Bristol City Council identifies up to 13% savings by utilising Quantum 

Overview 

Bristol City Council, through its Housing Directorate, offers a comprehensive range of housing services. These include managing council housing, supporting private tenants and homeowners, and providing housing options for older and vulnerable people. The council operates the Bristol Housing Register and is actively involved in building new affordable homes and supporting self-build projects. Additionally, they offer advice for those at risk of homelessness and work to bring empty properties back into use. 

Since 2016, Bristol City Council has been collaborating with Procurement for Housing (PfH), utilising multiple frameworks to manage their housing services. This includes twenty active contracts across eleven of our frameworks including: Materials, Responsive Repairs and Void Property Services, Decorative Solutions, Compliance Solutions and Planned Works. 

The challenge: Managing procurement activities efficiently  

Tracking and managing procurement activities has always been a challenging task. Bristol City Council’s Housing teams needed an efficient system to monitor who purchased what, to manage spend efficiently, ensure compliance, and maintain supplier relationships. The historic lack of understanding and control over purchasing activities posed a risk to their overall operational efficiency and financial management. 

The solution: Introducing Quantum: enhancing spend insight 

We introduced Bristol City Council to Quantum, a cutting-edge technology platform designed to provide comprehensive contract assurance, spend insights and address the council’s specific challenges and enhance their procurement processes. With that the council can make the most of the following features. 
 
Consolidated view of spend via PfH contracts: 

• Offers a centralised contracts register for all contracts procured via PfH. 

• Enables Bristol City Council to improve visibility on their spend. 

• Facilitates data-driven decision-making. 

• Allows analysis of transaction data to establish trends, track volatile products, and evaluate supplier performance. 

• Provides previously unattainable insights, revolutionising the council’s procurement strategy. 

Identification of spend leakage and off catalogue spend: 

• Enables enhanced cost controls through fixed product pricing. 

• Provides transparency of all purchase made at both an operative and organisational level. 

• Transparency and access to product catalogues in a single location 

• Optimises purchasing decisions to ensure best value for money. 

The results: Up to 13% savings, improved transparency and actionable insight 

By working with us and our Quantum platform, Bristol City Council achieved several significant benefits.  

• Identified potential savings of up to 13% on materials through basket consolidation and more effective spend tracking. 

• Enhanced visibility of spend and contract management information. 

• Improved supplier and performance management. 

• Streamlined purchasing processes, resulting in time efficiencies. 

• Improved supplier relationships by allowing earlier identification of trends and informing more effective collaboration. 

“The Quantum platform has been essential in helping us understand our purchasing patterns better. Quantum has provided us with clear reports and insight into our spending patterns and potential opportunities for consolidation and standardisation, informing and improving our decision-making process. It’s allowed us to run a series of more effective tender processes for material purchasing and continually push for savings with suppliers. The team at Quantum are also continually developing new features to assist us with better understanding and interpreting our data.” 

Aaron Lewis, Senior Contracts Manager for Repairs & Maintenance, Housing and Landlord Services, Bristol City Council.