Senior executives from the following organisations: Frendoc;  IPL;  Clarke Willmott; Gresham;  Sift; Bristol City Football Club; Renishaw; Commercial Group;  Brightside Group plc; Oakwood Media Group and Bevan Brittan.

Other roundtables will take place in Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester, London, Glasgow and Leeds. If you are interested in participating in one of the roundtables, please contact Sarah Clifton on 02380 829 737.

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has been trying to reassure business leaders and opposition MPs about the delay of the act and insisted that it wasn’t an opportunity to ‘water down the rules’. He also assured companies that guidelines would be in place to allow them to use corporate hospitality as part of their business dealings, saying: “Ordinary hospitality to meet customers, network with customers [and] improve relationships is an ordinary part of business and should not be a criminal offence.”

Current INCO terms:

Far East & Indian sub-continent Westbound (import) rates/space/equipment update

Generally, the news is good. No serious shortages have been experienced up to Chinese New Year although carriers continue to withdraw vessels. The lower rates experienced over the last few months will also continue until at least the end of February.

Far East & Indian sub-continent export rates

Export rates continue to be extremely low when compared with import rates.

UK Terminal Handling charges – generally remain at £120 except Maersk and SafMarine where THC has increased to £131 per container from January 2011.

Heavyweight Container Surcharges (Far East Westbound only) – continue for westbound traffic only with each carrier having slightly different weight break points. It should be noted that this surcharge is not part of any ‘all-inclusive’ rate.

North China 20ft Equipment Premium – This charge continues to be applied by all lines on containers ex Dalian, Qingdao, Tianjin, Xingang, Yantai and Lianyungang at $250 per 20ft container only.

Suez Canal Surcharge – remains at $25 per TEU except Evergreen ($47 per TEU).

Gulf of Aden Emergency Risk Surcharge – generally $45 per TEU except MSC ($55 per TEU).

UK Fuel Surcharge – has again been increased by most UK hauliers. Presently the fuel price indices are showing £1.09 per litre. The resultant fuel surcharge can vary up to 23% depending on the start price of fuel and the percentage added/subtracted per £0.01 increase/decrease in the price per litre of fuel. It is vital that every client has an understanding of fuel surcharges and their application.

Airfreight – fuel/security surcharges are expected to continue at the present relatively low levels well into 2011:

Hong Kong + 1.20HK$ (fuel)  + 6.00HK$ (security) per kg from mid January 2011 and

+ 1.20HK$ (fuel)  + 6.40HK$ (security) per kg from 14/2/11

Shanghai    +  1.20CNY (fuel)  + 8.00CNY (security) per kg

Kevin Fryer    15^th February 2011.

See all Logistics Team Blogs

The savvier consumer, not so tempted by red tags, may include style, fit or even the latest trends in their decision-making process. It increases the chances that it will be worn more, utilised more effectively and kept longer, adding value to the garment.

Move to the complex world of national and international courier services and it applies as an incredibly effective analogy. Parcel carrier rate offers can vary vastly and often seem a bargain in comparison with the perception that they offer a similar service, however choosing the wrong one can cost dearly.

Every courier and parcel carrier has significantly different strengths and weaknesses. It’s so easy to choose the carrier with the best rates, but the savvier consumer will analyse their company’s aspirations and requirements beforehand and will include the latest trends in technology, tracking, automation, IT, damage limitation and customer service in their decision-making process, thus adding value.

Top tips to add value:

• Before starting, map out your supply chain and create a wish list of where you would like to make improvements, irrespective of the possible solutions at this stage.
• Save shipment processing time by integrating the carrier’s software in to your own order process system to cut duplicate key entry.
• For online orders, integrate your carrier’s tracking systems into your website. It’s easy, increases customer satisfaction, website hits and ultimately repeat business.
• Get a later collection time. Your order cut off time can be later, creating more orders.
• If the rates seem too good to be true, they probably are. Check the surcharges and the contract.

These are just a few ideas, but there are many, many more. The ultimate tip is to speak to an expert.

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

For further information, or for an exploratory meeting, please contact David Langston

In its recently published survey ‘Managing in a Downturn: Responding to life after the Comprehensive Spending Review’, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Charity Finance Directors’ Group and the Institute of Fundraising establish that the impact of the economic downturn is likely to affect the third sector for the foreseeable future, with 78% of respondents indicating that they expect to be negatively affected by the CSR while a further 11% of participants are unsure of its impact. At the same time, 39% of charities report an increase in the level of demand for their services since the start of the economic downturn, while 56% of respondents expect a rise in their costs over the coming year, with half of these organisations expecting such a hike to be in the region of 2% to 6%. And as one third of charities expect the VAT increase to have a ‘major’ or ‘significant’ impact on their finances, one cannot help wondering whether the third sector is facing a perfect storm.

On a positive note, however, the sector is aware of the looming threats and is taking action: The survey revealed that 83% of participating organisations plan to increase their fundraising activities to address the reduction in available public funding, while 40.4% state that they will cut back on services with a similar percentage (38.3%) advising of looming redundancies.

But more fund raising activities come at an additional cost for extra marketing and third party fulfilment services, irrespective of how much additional funding can be generated. At the same time, private donors in particular will also have to cope with increased costs for Utilities and VAT, making 2011 a challenging year for many households. A reduction in service levels provided, on the other hand, will potentially damage a charity’s image within its community, as will redundancies. The authors of the survey, therefore, quite rightly state: We would encourage those charities expecting an increase to review critically their cost base to understand whether further savings can be made if necessary.

Many charities may think that, if they are part of a buying group, they may be getting value for money. Unfortunately, with spend profiles often very different even between similar organisations, there is no guarantee that a bulk deal will offer best value for money to each and every single one of its participants. And while some trustees may find comfort in the thought that their deal, if not better, certainly is not worse than what other members get, many Finance Directors will quite possibly find in coming months that this is no longer enough to stabilise their charitable trusts’ finances.

There are a number of ways for charities to lower their costs: Shared service agreements with other charities may make sense under certain circumstances, as will proactive benchmarking and supplier negotiations. The drawback, however, is that both of them require a high degree of supply market expertise and staff time.  While your own team may be apt at negotiating general and low value supplies such as office consumables, your in-house capabilities may be stretched when it comes to re-negotiate your vehicle leases, your insurance deals or, for charities which accept donations over the phone or online, the most competitive merchant card deals. Suppliers will very quickly establish whether their clients have the necessary supply market knowledge to drive a good bargain. And in most spend categories there exist well practised smoke and mirror techniques, which may make a rather uncompetitive deal look very compelling to the untrained eye. Equally, with demand for services on the up, existing staff will have to deliver more as far as the provision and administration of core services are concerned – leaving them with less time to benchmark costs and service levels as well as conduct supplier negotiations and tenders.

Help is at hand in the form of Expense Reduction Analysts’ supply market knowledge and contacts, aggregate negotiating influence and category experts. Moreover, our work does not stop with the initial contract negotiations, but we will make our detailed market intelligence available to your staff over the full period of our engagement, making sure that your organisation benefits from value for money not only now but at all times. While more fund raising activities are likely to result in an increase in marketing and fulfilment expenditure, did you know, for example, that you are probably paying over the odds for your marketing deliverables if you let the creative agency select the printer? And how do you measure that the fulfilment house is charging you a fair rate?

Our detailed benchmarking, negotiating and auditing process will satisfy your trustees as well as your providers of statutory funding that you are obtaining best value for money for the financial support secured. We offer a number of cost effective solutions to charities and would be happy to discuss your needs with you in more detail.

(For more frequent cost reduction and procurement advice follow me – FrankMWeber – on Twitter)

Around 900 people from all levels of the accountancy industry attended the 16^th Annual Accountancy Age Awards, where Expense Reduction Analysts sponsored two categories.

The spectacular evening of celebration, held on Wednesday 17 November 2010 at Battersea Park Arena, was an ideal opportunity to invite some of our clients along and to raise the profile of the Expense Reduction Analysts brand.

The winner of the Expense Reduction Analysts sponsored ‘FD of the Year – Growing Business’ award was Ian Little from Access UK. Ian received the award after a challenging year in which he guided the Access Technology Group through acquisitions, a significant re-casting of the business plan, a change of business model and attempting to merge four UK trading companies into a single entity under the Access UK banner.

Expense Reduction Analysts also sponsored the ‘FD of the Year – Public Sector’ award, which was handed to Paul Vernon Woods at Newcastle City Council. Paul was recognised for his success in dual roles as Newcastle City treasurer and treasurer of the Tyne and Wear Transport Authority. His achievements included championing a low carbon salary sacrifice car scheme, for which he gave up his own car.

In many businesses and organisations strategic costs are controlled by procurement professionals in a purchasing or buying department. But who buys the non-strategic services and products – the overheads?

In our experience, except in the largest companies, these are either bought by the accounts or purchasing departments or farmed out to relevant service departments. If the latter, while these individuals may well be providing a great service, are they always getting the best value?

Ever heard the statement “This isn’t about cost”? Well no it isn’t. But it ought always to be about value – the balance between product and/or service quality and cost.

Take the example of a typical IT department that is responsible for both specifying and buying IT equipment and support. Does the department include or have a link to a professional purchasing executive within the organisation? If not, how can they be expected to achieve best value?

And if the supply is being bought by accountants or procurement executives do they have genuine expertise in all significant areas of cost. Probably not. Nor is it likely to be commercially viable to go out and recruit such purchasing experts.

That’s the biggest reason why by deploying category experts on behalf of our clients Expense Reduction Analysts are able to achieve an average saving across all categories of 19.7%; and often in areas where the category of expense has already been reviewed internally.

It’s not that internal managers are not doing a good job, it’s just that either procurement isn’t their main function or if it is, they lack the expertise in the particular cost category.