Best Value Public Sector Partner The Utilities Exchange has been working with Local Authorities and other public sector organisations since 1995, providing the tools to drive government utility costs down. The company has firmly established itself by delivering proven results for a range of government bodies and ultimately the taxpayer.
- Local Authority Standing Order compliant
- OJEU (OJEC) compliant
- Comprehensive audit trail
- Reduced tender duration and cost
- Reduced energy cost
- Meeting renewable energy targets
- Fully competitive effective supplier relations
- Increased supplier response to tenders
- Effective data sourcing and management
- Best fit for public sector bodies and the taxpayer
Meeting eProcurement Targets Our procurement system UX Online®, has been specifically designed to meet the requirements of local authority purchasing processes, incorporating comprehensive audit trail and archiving functionality. Using this market proven energy specific procurement system will also circumvent the prohibitive start-up costs that would be required to deliver a bespoke in-house system. All these factors combined enable UX Online® to offer a very high value proposition to Local and National Public Authority energy buyers, addressing key concerns outlined by the 2002 Institute of Public Finance report. For Public sector organisations the most common barriers to e-procurement cited in the survey included start-up costs of systems (72%), followed by concerns about maintaining audit trails (59%). Meeting Renewable Energy Targets In addition, many local and national government organisations have a mandate to procure green energy, concerned with meeting the Government's 2010 Kyoto agreement target. Public sector clients of The Utilities Exchange are consistently able to source 100% of their electricity requirements from renewable sources, whilst still saving on their energy costs. The Bedford Borough Council, CBC and Tamworth Borough Council case studies are an excellent example of the best value working partnership we strive to achieve with our Local Authority clients. | Compliance and Competitiveness Compliance of our energy tendering system with EU procurement regulations is confirmed by our Local Government customers having looked in detail at this and satisfied themselves of its compatibility with EU procurement protocols, processes and regulatory mandates. We work with our public sector clients to manage to the OJEU (OJEC) process from notice to award. A free official gateway service to publish and award using the OJEU (OJEC) process is available at mytenders.com. Local Authority client quotes taken from our successful entry to the Utility Week 2002 awards are important, because they are conclusive evidence of accomplishment in Local Government energy purchasing. UX Online® is a tool for the issue, receipt and evaluation of bids. In this sense it is available, theoretically, to all suppliers. The system promotes maximum exposure to industry suppliers for each energy contract tendered and has the capability to issue Invitations To Tender to all industry suppliers, receive their proposals and analyse their responses over the web through 'UX Online®'. Therefore the platform ensures equal opportunity exists for all interested parties to respond. It is important to note that every supplier of energy who has licence to trade in the UK has access to UX Online®. The system can also manage a tender as a closed process in line with Local Government and EU requirements, whilst maximising the competitiveness of supplier responses. Ensuring we are up-to-date with the specifics of public sector energy procurement, The Utilities Exchange is an active member of LAGUR (Local Authority & Government Utilities Resource) Flexibility In many instances a public sector energy manager is responsible for numerous operations in addition to the procurement of energy, although this is of course not always the case. As such we have developed a range of services to suit individual public authority organisational requirements, from the basic use of our procurement tool during each tender round, to the provision of a fully managed service for each supply contract period. Whatever your requirement we ensure that all times you are informed and in full control of the processes engaged. The Procurement Services section of our website provides more detail on our portfolio of offerings. We understand that the complexity of buying energy in wholesale markets means that the procurement process needs to be managed as efficiently as is possible. In many instances buyers are not in a position to watch commodity markets on a daily basis, for example managing legislative problems during the course of an existing contract, or monitoring price movements for the best time to go to tender. Counting the Cost Where traditionally it would take a public sector team weeks to collect, issue and award a tender, the whole process can now be completed more swiftly, with award to suppliers in some instances within one hour of the tender close. This combined with the provision of high quality data to suppliers through UX Online® means that suppliers are able to price more competitively and reduce the risk based margin they apply to public authority bids. By delivering a fully competitive market, many of our public sector clients are able to meet their renewable energy targets and still save a significant sum of capital on previous energy prices. | 
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