Remember where you saw it first

Managing a variety of services that are delivered in a single location (plant or office) as an integrated whole and from a process-oriented perspective offers a raft of benefits—not least the opportunity of local synergies. During my 12 years in the sector, I’ve seen the quantitative and financial benefits time and time again.

So it’s disappointing to see that integrated solutions remain unusual in the public sector, and we think the regulatory structure governing public tendering processes may be a reason. At present, public tenders usually result in the cheapest solution being selected ahead of the best. So I’m really pleased that the Swedish Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency is about to issue new guidance to support innovative, high-quality solutions being prioritized. Hopefully, this will help public bodies to select better solutions—benefiting social services, schools and health care.This issue of Nova has an interview with Agneeta Anderson of the Swedish Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency, who presents various tendering formats that prioritize innovation and quality. We also have some news from the cleaning sector, which our expert Lars-Olov Hedman has been part of, and reviewing the new future-oriented position of Workspace Manager. And, as if that wasn’t enough, we share our experiences about successful supplier control in our ‘Outsourcing School.’

As I said, I hope and believe that readers will get a lot of pleasure and benefit from Nova, but how well we’ve done is obviously up to our readers. If you want to discuss any of our articles or are just curious about our solutions, you’re always welcome to contact me directly. I look forward to hearing from you.

Staffan Ebenfelt
President of Coor Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden, October 2012