Police scheme widens scope

A scheme that has reduced desktop hardware costs for police and emergency services by 10 per cent is being extended to all criminal justice bodies and government departments.

The initiative, led by Thames Valley Police Authority, covers supply of office systems including PCs, printers and PDAs. By pooling demand from a number of organisations, the framework contract will exploit economies of scale and lower prices.

Procurement for the extended deal has now started, and the contract is expected to be in place by August 2007. It could be worth up to £100m over four years, depending on how many organisations use it.

Last year 60 bodies, including 44 police forces, used the deal to buy £15m worth of hardware.

Thames Valley Police saved more than £1m on its IT budget this year by buying through the framework, says head of procurement Norman Bunce.

‘Most organisations that have used the contract have saved about 10 to 11 per cent of what they would otherwise have spent on office IT equipment,’ he said.

The growing number of organisations using it is one of the main reasons for the deal’s success, says Bunce.

‘Over the lifetime of these contracts more and more government organisations have been knocking at our door and asking to use the contract.’

In the past, criminal justice bodies were not included in the terms of the framework, says Bunce. By extending the scope, individual unit prices could drop further, he says.

Framework contracts are increasingly useful for government bodies needing commodity kit, says Ovum analyst John 0’Brien.

‘The collaborative contract worked well in this case thanks to the backing of Thames Valley Police, one of the largest forces in the UK, which encouraged others to join, further increasing the economy of scale,’ he said.

Prices drop significantly when shared purchasing reaches about 25,000 units, says O’Brien.

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