The management of immigration services is a challenging operational issue for the Home Office, within a fast changing and high profile area of delivery by both in-house and contracted suppliers. It has recently reorganised the way it addresses and manages immigration services within the UK, resulting in new structures and a desire to improve the management and delivery of services.
Historically, the relationship for suppliers with many central government departments such as the Home Office has often been a one-way street, with procurements coming to the market with little or no input from suppliers and very rigid contract management processes that did not permit the necessary dialogue require to make improvements to the contract design.
Instead, the Home Office decided to engage with existing trusted suppliers in a series of open discussions about the challenges faced by the new departments and how we could together overcome them.
This created a new, more meaningful dialogue with suppliers long before any procurement exercise. Indeed, discussions which may not lead to any procurement, but simply serve to improve operations already delivered by the public sector, have proved very beneficial. Not only does this improve the way the department and its supplier market operate: The relationship between customer and supplier has changed from largely transactional to a clearer partnership approach.
As a supplier, suppliers now feel they have a better relationship with the customer and a fuller understanding of their strategy and needs, so they are better able to align their objectives for mutual benefit.
This creative approach by the Home Office resulted in a number of 'quick win' service improvements in existing contracts managed by a number of suppliers and also a short-list of potential projects in high priority areas due to be commissioned shortly.
It is a good demonstration of the importance of creative dialogue with suppliers in being able to improve service design before going out to tender.