Spend Analysis and Recovery Services II (SARS II) – Framework Agreement RM3820. Could this framework facilitate significant financial benefits to you?
The SARS framework was designed to help Customers procure Spend Analysis and Recovery Services from a range of suppliers who provide retrospective ‘audit’ and analysis of core spend and supplier transactions (invoices and payments), to identify and recover any supplier overpayments, overcharges or missed opportunities (discounts, rebates etc.) from a customer’s suppliers on a ‘gainshare’ basis.
This means that the customer only pays a percentage fee of any amounts actually recovered, not simply identified i.e. An effective NO financial cost to the Organisation.
Unlike many sequels SARS II represents in our view a significant improvement on the first.
SARS II now allows Public Sector organisations to procure a more specific range of services by splitting the Framework into a number of lots. This enables more focus on the provision of different ‘specialist’ services whilst still providing the flexibility to request all required services from a single Supplier.
Advantage of SARS II to the Public Sector
The specific advantage of SARS II to any Public Sector organisation is the significant time, resource and financial savings because virtually all the procurement issues i.e. Supplier suitability, experience and financial stability have been addressed already in the Supplier selection process. In addition, because the Framework was carried out under OJEU, all of these issues have been addressed as well.
Therefore, the only remaining challenge is who do I choose? Twice2much of course.
In all seriousness, the challenge of who you choose is not really solved by the Framework (and can’t be given that the framework is available to ALL Public Sector bodies, regardless of size, spend, system in use or complexity of the organisation).
There are two procurement options available under the framework:
- Direct award
- Further competition
We would be happy to explain these options in more detail with you.
Historical Private and Public Sector approaches to procurement of Spend Analysis and Recovery Services.
Private Sector
The Private Sector has more often than not required physical presentations (meetings in person) from the ‘finalists’ (following a previous filtering or elimination process).
Focus is on:
- Who they believe will generate the greatest returns from the review (often NOT those charging the lowest fee)
- The approach to be used by the Supplier
- Which Supplier they believe provides the best fit within their organisation
In this way, they are choosing who they feel they can best work with and who they believe will generate them the most returns from the review. This is a subjective judgement call as likely recoveries are notoriously difficult to predict.
Public Sector
Public Sector organisations in most cases selected a Supplier to provide Spend recovery services based solely on the evaluation of tender responses with no presentations taking place.
This can lead to the organisation not realising the full potential benefits of a Spend Analysis and recovery review.
Reviews are a ‘partnership’
What needs to be understood with the procurement of these services is that whilst you are procuring technological and specialist expertise, these reviews are truly about working in ‘partnership’ to identify and recover previously unidentified opportunities for financial recoveries and savings.
Maximising these recoveries is therefore also about relationships, understanding and flexibility, things that can rarely be addressed in tenders.
Spend Analysis and Recovery Services II – Procurement made easier…
Twice2much specialises in Accounts Payable Recovery Auditing, reviewing Client’s historical spend and identifying opportunities for recovery of overpayments or unclaimed financial benefits.
We work with Finance and Internal Audit departments of major private and public sector organisations to provide a comprehensive review of their accounts payable systems and enable them to benefit from the significant ‘unbudgeted’ financial windfall that we consistently deliver.
Our reviews are predominantly carried out on a share of recoveries only basis, achieving an effective no-cost review to the organisation.
We have designed our service to minimise the need for Client resources. Our reviews are therefore carried out predominantly off-site, off-system and out of sight for your benefit.
Our specialised teams of audit professionals work unobtrusively with your Finance Department to identify all potential sources of overpayments and recover them on your behalf.
Core Accounts Payable Recovery Audit services:
Duplicate
- Targeted at identifying overpayments to suppliers previously ‘invisible’ to clients
- Algorithms created to identify payment anomalies
- Covers end to end process
- Identification
- Validation
- Collection
- Correction entries
- Reporting
- Collect on behalf of Client
- No recovery – no fee
- To date in excess of £100m recovered for Clients
VAT
Detailed analysis to identify unclaimed VAT at transaction line level
- Provision of all documentation and support to substantiate claims
- Expert reviews enable VAT to be reclaimed for services previously thought to be ‘unclaimable’
- To date in excess of £10m recovered for Clients
Statement
- Provides clients with statement collection and review on a share of recoveries only basis
- Identifies two main ‘invisible’ recovery opportunities
- Statement credits previously not received from supplier
- Credits previously processed but not claimed
Spend Recovery Auditing is not limited to the core reviews above but cover a range of services, all of which can be provided with minimal impact on your internal resources.
Other reviews commonly include:
- Contract compliance reviews
- Rebate and contract claimback reviews
- Prompt payment discount reviews
- Property reviews
- Import duty reviews
- Utilities and telecoms reviews
- Spend analysis
Opportunities for recoveries
- Payments to incorrect suppliers or duplicate payments to the same supplier
- Invoices processed gross of VAT when VAT is unclear or not identified at the time of input
- Incorrect prices charged by suppliers when compared with contractual terms agreed
- Prompt payment discounts that have not been taken
- Recovery of over-charging of rates, rents, insurance and service charges
- Recovery of over-charging of telecoms and utilities services
Recent Successes
Client A
Duplicate Reviews – £2 million in 12 months
Statement Review – £400,000 in 6 months
VAT Reviews – £550,000 in 2 months
Client B
Property Reviews – £2.4 million in 7 months
Client C
Contract Compliance Reviews – £2.8 million in 4 months
Why outsource?
We can provide the time, resource and expertise that many in-house teams cannot afford:
- Specialist teams of audit experts
- Tailor-made software solution that had been designed specifically for the task
- Dedicated recovery function
In this way, our Client’s can free their resources up to focus on the delivery of their core activities and services.
We have acted for major organisations across many industry sectors that employ increasingly complex accounting processes. We’re expert in discovering the errors that can be easily missed.
We maximise recoveries by using sophisticated algorithms that not only identify the obvious recovery opportunities but also the more obscure.
Our philosophy is to add value to the Clients we work for and exceed their expectations.
Please note: this is a commercial profile
Twice2much
Andrew Cushion
Tel: 44 (0) 344 225 2090
Email: andrew.cushion@twice2much.com
www.twice2much.com
