Thanks to its partnership with the CPC, Southerns has completed a number of high profile projects with its members. Recently Southerns completed the supply and installation of all the furniture at both Newcastle Under Lyme and South Cheshire new build Colleges totalling in excess of £1.7m and 20,000 items.

MyPC is a computer booking and access management solution offered by Info Technology Supply Ltd.

Chesterfield College started life in 1841 as the Chesterfield and Brampton Mechanics' Institute, and went through various incarnations, including the merger in 1984 of Chesterfield Art College and Chesterfield College of Technology, before becoming Chesterfield College we now know.

MyPC is a computer booking and access management solution offered by Info Technology Supply Ltd.

Angus College is a College of Further Education, with a new building - the Community Access and Learning Centre - housing the College Library and Library Technology Suite where a suite of 80 computer terminals is available for staff and student use.

Early in 2006, Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC) teamed up with Risk2Value Ltd (the insurance broking subsidiary of the University of Sheffield) to develop a new concept for the purchase of insurance and broker services specifically tailored to the requirements of the UK Further Education sector. With the support of the DfES Centre for Procurement Performance and the Learning & Skills Council, CPC became the first UK organisation to create a suite of collective procurement agreements for these services to take advantage of the new EU purchasing framework regulations. The result is a uniquely flexible and user-friendly system designed to secure the best value from a panel of three major insurers and brokers – Heath Lambert, Marsh and Zurich Municipal – and ensure compliance with tendering regulations.

David Pullein, Director of Finance at Leeds College of Building and Chair of the College Finance Directors' Group, took time out to explain how his college is getting to grips with the procurement performance agenda.

Commercial pressures mean today's colleges and universities see students more as customers. This is crucial because in order to maximise funding, these institutions must offer excellent learning environments that fill classrooms. Key to making these environments exciting is the inclusion of cutting-edge applications; and to deliver these solutions, institutions require infrastructures with excellent performance and scalability.

In February of 2003 Grimsby College was invited to nominate a representative for membership of the tender evaluation panel at Salford University who were reviewing a photocopying tender agreement in conjunction with the Crescent Purchasing Consortium.

Blackburn College joined the CPC in October 2002 and through the use of Consortium contracts and arrangements, has managed to save considerable money over our first six months of membership. The Purchasing department at the college has kept a record of these savings to evidence the value of the college\'s membership.