Last year, we launched our Meet the Buyer programme where we dedicated one day a month to speak to suppliers to the public sector. In a two-way approach, suppliers are given the opportunity to introduce us to their business, discuss how they can help support the public sector and gain a better understanding from our category managers on the ever-changing public procurement landscape. We discuss potential future opportunities with them and share our knowledge and advice, signifying that YPO is ‘open for business’ and constantly looking for innovation in the markets.
We also partnered with the Yorkshire Ambulance Service and the Yorkshire and Humber Police Forces who offer their time and expertise to join the Meet the Buyer programme and speak to suppliers who are interested in working the emergency services sector. In total, we’ve met with, either on the phone or person, with a fantastic 357 suppliers!
For 2019, we’re continuing our partnerships and in addition are expanding our offering with a more localised approach. Focusing on our 13 owning member local authority areas, we’re looking for opportunities for more localised engagement and to support economic growth in these areas.
We’ve been working with the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce and are delighted to announce that YPO will be holding a Business Clinic at the upcoming Kirklees Business Conference 2019 on 13 March at the John Smiths Stadium, Huddersfield. Our clinic will be open from 9am to 3pm and suppliers will have the opportunity to book one-to-one sessions with two YPO team members, booked directly through the event website.
Our aim is to help more and more suppliers understand the public procurement process, provide support mechanisms to help them with the bidding process and also better understand any added social value they can deliver to the public sector through any contracts they’re awarded. This doesn’t replace any formal bidding process, as we take our responsibilities in this area very seriously - as a public sector organisation we’re both transparent and compliant to appropriate regulations.
It does however provide a great opportunity, outside of the bidding process, for suppliers to talk to us, tell us about their business and how they can help deliver solutions and new ways of working to our customers, helping us develop better procurement outcomes.
If you’re a supplier and want to tell us about your business, what you’re passionate about and crucially how you can help our customers deliver better services than ever in the future, make sure to book a Meet the Buyer session with us as we’ve love to hear from you.
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