Overview
Founded in 1926, Hutt Valley High School, Te Kura Tuarua o Te Awakairangi, has been a leader in secondary education in Lower Hutt for more than 90 years. The school provides quality state education to approximately 1,600 students. Their vision is to ensure that every one of its students has the best possible chance to develop their strengths and talents and to achieve success in a way that provides them with a purposeful and rewarding life. OCS has supported the school’s vision since 2014, providing general cleaning alongside periodic window cleaning, floor maintenance, hygiene, facilities management, and term cleans.
The need
To partner with a full-service, expert commercial cleaning provider that could meet the diverse needs of the school transparently and cost-effectively.
Key issues
- Cost-effective solution: The school needed a cost-effective partner that was flexible enough to meet the school’s changing demands.
- An agile partner: A long-term partner was required to meet the 24/7 demands of the school – which are often required out of business hours and are sometimes reactive.
- Full-service provider: A partner that could provide specialist commercial cleaning and facilities management services to meet the wide-ranging needs of the school and its community.
OCS’ solution
After four years with OCS, in 2018, Hutt Valley High School was obliged to go out to tender for their cleaning services. In the run-up to this process, OCS approached the school to discuss transferring their cleaning to a Syndicated Procurement arrangement, for which they were eligible.
After taking part in an open tender process, OCS subsequently won the new syndicated contract. The move to Syndicated Procurement has seen cost savings of approximately 5-7 per cent for the school and greater efficiencies in productivity. Syndicated pricing has also removed any historical creepage in pricing that can occur over time.
The school says an advantage they have experienced since moving to a syndicated contract is the cost efficiencies and transparency about where money is spent. This has allowed the school to more easily forward plan for their following year’s financial forecast.
Syndicated Procurement has also allowed them to better plan for any disruptions to their cleaning routine as they can easily reprice their cleaning. This has been crucial for the school as it has needed to bring in portable classrooms while other school buildings have been fixed due to weather-tightness issues.
With a high level of detail around what is included in the contract, the school can easily understand what services OCS have provided and how much they cost, making it easier to see where spending is going. The school also has access to simplified and centralised contract management, optimal contract terms, and transparent pricing structures (such as the buying power of all of government).
OCS’s online portal helps the school to easily track spending, including labour and one-off billing, providing an even greater level of transparency.
A positive relationship
A positive relationship between customers and their suppliers go hand in hand in achieving top results.
At Hutt Valley High School, quality cleaning is a top priority. The school feels that they are in safe hands with OCS, with quality assurance audits carried out regularly and OCS’s Contract Manager meeting the school every two to three weeks to ensure everything is running smoothly. Any issues that arise are also taken care of quickly.
Recently the school undertook an audit of their washroom consumables and contacted several different suppliers to compare prices and products. The school chose OCS to supply these materials due to their cost effectiveness and ease of dealing with them.
What is Syndicated Procurement?
Syndicated Procurement involves a group of public sector agencies or an individual agency combining their needs and collectively going to market, on behalf, for common goods and services. Any agency that’s part of the NZ Public Sector can use syndicated contracts.
Syndicated contracts achieve greater leverage and sourcing efficiencies – particularly time and resources on tendering activities and contract negotiation. A syndicated contract is likely to save a school both time and money, while also reducing risk.
Other benefits include the ability to easily add or remove contracted cleaning requirements/ commitments through a simple variation process, while the contract’s lead agency and the supplier carry out an annual price review to consider factors including living/minimum wage changes, CPI index changes and more.
For scheduled cleaning services, NZ Police is the Lead Agency and OCS is the contracted supplier. Services can be tailored to meet each school’s specific needs and the contract allows any agency access to optional complimentary services that may be required.