Print Tender with Learning Media

With the help of the GSB Professional Services Team, Learning Media - an educational publishing and professional development organisation, successfully conducted a rigorous tender allowing them to fulfil their print services requirements quickly and efficiently.

The Situation

Learning Media, an educational publishing and professional development organisation, were due to run a tender for their Print, Replication, Collation and Packaging Services Contract. Printing services represents a key strategic spend for Learning Media, so the company decided to enrol the help of GSB's specialist procurement team to help them with this comprehensive process.

"Learning Media don't have a dedicated procurement team so we decided to go to GSB for assistance," says Kirsty Farquharson, General Manager - Publishing at Learning Media.

"We have previously worked with GSB so we knew they understood our organisation and could help us fulfil our current requirements."

Learning Media is a State Owned Enterprise, established in 2005 to provide educational publishing and professional development services to customers in New Zealand and around the world. Customers such as the Ministry of Education purchase educational resources and professional development programmes from Learning Media.

Iain Livingstone, Manager for Professional Services at GSB explains, "Our flexible approach allows organisations to work with us in a way that best suits their business. We can assist anyone with one-off projects or work as an extension of their business as an outsourced resource."

The Challenge

Conducting a tender is often time consuming, demands on-going commitment, and sound commercial process.

Successfully conducting a tender takes time and resource to ensure the best possible outcome is met, which is why Learning Media engaged GSB, allowing them to continue working on their core business.

"We didn't have the time or resource to conduct a full-scale tender ourselves - having GSB working with us, plus their print industry experience, made the whole process much less daunting," explains Farquharson.

"Printing Services is a reasonably sizeable contract for us. Because we're so close to the market, having GSB on board meant our existing relationships and perceptions with suppliers wouldn't influence our final decision."

To ensure the best results from a tender, intermediaries who act as unbiased third parties are often employed.

Livingstone says, "This is part of best practice procurement and important when running a rigorous tender."

GSB was involved in every step from developing contract documentation, a process and timeline, a pricing template and finally going to tender.

Gaining a thorough knowledge of the client to determine their expectations and requirements for this contract is extremely important.

"It was important that we attracted respondents who could provide the required range of services that reflect Learning Media's growing customer base, but also the core range of services required by their existing clients," explains Livingstone

"Because Learning Media is a public entity, we also had to ensure that the process was run in accordance with the Government procurement policy and guidelines, starting with a public notice posted on the Government Electronic Tenders Service (GETS)."

The Result

Interest was almost immediate, with Learning Media receiving numerous responses from print providers.

GSB managed the tender process and then assisted Learning Media's project team through the evaluation stage to reach a short-list of five suppliers.

"We took into consideration all the factors that were important to Learning Media such as price, environmental stance, experience, and abilities, and we also conducted reference checks," explains Livingstone.

"From there Learning Media had all the information to make their decision on which respondent best fulfilled their requirements."

According to Farquharson, GSB's efficiency and guidance helped the tender run smoothly.

"GSB presented us with a thorough report and strong justification. They didn't just have a solid methodology, they empowered us to make our own decisions along the way," says Farquharson.