Real Life Options is a charity that supports people with learning disabilities and autism to live the life they want. The organisation has been supporting people for more than 25 years across England and Scotland and is today one of the leading providers of social care. I-Tel began working with Real Life options in 2020 and were initially tasked with conducting a full indirect procurement audit, with a view to improving overall strategy, costs and efficiency. In addition we were asked to look at the potential for implementing a purchase order system.
Utilising the data we had collected we had an understanding of the day to day requirements of the organisation however given the nature of their business and the changing circumstances the focus and priority was solely on PPE.
Our starting point was to narrow down a critical list of essential items and look at a 3 month usage forecast. We presented are findings to leadership along with recommendations going forward.
The financial implications were huge. Pricing was increasing daily by significant amounts therefore swift decisive action was required. I-Tel leveraged bulk buying opportunities from their care sector clients to include RLO’s requirements. Our warehousing and stock management facility proved decisive and we were able to mitigate risk for our clients and ourselves.
Storing several months’ worth of essential items and facilitating a call off, next day delivery service provided a blanket of security which has led to a full integration with RLO providing for all their operational requirements. Today we provide goods and services to all 150 sites along with comprehensive data and spend analysis for the leadership team.
