National GO Awards 2016/17 Review

The National GO Awards 2016

The air was electric on the evening of 8 March as attendees, entrants and judges gathered at the Hilton Manchester Deansgate for the National Government Opportunities (GO) Excellence in Public Procurement Awards 2016/17. Here BiP Solutions journalist Donald MacInnes recounts the night.

With over 130 finalists and 500 guests, this year’s National GO Awards ceremony and gala dinner was the biggest to date. As the champagne flowed so did the conversations, continuing on from Procurex North Live earlier that day in Manchester Central.

Raising their glasses, guests hushed in anticipation as the lavish dinner and awards ceremony got under way. Finalists waited anxiously, all hoping they would be the lucky ones to take home a coveted GO Award.

Suppliers, procurement teams and buying consortia were all honoured across a wide range of categories on the night.

This year’s National GO Awards also welcomed television presenter Sarah Heaney, who introduced the Awards ceremony.

Every year the National GO Awards feature some of the biggest and most celebrated names in UK public procurement, and this year was no exception. Sally Collier, Chief Executive Officer at the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), was in attendance as one of the key figures on the judging panel.

Ms Collier commented: “We’ve got the biggest number of winners ever and it’s a fantastic occasion for the procurement profession. The standard just gets better and better.

“The thing this year was that we were rewarding people for real innovation. It’s not just doing the same thing better; it’s fantastic achievement for individuals and teams receiving an award. They should be very proud of their achievements. They should go back to their organisations and shout about this award from the rooftops!”

Co-judge, Chair of the Health Care Supply Association (HCSA) and Director of Procurement and Supplies at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Helen Lisle, discussed the exciting opportunities the GO Awards can bring.

She said: “It’s a great opportunity for people to come together and celebrate success in procurement. The standard this year was incredible. We had a great time down in London debating the rights and wrongs of who should go forward. We see the standard increase on a year-on-year basis which is brilliant for procurement professionals across the country.”

This sentiment was echoed by National GO Awards Lead Judge Grahame Steed.

Mr Steed said: “I’m pleased to say the standard was really high this year. Every year we see the standard increasing. This year was really hard for the judges to make some decisions. There were many strong entries that didn’t even become finalists, which is a real measure of how far the Awards have come. It means a great deal; it’s a huge recognition for the work that that team or that organisation has done!”

As the Winners and Highly Commended were announced the auditorium echoed in celebration as a host of delighted faces ascended to the stage to receive their trophies.

The winners on the night were:

 

GO Sustainability / Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative of the Year Award – Sponsored by ENGIE

 

Winner

Horsham District Council

 

Highly Commended
Doncaster Council in partnership with HM Prison Lindholme and ONE3ONE Solutions

 

GO Contract Management Initiative of the Year Award – Sponsored by Delta eSourcing

 

Winner

The City of Edinburgh Council

Highly Commended
Falkirk Council, Central Procurement Unit

 

GO Small Business / Third Sector Engagement Initiative of the Year Award – Sponsored by Supply

Winner

Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

 

GO Best Service Award – Health and Social Care – Sponsored by Sellick Partnership

 

Winner

Peterborough City Council

Highly Commended

NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative

 

GO Best Service Award – Other Organisations – Sponsored by Stannah Lift Services Ltd

Winner

MAP Chartered Surveyors

Highly Commended

ISS Kinloss-Lossiemouth

GO Procurement Innovation or Initiative of the Year Award – Health Care – Sponsored by PASS

Winner

Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Highly Commended

NHS Collaborative Procurement Partnership

 

GO Procurement Innovation or Initiative of the Year Award – Social Care – Sponsored by PASS

 

Winner

Lincolnshire County Council – Homecare

 

Highly Commended

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

 

GO Procurement Innovation or Initiative of the Year Award – Local Government and Consortia – Sponsored by Commercial Services

 

Winner

The City of Edinburgh Council

Highly Commended

Liverpool City Council

 

GO Procurement Innovation or Initiative of the Year Award – Local Government and Consortia (Framework) – Sponsored by Commercial Services

Highly Commended

Sheffield City Council

 

GO Procurement Innovation or Initiative of the Year Award – Other Organisations – Sponsored by Tracker

Winner

Scotland Excel

Highly Commended

Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

Welsh Government – Value Wales and the National Procurement Service

 

GO Procurement Team of the Year Award – Health and Social Care – Sponsored by Government Opportunities

Winner

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Highly Commended

NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit

Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust

GO Procurement Team of the Year Award – Local Government and Consortia – Sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group

Winner

London Borough of Waltham Forest

Highly Commended

City of Cardiff Council

GO Procurement Team of the Year Award – Other Organisations – Sponsored by CompeteFor

Winner
Crown Commercial Service

 

Highly Commended

EMSCU

Scottish Procurement – The Scottish Government

GO Procurement Leadership of the Year Award – Sponsored by BiP Solutions Ltd

 

Winner

STAR Procurement

Highly Commended

Scottish Water

 

Next year’s National GO Awards event promises to be even bigger and more spectacular than ever before. For information on next year’s event, visit the GO Awards website.

Share This Post

More To Explore
Blogs

Spotlight on…Fraser Haddow

This month’s spotlight turns to our IT operations and development department with Fraser Haddow.  In what capacity did you join BiP? What role did you start in and what role do you have now? I joined BiP in the role of Scrum Master, but have recently transitioned to Platform Success Manager. Whattakes up the most amount of your time in your day-to-day?  Azure DevOps! It’s the platform that allows us to track progress on our product development and keep track of any issues, so it’s use forms a large part of the role. What do you like most about your job?  I like seeing a product improvement travel through all the stages from idea to implementation and then deployment, overseeing the journey to completion provides a great sense of satisfaction. What do you like most about working at BiP?  I like interacting with lots of people that span multiple departments and roles, this keeps things interesting, and it always helps to see things from other people’s perspectives. What does a great day at work look like? It always starts with coffee – then a day with a few meetings (not too little or too many!) and some time to get some work done. Ideally, right now a good day also involves bugs being closed and no new ones being opened. Do you have any unusual hobbies? I’m a big movie nerd and am very into low budget/indie horror which is maybe unusual! Music wise, I also am very into death metal and New York hardcore which is a little unusual. Been anywhere strange? (country/place/bar/tourist attraction?!) The most fascinating place I’ve been is a city called Varanasi in India – would recommend to anyone, it’s super interesting. Blow your own! … what do you excel at? Work or leisure I like to think I’m quite good at guitar and drums. Work wise – I think I’m pretty good at being organised, but my colleagues can tell you if that’s true or not! Quick fire:  Coffee or tea – Coffee Book or film – Film Cat or dog – Dog (I have a Spanish greyhound) Hot or cold – Hot Salty or sweet – Salty Tattooed or not – Not Night out or night in – Night in  Email or meeting – Depends on how many other meetings are on! Teams calls: video call or audio? – Video Eating: al-desko, break room or break out altogether – Usually al-desko Mountain or beach – Beach

Vicky Maggiani 19th July 2023
Blogs

Spotlight on…David Stewart

This month’s spotlight falls on our BI Sales Division and David Stewart. A relatively new member of the team he has been at the company for just over a year, joining in May 2022 as a Business Development Manager for Tracker. Thanks for joining me, David. How are you enjoying life at BiP? I really like it, even though it’s taken a while to get to grips with B2B. I came from B2C, so I‘d never done business sales before, but the rewards are starting to come through. I managed to do 175% of my target last month and I’m on track for target this month – if everything goes to plan! What did you do before coming to BiP? I had a seven-year career at EE, starting as a part time sales advisor through to managing a couple of shops and being a sales manager for them. And what would you like to be in the future is there a dream job or a dream position? Aspirational goals? I’d love to get to director level at some point within a company. So be that Sales Director, Operations Director, that’s my goal What takes up the most of your day-to-day? Most of my day is genuine client interaction, customer interaction and reaching out to new prospects. Understanding what their challenges and struggles are to work with the public sector. And what sort of challenges do your customers have? what sort of challenges can you help solve for them? The challenges I’m hearing are that they don’t understand how to build the relationships with the public sector buyer before the tenders are published. They need to get in there as early as possible, to develop these relationships and we really are making a difference to their business because they’re not just running a tender, we’re helping them build a relationship for future business. It’s actually good to know you’re making a difference to somebody when you’re selling something. Do you prefer to be Working from Home or in the office? I like being in the office. I like having an atmosphere around me and the support network, your manager and your teammates. I’ve always thrived off a good atmosphere, so I prefer to be in the office than work from home. Are there any sort of changes or initiatives you’d like to implement into BiP? I ran a couple of charitable events at EE before, Charity 11 aside football matches and things like that. There’s a lot of buildings around, there’s the BBC, The Village hotel, big corporations, big businesses that I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t want to get involved in charity stuff like this. It’d be great to implement something like that. What the biggest challenges you have in your role? Managing customer timelines and managing my own pipeline. That’s the hardest part of this job. Not knowing when something’s going to come in and when something’s pulled out from under you. My colleagues and my manager Chris help me regularly with this and are extremely supportive. What do you like most about your job? The interaction with people, I’m a big people person. I really enjoy speaking to people in different industries, different businesses and just learning more about what they’re doing for two reasons. It builds up my knowledge of the market in general and lets me understand what businesses are really struggling with. Speaking to people and making a difference is the thing that makes a big difference to me. Speaking to someone about the challenges they’re having, and if I can genuinely fix it for them, that’s what I like most. What do you like most about working at BiP? The culture is very good so far and very much gives back as well and looks after its employees. The support and the culture in the business to make sure everyone succeeds is incredible. What does a great day at work look like? A great day looks like this: seeing my name up in that sales board a few times on one day. As soon as a deal comes in, but also coming in to a reasonably filled diary. Do you have any unusual hobbies? I’m a very keen badminton player. I’ve been playing for years competitively. I had my own deejaying business for a couple of years as well. Quick fire. Coffee or tea – Coffee Book or film – film Cat or Dog – Dog, I have a dog. Hot or cold – I prefer being cold Salty or sweet – Sweet Tattooed or not – tattooed Night out or night in – Night out. E-mail or meeting – Meeting Teams call video or audio – Video, always video. Lunchtime: Al-desko, break room or break out altogether – Break out altogether, I like sitting in the breakout zones. Mountain or beach – Beach

Vicky Maggiani 23rd June 2023

Do You Want To Boost Your Business?

drop us a line and keep in touch

Contact Us