A new line of defence for MOD land
Under a new contract recently awarded to Entec, a range of Environmental Consultancy Services will help to preserve the 240,000 hectares of defence land across the UK.
The supplier was sourced through a Buying Solutions eAuction, enabling Defence Estates to avoid unnecessary procurement delays and make a substantial saving of £2.1 million.
Defence Estates is a department within the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and is responsible for maintaining the MoD's land and buildings. It is one of the biggest landowners in the UK, owning approximately 1% of UK land.
Defence Estates manage over 4,000 separate sites. The size, diversity and nature of the land is dictated by the MoD requirements to train, mount and sustain military operations. It accommodates a broad range of properties including naval bases, barracks, airfields, research and development installations, storage and supply depots, major communications facilities, families' quarters, listed buildings and monuments and town centre careers information offices.
Defence Estates has an in-house Environmental Support Team who currently aid the delivery of a comprehensive environmental work programme across the defence estate. Due to the broad scale of this project, they required an environmental partner who could provide them with advice, guidance and support on the practical implementation of environmental policy.
A smooth operation
Within the parameters of Buying Solutions' Environmental Consultancy Framework, Defence Estates wanted to establish a partnering arrangement with a single organisation. It was highlighted by Buying Solutions that an efficient way of developing this type of arrangement was through an eAuction.
The eAuction was one of the first to be conducted following the introduction of the new EU procurement regulations. This meant that quality and price were both significant factors in determining which supplier could offer the best value for money.
A total of eight Buying Solutions' framework suppliers agreed to take part in the eAuction which ran for just three hours. A total of 129 bids had been made by the close of the auction. This process generated an 18% reduction on what would have been paid had the services been procured through Buying Solutions' standard framework arrangements, which already offer extremely competitive rates.
The eAuction gave Defence Estates an improved insight into the marketplace and facilitated the £2.1 million saving through greater competition between suppliers.
Defence Estates and TradingPartners - the service provider for Buying Solutions' eAuction Managed Service
- worked collaboratively on the project which also delivered significant efficiency and sustainability benefits. The online negotiation process saved both paper and time in avoiding long winded administrative processes.
Said Keith Maddison, Head of the Environmental Support Team, Defence Estates:
"The eAuction was an extremely effective and efficient method of procuring the services of Entec.
It gave full visibility of the services that Defence Estates required as part of the agreement and also gave the bidders full visibility of the process and allowed them to make decisions on the day that could affect their opportunity to win the business as part of the auction process. We are very pleased that Entec won the 3.5 year contract and look forward to developing a mutually beneficial partnership."
Defending their ground
Entec's contract with Defence Estates runs until September 2009. Services span strategic environmental assessment, environmental impact assessment and related studies, development planning, land quality, energy and waste management, environmental management systems and audit and risk and cost analysis. Specific tasks may range from dealing with contaminated land to carrying out wildlife assessments and giving health and safety advice.
Entec's Framework Liaison Manager, Richard McLaren, said: "We are delighted to be able to offer an expanded range of services to Defence Estates through the environmental support contract. Our appointment recognises our capabilities in a diverse range of environmental services coupled with our experience developing long term relationships and working in partnerships. Collaborative working will be critical in enabling Defence Estates to successfully deliver the environmental work programme and we look forward to working with Keith and his team to meet this exciting challenge."
Joining forces
A key aspect of the contract is the long term, holistic approach to service delivery. This has been encapsulated in a ‘partnering principles' document, allowing close working relationships between customer and supplier and the sharing of skills, experience and innovation in service delivery.
For Entec, the contract will be a continuation to the support they already provide to Defence Estates through Specialist Term Commissions for town and country planning and environmental engineering. Whilst encompassing these areas of work, the new contract will allow a broader scope of services to be provided on a national basis.
Advancing forward
Entec are currently working on a number of key environmental projects relating to strategic environmental assessments, land quality assessments, disposals, estate development plans and equipment acquisition and utilisation.
Said Keith: "We have set up regular project meetings to monitor our progress against a partnering maturity model and are looking forward to working with Buying Solutions to ensure Defence Estates continues to achieve value for money in their partnering arrangements."