NHS Supply Chain Future Operating Model - Transactional Services

Descriptions

A current contract between the NHS Business Services Authority ("the Authority") and its incumbent provider (which trades as 'NHS Supply Chain') relating to the procurement and supply chain of goods in the NHS is due to expire on 30 September 2018. As part of the Future Operating Model, the Authority is seeking to award a contract for the provision of a single transactional processing service providing: - accounts payable (invoice processing and payment); - accounts receivable (sales invoice generation and cash collection); - customer service for invoice queries; - cash and treasury management (i.e. keeping track of liquidity of the business); - savings tracking and reporting; - administration, configuration and improvement of financial systems; and - consolidation of the FOM financial information including periodic reporting, forecasts and annual planning information. The supplier will be required to deliver a coherent financial transactional service across the disaggregated functions of the FOM, ensuring that consolidated invoicing for customers is maintained. The objectives for the Services include, but are not limited to: - delivering seamless service continuity through transition to the FOM; - enabling the on-going delivery of the FOM; - enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of FOM financial service processes and controls; - delivering improvements across the supply chain through active enablement of FOM objectives and the enhancement of the customer experience through timely financial data; - facilitating decision making in the Authority through the provision of accurate and timely financial data. The supplier must maintain the current practice of providing consolidated monthly invoices to the NHS Customers. Consolidated invoicing is seen as a key contributor to growth ambitions, and is received extremely favourably by existing and future NHS Supply Chain Customers (including but not limited to NHS trusts, other NHS entities, other UK government department agencies or other statutory bodies and/or private sectorproviders of NHS funded care). The supplier must ensure high degrees of accuracy are maintained, to preserve the integrity of financial controls and protect the public purse. The current transacting product spend is circa £2 billion per annum and circa £200 million per annum for operational spend. The supplier will be responsible for transacting the current volume of spend and increased expenditure as this increases under the FOM. The supplier will be required to provide robust debtor and creditor management in order to manage cash flow with growing volumes of transactions. This will be enabled by the customer/supplier support functions, and managed through robust contractual key performance indicators. A full description of the Services is more specifically set out in the procurement documentation. An Intelligent Client Co-Ordinator ("ICC") has been established for the Future Operating Model. The contract resulting from thi