STAR Procurement

Data transparency, analysis, management and reporting

Briefly describe the initiative/ project/ service

STAR Procurement, established February 2014, is the ground breaking shared procurement service connecting procurement between Stockport, Trafford and Rochdale Councils. STAR has a dedicated Business Improvement Team who work with the wider STAR team to drive performance and continuous improvement. The BI Team has worked tirelessly to get to grips with our data and produce meaningful information to support the entire team to deliver. Bringing together three different data sets from three Authorities has been challenging but in addition we have worked hard to use the data to support STAR procurement deliver transparency, efficiency and innovation. The data is used internally to inform strategy development and the STAR Business Planning process. Through our collaborative approach and the effective use and management of data the BI Team are now able to provide the procurement teams with meaningful information through monthly reports on performance data, exception reporting, work planning, work allocation, spend analysis and benchmarking. This is supporting STAR procurement to be an efficient and proactive service that can demonstrate how we deliver value for money, continuous improvement and collaboration

Why do you think it should win this award?

STAR is an exemplar of what can be achieved by investing time and resource into data and analysis to produce meaningful information to that supports our continuous improvement. One of key tools for us is our Contract register. The Contracts Register is fully compliant with the data Transparency Code and brings together all three Councils contracts data together into one place. This helps us to identify collaborative opportunities, benchmarking and for contract management opportunities. Our Contract Register goes beyond the requirements of the Code and is also used to capture social value and savings, as well as work planning and work allocation to ensure that we are operating efficiently

The STAR Joint Committee, STAR Board and STAR team together developed our Balanced Scorecard which set out our key objectives. KPIs were developed in tandem to demonstrate measurable improvement and through the effective use of data we can demonstrate the achievements we are making in savings, compliance, social value and performance (Customer & supplier satisfaction). The BI team also report on monthly performance indicators which are used to monitor/manage performance and improve efficiency

What are the key achievements?

When STAR was originally established there was a big challenge to bring together the information from three different Councils. This work has required proactive engagement with our stakeholders as well as the development of new innovative data collection and analysis methods.
Our achievements to date are:
1. Harmonised Contracts Register across the 3 Authorities that captures all information required for Data Transparency Code as well as savings and social value outcomes
2. Monthly performance reports to support team development, continuous improvement and efficiency
3. Production of work plans and work allocations to ensure efficiency and compliance
4. Quarterly Balanced Scorecard with analysis of changes and progress against targets
5. Detailed spend analysis for all 3 Councils identifying on/off contract spend, savings opportunities, collaborative opportunities, and benchmarking data
6. Proactive engagement with the AGMA procurement hub to improve the quality of the data we provide to SpendPro in order to improve the quality of the data we receive back
7. Monthly website and Twitter analytics