Saving Schools Time and Money

Due to the recent recession and widespread fears of budget cuts in education, school leaders are now more concerned than ever about making the most of the funding available to them.

Price is a Key Concern

In a sector where budgets are constantly being squeezed whilst Headteachers strive to raise standards, it is understandable that price is often a key concern for school purchasers when they are looking to source essential products and services for their school.

SCEMES Ltd understands that schools have an obligation to maximise their budgets, and wants to help school purchasers find the most appropriate supplier to suit their needs.

For this reason they have created a comprehensive directory of competitive suppliers and made it readily accessible for all school purchasers and created E-Quote, a secure online service that allows school buyers to request a range of price quotes for the products and services that they need.

E-Quote

E-Quote is a free service to all educational users and allows schools to check suppliers’ prices and availability without disclosing their details or committing themselves to place an order. It is available on SCEMES’ website www.scemes.com and is extremely easy to use – buyers simply type a request for the products or services that they desire, and then wait to receive quotes from a range of companies willing to supply them!

Schools are under no obligation to enter into a contract with any of the companies that supply them with quotes, but they are able to make quick and informed decisions about the suppliers that they use, based on the information they receive.

Best Value

To abide by the government’s procurement guidelines, school buyers have to undergo a quote process before entering into low value contracts, to ensure that they are sourcing Best Value products and services.

The quote process can often be difficult and time-consuming for school leaders who are under pressure from a lot of different sources, but using E-Quote can simplify the procurement process, by enabling purchasers to approach a range of suppliers in one easy step.

E-Quote also makes it easy for school leaders to demonstrate that they have followed Best Value principles in their expenditure, as they can easily provide written confirmation of the quotes received.

Find it Online

SCEMES’ website www.scemes.com also contains a searchable online database, which lists over 6,000 suppliers all serving the educational market. The site is updated with new companies daily and allows buyers to search for suppliers by entering keywords and their postcode, or by clicking on the regionalised map and choosing the category that best fits their needs.

The search results display not only local companies that match buyers’ specifications, but also national suppliers, allowing purchasers to source best value products from within their local communities as well as from a national marketplace.

To search for suppliers or to request free no obligation quotations simply visit www.scemes.com