Atamis continues to help suppliers get the most out of NOE CPC
As part of our #SuppliersMatter month, we have been looking at some of the things we do at NOE CPC to make life easier for our supplier base.
One of those things is our adoption of Atamis, a platform which has made it easier for many of our suppliers to do business with us, by increasing the visibility of tender opportunities published by us, our partner organisations in NHS Procurement in Partnership, and our customers.
NOE CPC began using the Atamis Health Family Single eCommercial System in December 2021, becoming one of the early adopters of the software.
At the time, we helped several NOE CPC members transition to using the software, further enhancing the value they gained out of their membership with us. The majority of our members now use the platform.
Atamis has Workplan, Procurement, Contract and Supplier Management modules which NOE CPC and NHS organisations across the health family have been encouraged to utilise. The software provides greater insight into the procurement and commercial landscape of the NHS which helps us to deliver wide-ranging commercial benefits and opportunities.
Previously, suppliers that were interested in submitting a bid for a public sector contract had to register on multiple electronic tendering platforms, however, now they only have to register on Atamis, to view and express interest in the now vast majority of tender opportunities published by NHS organisations. As long as a potential supplier keeps their contact details up to date, they will be alerted to any opportunities. This has simplified the bidding process for many of our suppliers, as they no longer have to manage various tendering portals at the same time. It has also helped to bring down costs for our customers and has made the system more efficient, sustainable and resilient.
NOE CPC uses the platform to evaluate and moderate tender responses. This means our hub procurement teams have been able to manage this stage of a tender process remotely, which supports the hybrid working approach following Covid-19 and ensures that tender timescales are achieved.
Because many of our members and customers have adopted the system, it has brought many benefits, including our capability to collaborate with and help develop the Integrated Care System model of procurement.
The system provides better quality live information for procurement and finance teams to enable data-driven commercial insights, decisions and activities, and reduces administration costs through automated data collection and reporting.
Revisions to current procurement regulations are easier to introduce, as new policies only have to be made once for the whole Atamis system. An example of this is the recent Procurement Policy Note (PPN 03/23) to update the standard Selection Questionnaire (SQ). It is also easier for suppliers, especially SMEs, to do business with us as they only have to interact with one system.
The platform gives us and our customers opportunities to leverage our buying power because opportunities for contracts are now more visible across the supplier base. The increase in transparency ultimately drives resilience and value for money for both patients and taxpayers.
Atamis licences are funded by Crown Commercial Service (CCS) across the health family, which means NOE CPC and our customers can use it at no additional cost.
Since we adopted the software, we have used it to manage and let 16 new framework agreements, 9 bespoke contracts on behalf of customers, and 26 further competitions under our framework agreements.
If you would like to find out more about how we use Atamis, you can email our Support Desk. You can also find out more on the Atamis website, or access support by emailing the Atamis Helpdesk or by calling 0800 9956035.