{"id":88450,"date":"2018-01-29T13:50:46","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T13:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=e72fe99166a47c56d46bf00df50ebcb9"},"modified":"2018-01-29T13:50:46","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T13:50:46","slug":"news-story-the-sme-spend-target-must-go-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=88450","title":{"rendered":"News story: The SME spend target must go on"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

As shown in the latest figures from 2015\/16, over \u00a312bn worth of central government work was delivered by SMEs in that year, and there\u2019s effort underway to ensure this figure continues to rise:<\/p>\n

Regular webinars<\/h4>\n

Introducing small business owners to platforms such as Contracts Finder<\/a>, services like Mystery Shopper<\/a>, and buyers who set out the type of products and services they\u2019re after. In the space of 30 minutes, with a conversation accessible from anywhere, these online events connect SMEs with the people in government who are working to make it easier for small firms to win work.<\/p>\n

Meet the Buyer events<\/h4>\n

Face to face meet the buyer events are on the rise with cross departmental events, the popular and annual NDA supplier show<\/a>, and sector focused innovation and buying exchanges such as such as Defence Contracts Online<\/a> and Transport Systems Catapult<\/a>. We are looking to collate these events on a single page so SMEs have one point of access to find out what\u2019s happening in their sector\/locality.<\/p>\n

Advice and guidance for SMEs<\/h4>\n

A free selling to the public sector guide<\/a> offers top tips and testimonials from entrepreneurs who\u2019ve been there and done it, in addition to 4 videos featuring advice and guidance for SMEs<\/a>, from SMEs, wanting to work with government.<\/p>\n

SME Panel<\/h4>\n

A passionate group of entrepreneurs, in the form of an SME Panel<\/a>, meets regularly to work on solutions to bring down the greatest barriers to SMEs winning work. And their counterparts in government, the SME Champions, meets to discuss how terms and conditions in contracts can be simplified, payment be prompt, and upcoming contracts communicated to a small business audience<\/p>\n

This work reflects a commitment from within government, and from willing entrepreneurs, to work towards government\u2019s aspiration of spending \u00a31 in every \u00a33 with SMEs is met by 2022.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s always more that can be done. That\u2019s why in 2018 a key area of focus for the SME team will be in matching government\u2019s largest strategic suppliers with small businesses, to jointly fulfil government contracts. We do not want to see the problems that have afflicted SMEs in the Carillion supply chain \u2013 far from it. But what we do want to see is greater cooperation between big and small to sort payment terms down the supply chain, and to jointly innovate to deliver the best deal for the taxpayer.<\/p>\n

The case of Carillion isn\u2019t a warning against outsourcing; it\u2019s an opportunity to build stronger relationships in the delivery of public services; between government and auditors, large companies and their suppliers, and SMEs direct with buying departments. The benefits of this will be felt by all.<\/p>\n

Emma Jones is SME Crown Representative<\/a> for Crown Commercial Service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a month filled with news of Carillion, there have been calls for public services to be nationalised and taken from the hand of the private sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}