Integrated Spend Control ... Myth or Reality

The “cold grey dawn” of the cost of purchasing transactions within our Public Services was revealed by the Best Value Review of 2002 - the ODPM Priority Outcome R9 subsequently demanded a response a step of faith by each head of procurement, trusting the PowerPoint slides of our chosen software vendor to give the illusive ‘tick in the box’. The Gershon Spending Review in 2004 revealed just how short the fall was between expectation and the reality delivered by that tick… and, almost three years later, we still seek the Holy Grail of automated end-toend Best Value Procurement.