Procurement of Water Services
Summary
Deecon were engaged to support Ancala Water Services (AWS) in procuring their supply chain to deliver water and wastewater services to over 1,100 Ministry of Defence (MOD) sites throughout England and Wales. Deecon led the procurement strategy and the development of a standardised work breakdown structure to provide AWS with a granular overview of the supply chain. This project delivered long-term partnerships with new and existing suppliers, cost savings above business case targets were achieved with increased cost surety for AWS.
Situation & Approach
Ancala Water Services (AWS) was founded in 2018 when Ancala Partners acquired Kelda Water Services (Defence) Ltd. AWS deliver water and wastewater services to over 1,100 sites throughout England and Wales. This includes the £1bn 25-year Aquatrine contract, delivering specialist water and wastewater management services to the MOD.
In 2018/19, Deecon led the procurement strategy for the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) agreement with the MOD on behalf of AWS. To inform the most appropriate procurement strategy for the PFI (a 25-year agreement with the MOD) Deecon were tasked with standardising AWS cost capturing capabilities. This was achieved via a work breakdown structure that benchmarked existing supplier spend across various categories including mechanical & electrical, ICA, laboratory services, waste tankering & management, sewer blockage clearance and pump care.
Using Deecon Core, our proprietary procurement and commercial software package, AWS and Deecon developed a pricing model with a full breakdown for each activity. This provided highly granulated oversight of tenderers’ costs, through deep dive pricing level activities. Deecon Core’s data consolidation capabilities enabled us to produce insightful metrics, from heatmap visualisations to cost comparisons against baselines and earned value. As a result, we delivered high impact and informative evaluation outputs that gave tenderers the information that they needed to provide an efficient solution. This was achieved over a number of clarification rounds allowing for the iteration of their pricing models in line with AWS objectives for high-quality and sustainable services.
Utilising the data archive from Deecon Core, the team were able to deliver granular benchmarking and commercial analytics when analysing in-life contracts. This offered AWS a level of assurance as well as the capability to identify trends and outliers more effectively.
Results
Deecon’s procurement process delivered high quality and sustainable services
Upskilled internal procurement and commercial staff at AWS
Superior return on investment and positive feedback from both client and tenderers on the process
“We engaged Deecon for a number of our client organisations. They have provided our organisations with commercial management, project management and procurement strategies, and are driving the procurement process at Ancala Water Services. Deecon have provided determined, knowledgeable individuals who have used inventive techniques to deliver high-quality solutions.”
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