PARTNERSHIPS, joined-up working, breaking down the silo mentality: work for any length of time in the public sector and it quickly becomes obvious that getting together is the order of the day.

So perhaps it is not surprising that consultancy firms are getting in on the act. A number of approved suppliers on Catalist, the procurement framework run by OGCbuy-ing.solutions in the Treasury’s Office of Government Commerce, are not individual firms but consortiums.

Hitachi Consulting – until recently known as Impact Plus – is listed in one category as “prime” (that is, the lead firm) and another three as a “secondary” (potential subcontractors). Allan Duguid, a vice-president and the head of public sector at Hitachi, says that the arrangement has proved effective for his firm. “I am quite a fan of partnership arrangements,” he says. “It’s not just the small firms [doing it] . . . I see this as a way of business that will be important to us for a number of years.”

Mark Campbell, the chief executive of Hedra, agrees. His company has worked in consortiums before now and would “almost certainly” have allied itself with some of its partners with or without the framework. “But I think that the Catalist process facilitated [it] because the environment it created encouraged us to ensure a broadly-based con-sortium,” he says.

Both Campbell and Duguid describe partnerships as a way of tailoring “best in breed” solutions. For example, a business consultancy might assess a client’s situation and then draw on the expertise of software experts or change-man-agement specialists, depending on what will be most effective under the circumstances.

However, the client need deal only with the main firm, which has responsibility for managing the project, including the relationship between subcontractor and client, says Derek Rothwell, the director of procurement at OGCbuy-ing.solutions.

“This approach opens up the supply chain to smaller companies by allowing them to play a part in the delivery of large public sector projects,” he says. “It also encourages innovation, which is often provided by smaller organisations.”

However, only a minority of clients are aware that such tailoring is possible. Campbell says that OGCbuying.solu-tions and suppliers both have an obligation to promote this. “One of the problems . . . is that many parts of the market-place like to run their own frameworks, so Catalist is just one framework among many.”

Of course, this can also be seen as providing buyers with greater choice, says Malcolm Stirling, the director of public services at CSC. “From our perspective, some of the larger deals will not go through Catalist,” he says.

And, while Campbell would himself like to see greater adherence to the framework, he wants to see people won over to its benefits rather than forced by diktat to comply.

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