QlikView | Customer Success Story | Procurement Lincolnshire Procurement Lincolnshire Procurement Lincolnshire Procurement Lincolnshire in the United Kingdom is a shared service partnership Saves £3 million in First Year between eight local authorities in the East Midlands. Together they spend more than £600 million a year on buying in goods and with £24 million forecast over services. Hosted by Lincolnshire County Council, the partnership aims to save taxpayers money by smarter procurement five years using QlikView and efficiency savings on goods and services. Sector “QlikView offers the ability to access, simply, up to date data Public Sector that can be modelled without any worries over the integrity of Industry data and provides multiple reporting options all in a very user Government friendly way.” Area of Implementation Executive, Finance, Operations, HR, Supply Jason Jarvis, Head of Business Management, North Kesteven District Council Chain, Service & Support Geography United Kingdom Procurement Lincolnshire in the United Previous attempts to analyse spend data Kingdom is a shared service partnership had met with limited success. But Challenges between eight local authorities which following a detailed appraisal the • Develop a customised spend analysis together spend more than £600 million a year partnership decided to develop a platform • Instant user friendly reports for senior on purchasing of goods and services. The customised spend analysis platform— management service is formally hosted by the largest Lincolnshire Category Analysis Tool • Identify millions of pounds in efficiency authority Lincolnshire County Council on (LCAT)—making full use of internal data savings behalf of the other member partners. The management skills and procurement • Reduce time taken to produce in depth other members are Boston Borough Council, expertise. It has become the cornerstone in analysis implementing a category management Solution approach to procurement, and is now the Procurement Lincolnshire chose QlikView as focus of a regional implementation of a the dashboard solution for their custom-built spend analysis system for the East spend analysis platform. Midlands. Benefits The challenge—finding a user friendly • Efficiency savings of £24 million over five years dashboard solution • Analysis in half an hour - not half a day. Out of the initial review came two •Savings in operating costs of £30,000 a year principal objectives: improving the spend • Achieving best practice in procurement City of Lincoln Council, East Lindsey analysis tools available to the team and District Council, North Kesteven District ensuring that the use of data analysis is Data Size Council, South Holland District Council, embedded within the partnership. The 2 million transaction lines South Kesteven District Council, and West procurement activities under scrutiny Lindsey District Council. already cover around 30 categories. They Data Sources SQL Server, MS Access, MS Excel range from reviews of high spending In the current climate of fiscal restraint in the services, such as adult social care and UK, the partnership wanted to respond to the children services, to outlays on need for efficiency savings by analysing its photocopiers, pest control, and even dog expenditure in more detail than ever before. kennelling. Procurement Lincolnshire decided to improve its visibility over procurement At the core of the LCAT system, which activity with a new software platform to help examines data from about 37,000 suppliers meet the budget reduction targets posed by and 2 million transaction lines, is an the government Comprehensive Spending artificially intelligent learning algorithm. It Review in 2010. analyses previously classified spend data and uses it to improve future procurement QlikView | Customer Success Story | Procurement Lincolnshire strategies. However, the choice of a Analysis at the click of a mouse—reports dashboard and business intelligence solution available in minutes to access customised data mining reports for The versatility and flexibility of QlikView is a more holistic view of the organisation giving users immediate reports that spend was a critical challenge for the success previously would have been produced on an of the project. Above all it needed to be user ad hoc basis by IT staff. With a single click friendly to ensure buy in at all levels across of the mouse, it is possible to drill through to Reduction in time a particular category of spend and view the the partnership where different financial for in -depth analysis suppliers for that category, total spend, spend systems are in use. from half a day to Pareto (a measure of efficiency), and Procurement Lincolnshire chose QlikView supplier location. Botten says: “With half an hour business intelligence software from another click it is possible to see which QlikTech because it provides users with an departments are using those suppliers, total extremely simple but powerful means to spend, local and national spend for those analyse data and identify value from it. departments, and departmental Pareto QlikView also delivers multiple benefits analysis.” with its patented in-memory associative technology. QlikView has significantly cut the time taken to generate analyses of spending. Botten Alex Botten, Procurement Analyst, adds: “The selection and de-selection of data £3 million already Procurement Lincolnshire, says: “For takes seconds and has reduced the time for saved with £24 example, within one reporting application in analysis from half a day to half an hour. This million expected QlikView it is possible to slice and dice is especially important considering the views around supplier, department, and volume of data to interpret with past transaction including line item detail. The spending of some £1,500 million already in tool shows supplier financials including the system.” credit/contracting limit variations over time, supplier locality, and spend category. Upon First year savings of £3 million with £24 The overall satisfaction with LCAT and opening the analysis application, it’s million forecast over five years QlikView is summed up by Jason Jarvis, immediately possible to see a spend In the 2010/2011 financial year, Lincolnshire Head of Business Management, and North dashboard for the partnership, including County Council generated savings of more Kesteven District Council. He says: local/national spend, spend distribution than £3 million with the help of its new “QlikView offers the ability to access, across local authorities, and contract renewal LCAT spend analysis platform using simply, up to date data that can be timelines with associated spend levels.” QlikView. The estimated forecast savings modelled without any worries over the from the project over the next five years integrity of data and provides multiple Manjeet Gill, Chief Executive, West Lindsey amounts to more than £24 million. reporting options all in a very user friendly District Council and Chair of the way.” Procurement Board, describes the LCAT The new system has also saved Procurement toolset with QlikView as the foundation for Lincolnshire around £30,000 a year in In summary, LCAT QlikView has the procurement shared service. She says: reducing operating costs for reports and delivered significant benefits to “The information the system produces will analysis, which means the partnership, is Procurement Lincolnshire and is set to undoubtedly help us shape the future getting significantly more business value for offer further benefits to the East Midlands strategic direction of the service and firmly less investment. region. Procurement Lincolnshire has fix spend analysis on the agenda of moved on from theory to delivering management boards across the country.” outstanding practice in procurement in difficult economic times. “The information the system produces will undoubtedly help us shape the future strategic direction of the service and firmly fix spend analysis on the agenda of management boards across the country.” Manjeet Gill, Chief Executive, West Lindsey District Council © 2011 QlikTech International AB. All rights reserved. QlikTech, QlikView, Qlik, Q, Simplifying Analysis for Everyone, Power of Simplicity, New Rules, The Uncontrollable Smile and other QlikTech products and services as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of QlikTech International AB. All other company names, products and services used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The information published herein is subject to change without notice. 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