Procurement LLP, which was established to help social enterprises to increase their trading with commercial businesses through the delivery of goods and services. The project is unique in that it supports social enterprises, procurement agencies and contractors to do business and bring benefits to communities in Scotland.

There is a saying that ‘information is knowledge and knowledge is power’, and nowhere is this more true than in tendering. Knowledge about an authority’s procurement procedures, evaluation and scoring processes and future procurement plans can allow a contractor to position their tender appropriately.

Understanding the key drivers can help contractors identify the possible benefits of partnering with local providers, gauge the importance of issues such as regeneration, and respond to the authority’s policy on innovation. Likewise, having a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their own bids can help contractors improve their responses and thereby assist them in composing more successful submissions. This workshop considers how contractors can access and use a wide range of information to help them become even more successful in tendering.

Phil is involved in BiP Solutions’ Procurement Advice and Support Service (PASS) helpline, handling procurement and tendering-related questions and providing advice to both public and private sector clients through the PASS CAPS (Contract Administration and Process Support) service. Phil presents on procurement policy and proesses at conferences and events, both on behalf of BiP and for other organisations such as the Supplier Development Programme (SPD).

The Lianakis and Newham cases have made it more important than ever that the right criteria are chosen for the award process. This session looks at some areas that need to be considered when defining the criteria.

Eddie is BiP Solutions' Senior Procurement Consultant and frequently assists public sector organisations with clarification and interpretation of EU Directives and a wide variety of legislative issues. He is also lead consultant on BiP's PASS Mark Health Check, an evaluation technique that helps identify how organisations in both the public and private sectors can develop more effective processes in all aspects of public sector contracting, including the Tendering process. Eddie also provides in-house training on the Tendering process – law and practice – to personnel in both the public and private sectors, including several multinational organisations.

Across the public sector, there is a continual and increasing drive to consider sustainability within public procurement exercises. This workshop will show contractors how they can use their tender responses to identify the areas of sustainability that they can best support, from apprenticeships, skills and local labour to regeneration and partnering with the third sector. From delivering environmental benefits to addressing social inclusion, early consideration of the sustainability agenda can greatly benefit contractors in ensuring they address and deliver in the areas critical to the client authority.

Phil is involved in BiP Solutions’ Procurement Advice and Support Service (PASS) helpline, handling procurement and tendering-related questions and providing advice to both public and private sector clients through the PASS CAPS (Contract Administration and Process Support) service. Phil presents on procurement policy and proesses at conferences and events, both on behalf of BiP and for other organisations such as the Supplier Development Programme (SPD).

Contractors regularly complain that they keep getting asked the same pre-qualification questions time and again. Unfortunately, many continually fail to answer them satisfactorily and get excluded from the process at this stage. This workshop looks at the standard questions used by most contracting authorities, from the mandatory and optional exclusion criteria to the financial, economic and technical questions. Interestingly, we will identify areas of information often used by successful bidders to supplement their responses and consider how best to use your unique selling point as a means to become a tenderer rather than an also-ran.

Phil is involved in BiP Solutions’ Procurement Advice and Support Service (PASS) helpline, handling procurement and tendering-related questions and providing advice to both public and private sector clients through the PASS CAPS (Contract Administration and Process Support) service. Phil presents on procurement policy and proesses at conferences and events, both on behalf of BiP and for other organisations such as the Supplier Development Programme (SPD).

In today’s environment every penny is a prisoner. Money is not just tight at the bank. Many businesses are finding themselves conceding to pressure on price or providing far more knowledge and unpaid consultancy than before to win business and often this business is hardly worth having. Additionally, many business owners and sales directors are frustrated hearing their sales staff say they are too busy to prospect and to find the new clients every business needs as its lifeblood. This talk looks at what could be at the root of the issues experienced by businesses when selling. Could their approach be causing all the problems they experience? And the talk proposes a new approach…

Alan runs Sandler Training in Glasgow. Alan has 22 years of experience selling in the computer industry, having worked for both very small and very large companies. Most recently, he spent 11 years in IBM, looking after the largest accounts in Scotland. His previous roles have covered sales, sales management and business development.

A chance book purchase while on holiday led him to discover the Sandler Selling System, something that was so different from all his previous sales training, that he immediately adopted it, with great success.

He now works with business owners and Sales Directors across the Glasgow area to address their sales-related issues. Many of them are experts in their field but have no real experience of professional selling. Alan allows them to focus their efforts, develop a system, significantly reduce the amount of wasted time, increase their prospecting, be more effective against the competition and become more profitable and more successful.

In the light of recent legal cases in the UK and Europe, not least the Uniplex case, this workshop seeks to identify the information buyers should consider giving to suppliers and the possible implications of failing to properly debrief unsuccessful contractors. Poorly delivered debriefs can lead to costly challenges; it is therefore important that authorities seek to deliver satisfactory debriefs that answer suppliers’ questions and remove the risk of conflict.

Eddie is BiP Solutions' Senior Procurement Consultant and frequently assists public sector organisations with clarification and interpretation of EU Directives and a wide variety of legislative issues. He is also lead consultant on BiP's PASS Mark Health Check, an evaluation technique that helps identify how organisations in both the public and private sectors can develop more effective processes in all aspects of public sector contracting, including the Tendering process. Eddie also provides in-house training on the Tendering process – law and practice – to personnel in both the public and private sectors, including several multinational organisations.

It is government policy that all contractors be given a debrief should they so request; however, the reality is that some contracting authorities, particularly with contracts below the EU thresholds, would often rather avoid offering a debrief. This workshop explains the importance of seeking robust debriefs not only to find out if a submission was generally impressive or poor, but also to drill down to the scoring to find out how truly good or bad your responses were. It will also consider the importance of seeking to understand the scoring process used and the financial methodology employed by the authority and will look at how the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act can be used to access information when all else fails.

Phil is involved in BiP Solutions’ Procurement Advice and Support Service (PASS) helpline, handling procurement and tendering-related questions and providing advice to both public and private sector clients through the PASS CAPS (Contract Administration and Process Support) service. Phil presents on procurement policy and proesses at conferences and events, both on behalf of BiP and for other organisations such as the Supplier Development Programme (SPD).