We analyse national, regional and local data to ensure that we're getting you the best deals possible.

We have developed a substantial database of information relating to the purchasing decisions of schools across the country. This is continually reviewed to ensure anything we buy on behalf of schools is the best deal possible.  By analysing this information, we can benchmark your school's spending, locally, regionally and nationally to find out where the most substantial savings can be made.

Benchmarking is important because failure to purchase goods and services cost effectively can put the achievement of key objectives such as teaching and learning at risk. Understanding your spend significantly improves the potential to improve value for money. Our benchmarking data helps you to quickly identify the cost of purchasing and the time it takes in achieving value for money.

We conduct benchmarking by identifying the average paid for goods and services locally, regionally and nationally. We can then determine if the price you pay is value for money. This opens up the opportunity for us to re-examine your specification and to discuss whether the additional cost can be justified where you're above average - maybe it can, for a number of reasons; if so, that should be a conscious business decision, not simply one that is accepted for accidental or historical reasons.

Our financial expertise allows us to conduct a spend analysis for your school which improves visibility into procurement information, enabling you to determine spend by category, products, services and suppliers. It also provides a simple ranking system for maintaining a snapshot of your most valuable suppliers. With the Schools' Buying Club you gain more insight to better leverage your buying power, reduce costs and improve supplier relationships.

There are a number of benefits in conducting a spend analysis:

• Spend visibility
• Data quality
• Supplier ranking
• Contract reporting