A review had identified that The Council lacked visibility and accountability around spend on a range of areas, including the use of temporary staff, accommodation and catering services. This lack of financial control meant the Procurement team was simply 'fire fighting' issues and perceived negatively within the Council. There was a lack of reliable information in relation to project plans, efficiencies and staffing structures that meant the Council was unable to move forward with its business transformation plans. The cumulative impact saw the Authority not just losing money, but encountering significant difficulties in forward planning.
Gilli was engaged as an Interim Business Transformation Manager to help resolve some of these problems. She led the project to manage a range of demand management workstreams to deliver improvements and achieve efficiencies. She produced business cases for each workstream and gained approval for the required resources to deliver against objectives. Working closely with the Programme Office she effectively tracked progress on each area, monitoring delivery against milestones and tangible outcomes such as savings.
Perhaps the most significant challenge lay in managing cultural sensitivities, as staff had grown wary of the Council’s previous attempts at business transformation. Adopting a practical and hands-on approach, Gilli eased people’s fears by offering a consultative and honest solution that created buy-in across each directorate. She introduced specialist buyers on a number of discretionary spend areas, most notably in the use of temporary agency staff across the Authority. She also introduced rigorous new policies and procedures and robust monthly monitoring and reporting frameworks aligned to corporate objectives. This workstream alone has created repeatable, cashable savings of £1.58m and has significantly enhanced performance and accuracy, leading to greatly improved business planning processes. This project has recently won a prestigious Government Business Award for innovation in local government procurement.
Gilli has successfully enabled a cultural shift – people now look at business need before purchasing. To support this new direction she helped create a new commercial unit with oversight of all spend above £10,000, in addition to a comprehensive contracts register and purchasing activity schedule. With systems and staffing in place, Gilli leaves the Council in a strong position to deliver the required outcomes against the business case. The introduction of this unit is expected to return an additional £1.2m in procurement savings in 2010/11.
Her sponsor on the programme said, “Gilli is a self starter, she is not fazed by any situation and completely understands the fundamentals of enabling change. She has been an inspirational leader and is excellent at promoting high-level business relationships. She is excellent at pitching and presenting and has a great personality where people truly ‘buy into her’. Overall Gilli is always incredibly reliable and an expert at delivery.”
