Councils can attain best-value targets in contracts with private companies as long as both parties agree to annual improvements, according to a recent government consultation paper.
Search Page
Councils can attain best-value targets in contracts with private companies as long as both parties agree to annual improvements, according to a recent government consultation paper.
The producer of Massey Ferguson tractors is seeking suppliers from mainland Europe in a bid to keep costs down and ease margins. Robert Ratliff, chairman of Agco, the US company that produces the tractors from its Coventry plant, blames the high cost of the pound against the euro for having to look for suppliers outside the UK.
Yiannis Gabriel
Oxford Universtiy Press, £15.99
Q: My company does a fair bit of business with European countries and we’re thinking of adopting e-procurement. Does the European Union e-commerce directive have any relevance for us?
The Authorities’ Buying Consortium, which represents 13 councils in western Scotland, has awarded a major contract to three companies for the supply of photocopiers to the public, charity and voluntary sectors.
Q: I have recently relocated to the UK and notice that many job advertisements refer to European Community procurement directives. What are these and how will they affect me as a purchasing professional?
Q: I want to implement purchasing cards to reduce the amount of time my department spends dealing with queries on low-value purchases, but our finance director says they are not right for our company. How can I convince him?
American Express is set to relaunch its smart credit card in Europe this summer and be the first to give away free card readers to guarantee online security. The move is part of an assault on the charge-card market and could include the extension of the firm’s new corporate purchasing card, currently available only in the UK, Panama and Puerto Rico.
The US, Canada, Australia and Singapore are the most advanced countries in putting government services online, according to a 20-country survey by Andersen Consulting. But these countries have less than 20 per cent of their services online and the US is likely to miss its target of having 500 essential government services online by October.
Glass manufacturer Pilkington plans to put its sales and purchasing online by the end of the year in bid to meet its target of conducting all transactions electronically by 2003. The company is seeking to achieve savings of around £100 million a year on its annual £1 billion procurement spend.