£200k saved for university

From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Monday 30th Jan 2006.

A Swindon online auction company stepped in to save a UK university £200,000.

Vendigital of the Windmill Business Park organised the auction for buying stationery and as a result the University of Northumbria saved 35 per cent of its annual paper budget.

Twelve suppliers placed 312 bids within the 90-minute online event "We were delighted with the results," said Trevor Gabriele, of the university.

"We felt we could get better value so decided to undertake a pilot online auction. We were keen to see how the process worked and to judge its value."

The university contracted PricewaterhouseCoopers to run the auction and they in turn appointed Vendigital.

PricewaterhouseCoopers held a series of briefings with everyone involved with the purchase of the stationery and office supplies across the university to ensure they were fully aware and supportive of the online auction initiative.

The online auction had to comply with the EU Public Procurement Directive.

This means that the online procurement process is undertaken in a fair and open manner.

One of the keys to delivering a successful online auction strategy is to recognise that it is a change management programme.

Vendigital managed all the supplier questions and handled the online auction event, including training suppliers in the use of the software.

The team also managed the post-auction interviews and the contract award process to ensure the chosen supplier satisfied all the university's quality and delivery needs.

Business director Adrian Griffiths was delighted with the transaction.

Vendigital has been in Swindon since 2000 and it employs 20 people.

It is a purchasing organisation that attempts to get better deals for customer using a variety of methods.

Cost savings of 26 per cent are not unusual and Vendigital also offers a wide range of bespoke components and services.

Established in 1999, Vendigital has offices in the UK, US and Germany.

Archive Home