Our working relationship with SMEs is vital in delivering a safe, reliable and innovative railway for our customers.
Since 2015/16 we have increased the proportion of our total expenditure spent with SMEs from 15.5% to 34.9%. Our SME action plan published in November 2019, focused on what we must do to make ourselves ‘easier to do business with’ and has helped us increase our spend with SMEs.
More information can be found in our SME Action Plan section below.
SME Action Plan
We have launched our SME Action Plan to improve our working relationship with SMEs.
Our engagement with SME suppliers through focus groups and feedback from industry associations has made it clear that we are not always easy to work with. The SME Action Plan responds to these insights and puts in place new working practices that will make a positive difference for SMEs.
Areas of improvement
The SME Action Plan sets out the issues raised by SMEs and the changes we will make by agreed timescales to ensure we make it as easy as possible to do business with us.
It focusses on six areas of improvement:
- Engagement
- Pre-procurement
- Procurement
- Contract management
- Supplier management
- Innovation.
Further details can of each action can be found in the SME Action Plan (818 KB, PDF).
Supplementary SME Action Plan
Our Supplementary SME Action Plan invites our tier 1 suppliers to put in place a range of actions which we believe will help our SME community to thrive. Delivering these initiatives together will help us increase the overall proportion of expenditure we spend with our SMEs and help deliver the government’s Industrial Strategy and Rail Sector Deal.
Further details of each action can be found in the Supplementary SME Action Plan (752 KB PDF).
The Pitch Platform
The Pitch Platform is a new initiative to encourage suppliers to pitch their innovative products and services to key stakeholders across the organisation. In a Dragon’s Den style approach, successful entrants can benefit from specialist support and/or funding to develop their ideas for the railway and fast-track the procurement process.
Find out more about Pitch Platform.
Get in touch
Please contact us at suppliercommunications@networkrail.co.uk