THE Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) has named Matrix SCM as one of six preferred suppliers on the Managed Services for Temporary Agency Resources (MSTAR) framework.

MSTAR has been commissioned to help with the placement and use of temporary staff across all council services, educational services, police forces and fire and rescue services. And Matrix SCM has been ranked first in two of the categories and second in the other category for the three lots on the framework.

Matrix SCM will deliver a wide-range of benefits to organisations calling off contracts with the company under the MSTAR framework, including reducing expenditure on temporary agency worker, increasing efficiency and reducing the amount of time spent on ordering and manging temporary agency workers, ensuring the quality of temporary agency workers is maintained and improved, providing accurate and up-to-date management information which can be used for strategic business decisions and incorporating, and implementing any requirements resulting from the Agency Workers Directive (AWD).

COUNCILS in the North West have appointed Matrix SCM to deliver its ‘Seeker Solution’.

Salford City Council, acting on behalf of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) and the Lancashire Procurement Hub has contracted Matrix SCM as its vendor neutral provider of consultancy services – called the Seeker Solution.

The Seeker Solution is open to all AGMA, Lancashire, Cumbria and Cheshire local authorities, as well as any fire and rescue authority, police authority, transport authority, educational establishment, arms length management organisation and health trust situated within their boundaries.

It’s believed that the AGMA and Lancashire councils can save in the region of £3M a year on the costs of engaging consultants using Matrix’s vendor neutral service.

The Matrix SCM model will deliver authorities a more streamlined, co-ordinated and efficient approach to the sourcing and management of consultants and, under the new contract arrangement Matrix SCM will provide the local authorities with a range of benefits including a single point of contact for the sourcing of all consultancy requirements, a web-based system allowing for the automation of each stage of the transaction process from requirement creation through to supplier payment and a competitive bidding process, designed to maximise cost savings on each and every requirement.

Anyone who would like more information about the contract, contact James Crawley, Category Manager at james.crawley@matrix-scm.com

If you are a supplier and are interested in joining the supply chain for this contract, contact the Matrix SCM enrolment team at supplier.enrolment@matrix-scm.com