Joint Procurement in Scotland:
delivering value for money
by working together
SLIC FE C OLLEGE LIBRARIANS
CONFERENCE
E D I N B U R GH 2 8 T H N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 3
J EREMY U PTON, D EPUTY D IRECTOR L IBRARY S ERVICES,
UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREW S
Joint procurement in Scotland
Summary
Part 1: The How & Why
 The Scottish context
 Delivering value and the Library Sector
 Wider benefits
 APUC
 How
 What makes Procurement work
 Challenges
Joint procurement in Scotland
Summary
Part 2: The practical
 Existing Contracts
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Print Books
Electronic books
Journals
Scottish Higher Education Digital Library
Binding
Shared Library Platform?
 Future plans
Joint procurement in Scotland
Context
“The management of externally-sourced public expenditure should be a
very high priority and procurement is a distinct and important profession”
– Review of public procurement in Scotland, March 2006 / John F.
McClelland
Context: Scottish Government: “Building a better Scotland”, 2005
SCURL Strategy 2012-2014:
1. Effective collaborative content procurement
Our priorities will be to build on the longstanding successful record of
collaborative content procurement across Scotland, to establish a viable
SHEDL2 model and to complete the next round of collaborative
procurement agreement for books and printed journals.
Joint procurement in Scotland
Joint procurement in Scotland
Delivering Value : “Better together”
 Efficiencies from working together: shared service
 Save money and reduce costs: pooling purchasing power
 Introduce best professional practice
 Continuous improvement and influence
 Rigorous review and analysis
 True partnership with suppliers
 Best use of shared data: e-book contract, better picture of
what is actually happening in Scotland
Joint procurement in Scotland
Wider Benefits
Question:
How do the principles of socialization inherent in Communities of Practice (CoPs) improve
staff morale and engender feelings of commitment and belonging, and improve operational
efficiency in Scottish academic libraries and their clients and users?
 Sharing wider best practice
 Sharing knowledge
 Development of professional skills of benefit to entire
information community
Joint procurement in Scotland
APUC: Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges
“Procurement is a distinct and important profession”
 Professional and impartial advice
 Owned by the sector
 Limited Company: contracts on behalf of the whole
community
 Deal with the legal and compliance issues
Joint procurement in Scotland
How
 Procurement at the heart of SCURL activity
 Established structure to support procurement
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SCOPNet
Groupings for SHEDL, E-Books, Print books, Journals & Binding
 Flexible structure to cope with the future
 E-book tender
Joint procurement in Scotland
Procurement Groups
 Chair and vice-chair elected by the Group: 2 year tenure
 Representatives from all member libraries plus
representative from APUC (User Intelligence Group)
 Sign-off contracts
 Take part in Contract review meetings
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Review of queries
Review customer satisfaction
Review SLA
 Elect Tender Evaluation Panel
 Membership of the email list
Joint procurement in Scotland
Tendering
 APUC Established pathway for all tenders
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Market research
Procurement strategy
 Creation of statement of requirements
 Agree balance between service and pricing: 40% v 60%
 Description of minimum requirements
 Creation of questions which focus on the critical areas of service
based on experience
 Separation of pricing: basket of titles for comparison
 Tender Evaluation panel: constituency representatives
 Final recommendation approved by whole group
Joint procurement in Scotland
Joint procurement in Scotland
What makes procurement work
 Shared goals & needs
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Book processing
 Belief in the process
 The right size
 The right culture (libraries and Scotland do go well
together)
Joint procurement in Scotland
Challenges
 Maintaining common purpose across large group
 Keeping the marketplace competitive
 Co-operation between competitive organizations
 Cost of change
Joint procurement in Scotland
Part 2: The Practical
 Information available from the GeM site
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Includes tender documentation
Buyers guide
 Existing Procurement experts in the FE Sector
Jean Priestley of Fife College,
 Carol Grey of New College Lanarkshire
 Loraine Forde of Glasgow Clyde
 Jennifer Loudon of City of Glasgow College
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Joint procurement in Scotland
Print Books & Standing Orders (£2.8m)
Chair: Stuart Sharp (Glasgow); Vice-chair Elize Rowan
(Edinburgh)
Contract: November 2013-2017 (3 years plus option 1 year)
 Preferred supplier: Dawson Books
 Range of services including shelf-ready, catalogue records,
selection support
 Variable pricing discounts to match purchasing mix of
institutions
Joint procurement in Scotland
Journals (£14m)
Chair: Sonia Wilson (Stirling); Vice-chair Anne Bell
(Edinburgh)
Contract: November 2012-2015 (2 years plus option 1+1
years)
 Preferred supplier: Ebsco
 Range of services including A-Z lists, e-journal usage
collection, package management, consolidation
 Pricing: See GeM
 Value of contract shrinking
Joint procurement in Scotland
Journal binding and book repairs
 Preferred supplier: Riley, Dunn & Wilson
 Mainly journal binding and book repair but can offer other
more bespoke services
 Based in Scotland
Joint procurement in Scotland
E-books (£4m)
Chair: Alison Redpath (Edinburgh Napier); Vice-chair Wendy
Walker (Glasgow)
Contract: November 2013-2017 (2 years plus option 2 years)
Tender in 3 lots
Lot 1: Individual supply
 Preferred suppliers: 1. DawsonEra 2. EBL 3. Askews
 Range of services including catalogue records, selection
support
 Range of purchasing options including Patron Driven
Acquisition
Joint procurement in Scotland
Lot 2: eBook Collections with unconstrained DRM
 Process on-going: mini-competition stage
 Recognition most books bought from top 10 academic
publishers
 Going direct to publishers better terms: pricing & licensing
 Extract value by confirming limited pot of money up for
grabs
 Possible preferred model, evidence based pricing
Lot 3 Subscriptions with constrained DRM
Joint procurement in Scotland
Scottish Higher Education Digital Library
Chair: Richard Parsons (Dundee); Vice-chair Barbara
Houston (Queen Margaret)
 Direct publisher negotiations for journal content (more
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recently also including e-books)
Optimal solution: all-in rather than optional
Widening access as well as delivering better prices
Major deals in place, further deals being added each year
Options to include other Libraries
Joint procurement in Scotland
Future plans
 Maximise the benefits of sharing: holdings information into
JISC Project KB+
 True Scottish Digital Library?
 Other shared services?
 Further content procurement: commissioning OA text books
Joint procurement in Scotland
Jeremy Upton
Deputy Director Library Services,
University of St Andrews
jeremy.upton@st-andrews.ac.uk