Simon Toplass, Chief Executive of PAGABO,  a provider that has £10.5bn in frameworks revealed at our recent conference the firms incredible growth, he said:“3 out of the last 4 years we’ve had triple digit growth in revenue terms” Pagabo are tendering their professional services and major works, which combined make up the £10.5bn figure.

Pagabo’s USP revolves around their commitment to social value Toplass said “30% of all the revenue we earn back into social value, back into good causes, back in the public sector, that is 30p in every single pound we earn that’s £1.3 million in total”. [emaillocker id=”71749″]

Robbie Blackhurst, Framework director, Procure Partnerships Framework a company launching 13 new frameworks explained how they tried built frameworks from a client side up  “Before we even set up a framework we spoke to clients”.

Blackhurst remarked on Procure Partnerships success in the North noting how they were not only the biggest framework provider in the North-West region, but also were responsible for the majority of work. Emphasis was made by the Procure Partnerships director in ensuring that “We need to make sure that frameworks have a regional focus”, with the company dividing their frameworks into 10 lots 

Major players within the frameworks industry have increasingly embraced the digital era to improve their services Toplass has described that “Technology is hugely important” to the company. They revealed their My Pagabo app, which allows clients to track the progress of their developments.  Blackhurst revealed Procure Partnerships’ development of their own app saying that “Technology is the way we can monitor these projects”.  

The My Pagabo app utilizes their Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) a streamlined  procurement system for public sector providers for works to £1m. The chief executive “Encourage very small businesses to play in the Pagabo ecosystem”. Pagabo’s DPS was designed  to “Set a strategy aligned to the objectives of the local authority”

A DPS is also being utilised by London Construction Programme (LCP), a regional framework that is a virtual company of Haringey Council. Lisa Bliss, the Programme Manager at LCP spoke in favour of a DPS for local frameworks “Having a DPS in place means all the information is available in one local place”.

Neither the LCP nor Pagabo currently use DPS for major works, Bliss explained “ DPS wasn’t the right route for major works, but it was for those more reactive works”.   Speed increases enabled by DPS will be Bliss “Capability assessment has already been completed, therefore commissioners only have to look at the procurement of that particularly requirement of that particular piece of work at the time”. 

Bliss also addressed criticism of DPS, which has suggested the process may be less rigorous than a traditional framework “I’d question if there’s no real evaluation on the DPS, any supply getting onto the DPS has to pass the standard SQ or the PAS-91 which is no different from a traditional framework.”

In addition she also noted how it aided growth in Haringey “We were able to support our local economy and local business.”  Emphasis was by both Blackhurst and Toplass on growing a regional focus to their national frameworks.  [/emaillocker]