We are always keen to illustrate the support Crescent Services can offer the housing sector – with our dedicated staff ready to take on the burden of your procurement predicaments.
To highlight how our procurement consultants can work for the benefit of housing specifically, we spoke with one of our own!
Pippa Dooley works as a procurement consultant for Crescent Services and is one of our longest-serving consultants, having first joined the team in 2014, when it operated under the banner of Tenet Procurement Services (or TPS).
After looking after customers from further education colleges, Pippa made a move into the housing sector and now supports Ongo Homes, a not-for-profit organisation based in Lincolnshire, but with homes also in Gainsborough, Lincoln and Doncaster, who provide some 11,000 homes for those on social or affordable rent.
Along with rental homes, Ongo provide a wide range of property management and maintenance services, as well as support services for tenants. To boost their efforts, they operate a small, in-house procurement unit, who have been assisted by our Crescent consultancy team since July 2022.
Crescent Services offer experienced and knowledgeable procurement consultants to customers and supply a consistent, tailored, personal service, as Pippa explains:
“I work for Ongo Homes two days a week and support my colleagues with various client projects on my third working day. I live in the North East of England, but, as I work from home, I have the flexibility to work for any client, no matter where they are based.
“My day always starts by catching up on emails and reviewing the day ahead, as well as checking meetings I have scheduled and projects I need to work on. Beyond that, there is no typical day. Each is slightly different, depending on the projects I’m working on and the stage they are at.”
Pippa’s regular contact with her social housing client allows her to act as a familiar port of call, enabling her to hit the ground running with new tasks and developing her understanding of sector-specific requirements. Her overall procurement expertise meanwhile ensures Ongo can benefit from Crescent Services’ broader offerings.
“At any one time, I will have multiple projects in progress for Ongo, which are either tenders or further competitions, via a framework. I manage each project from start to finish using Crescent Service’s Sourcing Cloud software, MultiQuote. This ensures compliance with the relevant regulations”.
Skilled in her role as a procurement specialist, Pippa has stressed the importance of early engagement with her client to accurately identify their desired outcome and direct her efforts towards achieving appropriate results.
Highlighting choice in the process, she elaborates on some of the subsequent steps and resources employed:
“The start of a project involves working with the relevant budget holder within Ongo to carefully define what the requirement is. As that requirement is being finalised, I will assess available routes to market, considering if there are any suitable frameworks, or if a tender is the best option.
“I will then pull together the tender pack that will go out to suppliers, getting this quality checked and approved by my manager and the budget holder, before launching the project on MultiQuote. I will put together an evaluation spreadsheet at this point.”
Pippa’s work within the housing sector as a Crescent Services procurement consultant is far from done once a new tender goes live. Indeed, there are various elements related to a complete tender process that she will then oversee:
“Once the tender is live, I will manage any queries received from suppliers and make sure they are replied to. When the returns deadline has passed, I then evaluate the financial aspect of the submissions and ensure the quality aspects are assessed appropriately by the evaluation team.
“The final stage is to get confirmation of the award decision from Ongo Homes, before communicating the tender outcome with full feedback to the unsuccessful suppliers and appointing the successful one, ensuring contracts are signed.”
While the nature of procurement dictates a variety of potentially diverse challenges will come Pippa’s way, her experience delivering for clients in her previous and present sectors allow her to tackle tasks with confidence:
“The projects I have been involved in with Ongo, plus those before for my college clients, have been for a wide range of goods and services.
“Whatever the project, whoever the client, the overall aim is to ensure compliance with procurement regulations, while securing the best value for money outcome for the client.”
If you’re in the housing sector and looking for help with your own procurement projects, perhaps you could benefit from the addition of an experienced and dedicated Crescent Services consultant like Pippa?
Get in touch with us to discuss our range of procurement consultancy services.