LOCAL PROCUREMENT INITIATIVE – ICAM SUPPLY
Introduction
iCAM Supply is a bi-borough local procurement initiative, set up in 2005, which seeks
to maximise procurement opportunities for local enterprises from major property
developments in Camden and Islington where local procurement has been built into a
section 106 agreement. Its first project was the £800m Arsenal Development.
Currently iCAM is working with 25 main contractors on 34 different sites and has over
500 local companies on its programme. It is one of the few projects in Camden and
Islington directly assisting the business growth of local SMEs.
Westminster has secured LDA resources to enable the application of the iCAM
approach in the city. To this end, the project manager who has led the iCAM initiative
to date would be able to work with local organisations such as Westminster Small
and Minority Business Council to help small firms compete for procurement
opportunities arising from new development in Westminster.
The iCAM Supply Service to Developers and Contractors
iCAM provides main contractors with a regularly updated directory of all construction
related companies in the two boroughs which have been screened and in most cases
visited, and are considered fit to tender. Regular meetings are held with main
contractors to identify opportunities in their procurement schedule for local SMEs and
monitor the results. iCAM puts on Meet the Buyer events where contractors which
are actively procuring can have scheduled meetings with suitable local companies.
This enables the buyers to refresh parts of their supply chains and also, where a
good match is found, enjoy the benefits of buying locally.
Main contractors that iCAM works with regularly include: Balfour Beatty, Carillion,
BAM Construction, Kier Group, Kier Wallis, Sir Robert McAlpine, Higgins, Apollo,
Lakehouse, Mansell, Mulalley, Galliford Try, Skanska, Laing O’Rourke, Taylor
Woodrow, Rydon Consruction, Lovell, United House among others.
Benefits to the Local Economy
During the past 4 years, ICAM has obtained 655 invitations to tender for local
companies from which they were awarded 169 contracts bringing £45 million into the
local economy and creating/safeguarding an estimated 742 jobs. iCAM Supply’s
achievements have been recognised by peer organisations like CompeteFor, Supply
London, the Audit Commission, the Supply Cross River Partnership and many local
authorities as an example of best practise and it is considered a pioneering project.
iCAM assists local SME’s to become ‘fit to tender’ through a series of training
workshops that helps them obtain further accreditation as well as tendering skills.
iCAM’s remit is to broker tender opportunities from contractors for local suppliers
which they would otherwise have found almost impossible to access.
Section 106
One of the project’s most significant achievements has been to secure the inclusion
of a Local Procurement Code in section 106 planning agreements for all major
developments (1,000 sq m and above) across both boroughs, which ensures that
developers and their contractors work with iCAM to achieve a local procurement
target of 10% of project cost. It is this leverage combined with a team that goes in
and implements it that has made the project so successful.
In addition to the Local Procurement Code adopted by both boroughs for s106
planning agreements, iCAM has also built local procurement into the major contracts
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which the Councils’ procure. For example it has embedded local procurement into
the Building Schools for the Future and Decent Homes programmes in both
boroughs; it has been able to influence Council departments such as Highways,
Housing, Greenspace and Corporate property services toward more local
procurement; it has moved into post construction opportunities such as facilities
management contracts and subcontracts for major corporates based in the area; it
has boosted the boroughs chances of winning Olympics contracts by circulating
London 2012 opportunities weekly to all its local companies and promoting
registration with CompeteFor.1
It is hoped that Westminster can also adopt the approach within s106 and its own
procurement activities.
Case Studies
Some case studies of local SME businesses that have benefited from the iCAM
initiative are summarised below:
XLNT Catering’s bid and excellent references convinced Galliford Try to appoint
them for the site canteen contract for up to 3 years.“We are opening the site
canteen in late August and will be taking on new staff. We expect there to be 200
workers on site to begin with rising to 500 at the peak,” Luigi Faranesi of Fresco
told us.
Amec Projects, needed some lighting fittings in a hurry and rang up
Edmundson’s from iCAM Supply’s directory who are just around the corner from
the station. Their service so impressed the contractor they ended up placing all
their electrical orders through them. Hiren Patel of Edmundsons’ Camden branch
told ICAM Supply: “This order showed us what a valuable initiative the iCAM
Supply team is running. Without them we could never have picked up this work.
As it turned out the level of service we were able to offer exceeded any supplier
from out of the area and we obtained a substantial amount of business we were
not expecting”
Rydon Maintenance link up with local decorating firm through Islington Council's
supply chain initiative (iCAM Supply) 19 May 2009. Following the introduction of
the iCAM Supply scheme to Rydon to generate business opportunities within the
local borough, Rydon Maintenance have joined up with a local decorating firm,
K&M Decorating Ltd, to assist in delivering the 5 year cyclical decoration
programme to the Islington PFI1 street properties. “This is an absolutely
amazing contract for us to win” enthused Jean Dupre, senior manager with
K&M, “iCAM, as always has done a fantastic job getting us in on local work
which we would otherwise not even know about. It means we can
safeguard quiet a few jobs and create new ones. Because of this job and
other recent contracts won with iCAM’s help, we will be able to expand our
apprenticeship scheme to take on more local trainees despite being in one
of the worst recessions the industry has known.
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Islington and Camden have the highest number of registrations with CompeteFor out of all
other London boroughs.
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