Build effective supply chains for your business

Focusing on procurement and supply chain efficiencies could help your business increase its profits. Yorkshire Forward supports a number of initiatives designed to help the region’s businesses to enter supply chains, offering real commercial opportunities with major organisations like the NHS, and major events such as London 2012. Virtual Enterprise Networks can also help you team up and win bigger contracts.

VEN
Virtual Enterprise Networks brings small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) together, providing access to new commercial opportunities, more customers and bigger contracts. By collaborating for larger contracts as a supplier, you could offer more competitive proposals to buyers under one contract.
 
For further information, contact VEN at www.VENGroup.com

Bid for NHS Contracts
The NHS Commercial Procurement Collaborative works with local businesses to help them tender more effectively for NHS contracts, facilitate collaborative bids and breakdown some of the barriers experienced by SMEs. This process could open up huge opportunities for your business to gain successful contracts with the NHS and in turn increase your profits.

For further information, visit

2012 Olympic Games
With a total spend of £9billion and an estimated 75,000 future business opportunities covering direct contractors and their supply chains being awarded over the coming years, the 2012 Olympics will bring huge opportunities for businesses like you, across the UK.

  • All businesses will benefit from the opportunities and the range of businesses is wide.
  • Contracts to supply the 2012 Olympics are being posted on CompeteFor – the online ‘dating agency’ which aims to match businesses with 2012 Olympics contracts opportunities.

For further information and to register for opportunities, log onto www.competefor.com

Training and Meet the Buyer events
Business Link holds workshops on how to write persuasive quotes, proposals and bids. These workshops could also help your business to explore new ideas, identify best practice and find new opportunities to improve and streamline your activities.

  • Meet the Buyer events can help your business to quickly identify new sources of supply.
  • Contact Business Link Yorkshire for details on future events – 08456  048 048

Logistics Institute
The Logistics Institute works with manufacturing and service organisations of all sizes within the region to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their supply chains. The institute offers a range of services that could help your business, these include:

  • Training
  • Leading-edge consultancy and research
  • Technology development and demonstration
  • Incubation space for start-up businesses.
  • Advice on supply chain management software to achieve greater control of your supply chain.

For further information, visit

Automatic identification and data capture (AIDC)
AIDC UK Ltd is the European centre of excellence for automatic identification and data capture (AIDC), set up to help businesses understand and explore AIDC technologies. Through industry connections, it also provides the support necessary to help business apply these technologies effectively.

Companies which rely on paper-based information or manual data-entry can suffer from higher human resource requirements, more errors, inefficiency and delays. AIDC changes all that. By adopting barcodes, radio tags, smartcards and/or biometrics, many businesses can now benefit from substantially greater levels of speed, accuracy and efficiency.

For further information, visit the website at www.aidc.org

www.supply2.gov.uk

The government website www.supply2.gov.uk now provides free access to thousands of lower value government contracts. For three years, supply2.gov.uk has advertised thousands of public sector procurement opportunities worth up to £100,000, making it ideal for SMEs.

For more information, visit www.supply2.gov.uk

To find out more about the FREE business support services available from Business Link Yorkshire visit www.businesslinkyorkshire.co.uk or call 0845 60 48 048.