CCS Procurement 2017 - Anyone used it?

[Synkrox]

Has anyone got any experience of using this framework?

I'm a little concerned by the fact you tell them what you want and are committed to buy without even knowing the price or model!

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technology-hardware-for-schools#Aggregation-for-schools-webinar

[gumbygaz]

Just been given this to look at by our business manager. Same thing crossed my mind, seems quite a gamble. Not sure how much these prices will go down in reality and quite a restrictive list of machines (guess it'd have though).

Be interesting if anybody has used it and what price difference to the ceiling price there actually was.

[Boredguy]

Not too thrilled with it on paper. First item I went searching for, I found cheaper through normal channels (though admittedly without a SSD but I'd still save money buying and installing the SSD seperately) based on their indicitive price.

 

Also you have to wait a month from submitting your request until the order is processed?

[JonThompson]

I think this is already being discussed here - http://www.edugeek.net/forums/news/178598-dfe-announcement-6-1-17-new-deal-help-schools-save-cash-computer-equipment.html

[Achandler]

We did the CCS procurement for tablets last year, it was hard work to be fair but we got savings. I haven't looked at the current one but the one we did you agreed to purcahse if they met a certain price. The indicitive pricing I just ignored but in what I could get what I wanted for and then sent it off, they came back beating the best price I could get and we bought the stuff.

 

It's slow and a pain to do but we saved about £600 on a £12k order, so probably worth it if you can wait.

[Synkrox]

Thanks for the feedback :-)

 

I'll be passing on the procurement bid process this time round but would be interested to hear back what deals any of you get. To be honest I think they will be hard pressed to beat the deals you can get with a regular bid through usual channels.

 

I know it's different but I've just got a login to the Crown Commercial Purchasing Platform and the prices on there are basically RRP from what I can tell. https://purchasingplatform.crowncommercial.gov.uk

[Achandler]

They will probably beat most other providers, I haven't looked at this process due to the timing of it but on the tablet procurement last time there was in excess of 5000 iPads being bought for example, which gave a massive economies of scale, whetehr the process is worth the savings is another issue entirely.

 

Ignore the RRPs they use, just put your max price you are willing to pay at 5-10% less then the best deal you can get and if they don't beat or match it you don't have to buy.