Schools Cut Utilities Bills by $620,000
At a time when every sector in New Zealand is feeling the pinch, 102 schools across New Zealand have found a way of making their money go further.
Part of the solution for a large number of primary, intermediate and high school business managers has been to bring in specialist services to negotiate their power, gas and waste services contracts to make sure that their schools are not paying over the odds.
According to school business managers, bringing in third parties makes sense on a number of levels. Having to deal with a wide range of different tasks is one of the challenges managers face on a daily basis, this makes it impossible to be an expert across the board. Buying in expertise and handing over the more specialist jobs seems to be a logical step.
Business Manager at Pakuranga College, Graeme Brown is an advocate of this approach. “Over the 11 years that I’ve been in this job, I’ve come to realise that it makes sense to leave utilities contract negotiation to the experts. I don’t even think about our contracts now, TUMG notify us when they are due for renewal – it’s great to have something taken off my list of priorities.”
The opportunity to join forces with other schools and go out to market in bulk tenders is another plus point for bringing in a specialist. Richard Gardiner at Total Utilities Management Group (TUMG) has been putting together power, gas and waste services bulk tenders for ten years and sees them bringing real advantage to his clients.
“When we put out a bulk Request for Proposal to suppliers, the bigger the piece of business, the sharper the pricing tends to be.”
But Mr Gardiner is quick to stress that it’s not all about the price. (more…)