DPSS - DPSS College Support Services

DPSS College Support Services

DPSS has a history of providing cost reduction and commercial support programmes to private and public sector organisations, and has a number of people, processes and technology based solutions to help ensure that your college achieves three main objectives:

A Reduction in non-personnel expenditure
Improvements in quality and range of services procured
Enhanced efficiency and reliability of delivery

Our methods are well established and proven, with all dialogue and investigations protected by a two way non-disclosure agreement, ensuring that any confidential or sensitive information cannot reach the public domain.

Further, if required, we also have staff with national security clearance and CRB checks in place.

Commercial Review

Step 1

We begin by meeting the key decision makers and stakeholders in the college, understanding their needs, objectives and timescales. Each and every college is different and has varying needs and priorities. We will seek to understand the dynamics of the college, the flow of authority, identify the critical success factors, and propose and agree a plan of action.

Step 2

We come to your site over a number of days, and review existing procurement processes, techniques, and suppliers. This usually identifies some quick win’s which we look to set in motion to help build confidence and support across the college community.

It is important to note, unlike some of our competitors, we do not proactively look to change any existing suppliers. Wherever possible, our aim is to improve and develop the existing relationships, extracting better services, lower costs and greater reliability.

It is also a key objective that services are not disrupted during this review process, and that as far as possible, college staff are not disrupted by the activity. We have experience of identifying opportunities, often by merely speaking with users, reading contracts or reviewing purchase invoices.

Step 3

Before implementing any changes, we produce a report identifying, categorising and quantifying opportunities to enable the necessary approvals to commence. All recommendations will need to be discussed and appropriate business cases produced prior to implementation.

Step 4

Once the proposals have been discussed, implementation can commence, this will generally be in a phased approach. DPSS can deliver these initiatives directly with the supplier and key points of contact, or help facilitate internal discussions within the college environment.

Step 5

And critically, as with all change programmes, we include a feedback and review process aimed at ensuring all requirements have been clearly delivered and embedded into the organisation. This will look at the “Lessons Learned” and “Training Needs Analysis”, and identify any further opportunities that may have been highlighted during the implementation activity.

DPSS recognises that undertaking cost reduction and efficiency programmes involves a TEAM approach – Trust-Empathy-Awareness-Motivation. We also understand the need for confidentiality and recognise the need to be able to write clear and effective business case proposals. To help show our commitment we work on a “No Save No Fee” basis.

No Save-No Fee

The DPSS “No Save No Fee” approach is based on our confidence in what we do. We recognise that all business cases need to be cost effective, self funding, and wherever possible risk free, and we commit that charges will only apply once we have clearly identified savings to cover the project costs.

All projects are assessed and a detailed quotation is produced reflecting the time and costs associated with the review. This quotation is broken down into a number of elements to enable any business case to be self funding. Once the review is underway, the first report will identify cost saving opportunities to cover all the associated costs of the project. These will tend to focus on non-confrontational and non-service affecting opportunities to enable them to be quickly and easily implemented.

Once this initial report has been accepted, a second report will be released identifying further and more complex opportunities which may involve more extensive project management, detailed supplier interface, and other stakeholder commitments.

Training Needs Analysis

And finally, organisations rely on their employees to maintain change and deliver results. As part of the overall process, we undertake a review of personnel competency and produce a Training Needs Analysis report to help establihs a long term Human Resources programme to develop the procurement, Supply Chain and Management skills necessary to delvier success going forward.

For more information please contact info@dpss.co.uk

if you require more information please email info@dpss.co.uk