Bradfield College set to save £6.4k annually on their water bills
CCS' Water, Wastewater and Ancillary Services framework has helped Bradfield College make big savings on their water bills.
The requirement
Bradfield College is one of the country’s leading co-educational and independent boarding schools, providing academic excellence and a well-rounded education to approximately 800 pupils.
Alongside its outstanding boarding facilities, the college also maintains a portfolio of highly impressive sports facilities, including a double sized sports hall, 25m indoor pool, a tennis centre, ten football pitches, two all-weather hockey pitches and it’s very own 9-hole golf course all of which contribute to a high water service requirement. The college were very keen to take advantage of the open water market to gain cost efficiencies and secure a high quality supplier service offering. The college wanted to achieve this aim via an easy procurement route.
The solution
Using the Water, Wastewater and Ancillary Services framework (RM3790), Crown Commercial Service (CCS) conducted the UK’s first aggregated further competition for monthly and quarterly billing on 18 October 2017. The framework was developed to provide customers an OJEU compliant route for switching to a single retail provider for their billing and account management, whilst securing their retail costs for the next 2 to 3 years. The aggregation combined the requirements of 122 customers across the public sector to increase buying leverage and promote competition between the framework suppliers, helping to drive down retail margins.
CCS provided timely communication updates and hosted webinars to ensure customers were supported throughout the entire process. The EU compliant procurement was awarded on 4th November and customers could switch supply from as early as 1st January 2018.
CCS worked closely with suppliers to embed a robust on-boarding process to provide a quality, seamless switching and account management experience for customers.
The results
Bradfield College joined the CCS led aggregation and switched supplier to Castle Water Ltd with effect from 1st January 2018. The college achieved a 4% saving on their first monthly bill and is set to save in the region £6,400 annually.
Bradfield College felt the support provided by CCS during the aggregation process was excellent and that Castle Water Ltd provide high quality and dedicated customer service and account management. Overall, the switching experience was positive, efficient and impressive from procurement to billing, enabling the college to dedicate resources to the core purpose of delivering academic excellence.
Toby Ellis, Procurement Manager from Bradfield College commented:
“Good Communications. Good Information. Looking forward to the next project with CCS. Castle Water Ltd customer services are very good at answering communications”