"I really do appreciate the hard work being done at Scotland Excel to support us with the adoption of collaborative education contracts."
Tom Henderson
Interim Procurement Manager
West Lothian Council
Managing relationships
Scotland Excel places great emphasis on customer care, and all of our staff understand the importance of meeting - or exceeding - members' expectations in everything we do.
Regional Teams
Scotland Excel has four regional account management teams based in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Inverness and Paisley. Their role is to understand the local requirements of our customers and ensure that every council receives the maximum benefit from their Scotland Excel membership.
Regional teams have contact with stakeholders at all levels within our member organisations. They prepare quarterly reports for senior management which detail the savings and benefits that each council is achieving, and regularly attend staff events to provide information on the products and services available on Scotland Excel contracts.
However, regional teams work most closely with local authority procurement colleagues to provide assistance throughout the contract placement process. Where required, they will help with gathering historic spend and product data which is used for tender development.
The teams are able to analyse this data to benchmark the products purchased and prices paid by the local authority under their existing contract arrangements. This allows them to forecast and monitor the savings potential of Scotland Excel contracts at individual council level. Regional teams can also help councils increase their savings potential by providing advice on running 'mini competitions' with suppliers on a framework agreement.
The data analysis undertaken by the teams can also help facilitate regional collaboration on Category C1 contracts by identifying common spend patterns and suppliers servicing a number of councils in an area. Where councils express an interest in developing this type of contract, the regional teams can help to coordinate the contract placement process.
Regional teams meet with each council on quarterly basis to undertake business reviews. These meetings provide a platform for discussing savings and other benefits that local authorities have accrued during the previous three months, and also identify further opportunities for optimising the value of their membership.
Regional teams also facilitate the sharing of best practice through quarterly hub meetings attended by all councils in their area, and they actively participate alongside local authorities in Procurement Improvement Programme worksteams. Councils also look to regional teams to provide support with supplier engagement initiatives, and they regularly attend local 'Meet the Buyer' events.
The councils served by each of the regional teams are detailed below:
Highlands and Islands: Eilean Siar, Highland, Moray, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands
North East: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross
South East: City of Edinburgh, Clackmannanshire, East Lothian, Falkirk Council, Fife, Midlothian, Stirling, The Scottish Borders, West Lothian
West of Scotland: Argyll and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire
Helpline
The Scotland Excel helpline provides a first point of contact for any general enquiries about our organisation, activities or contracts. This service is available Monday to Friday, during normal office hours, on 0845 606 8726. You can also get in touch using the Contact us form available on this website.
- Guide to Scotland Excel
(pdf 948kb)