Sovereign Housing Association provides almost 60,000 homes focused in a core area covering Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Dorset, Devon, Wiltshire, the West of England and the Isle of Wight.
They had identified a key business need to increase operational efficiency. Having engaged extensively with key stakeholders, Sovereign developed a business plan to ensure wider availability and flexibility of building materials supply. Targeting operatives spending less time on sourcing building materials and increasing the focus on maintaining homes.
Sovereign decided to use TPPL’s Building Materials Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) as their go-to solution to cut tendering time, and gain access to a pool of leading suppliers that covered all their targeted regions.
A core project team was formed to manage the procurement process of the contract, with ongoing support throughout the process from TPPL’s procurement expert Phil Williams. Efficient evaluations were conducted with input from stakeholders in each region; this ensured that best-fit contracts were awarded, following evaluation to Jewson Partnership Solutions, Buildbase and Bradfords Building Supplies.
A mini-competition was delivered in alignment with the business plan, ensuring accessibility of materials supply and with tangible social value benefits including:
According to Kat Rumfit, Category Manager at Sovereign Housing, ‘The DPS was seamless, with a pool of excellent suppliers. Phil Williams was excellent to work with and there the whole way; saving us considerable time on the tender and helping us with benchmarking exercises to ensure the pricing was kept honest. In addition, he was on hand to assist us with negotiations and managing deadlines. We have successfully worked with Phil a few times and will continue going forward.’
