How JAGGAER Enabled the FCDO to Optimize its Compliance Procedures to Support Essential Government Supplier Code of Conduct Standards

What is FCDO?

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) was established in 2020 following the merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) with the Department for International Development (DFID). It leads the UK’s diplomatic, development and consular work around the world. Its staff operate a global network of 281 offices worldwide. The FCDO’s work in international development and aid is building a safer, healthier, more prosperous world.

Challenge

The FCDO procures a wide range of goods, services, and contracts work, from embassy construction to technical assistance. To foster best practice and ensure effective use of UK taxpayers’ funds, suppliers must adhere to the FCDO’s values on ethics, sustainability, and responsible business, as outlined in its Supplier Code of Conduct (the Code).

Historically, the FCDO’s Supply Chain Risk: Ethics team used a manual process, collecting supplier information through WeTransfer, Excel and PowerPoint, an approach that quickly became unmanageable. As a result, the team pivoted to a system originally designed for Supply Relationship Management (SRM) colleagues, inputting questions for suppliers to demonstrate compliance with the FCDO’s Code by submitting documents for evaluation.

However, this system did not meet the team’s needs; it lacked scoring functionality, requiring a workaround using Excel spreadsheets to score responses and provide feedback. It was also unstable; recurring issues were seldom resolved promptly, and explanations for them rarely forthcoming. In all, the situation added growing ‘non-value’ time by having to explain issues to suppliers and eroded confidence in the platform within the team.

The introduction of a new interface to the SRM system proved a tipping point for the FCDO to make a change. “We didn’t like it, we didn’t have the bandwidth to train our suppliers to use it, and it only presented the same information in a new format—we gained nothing,” says the FCDO Supply Chain Ethics Risk Manager. The team realized they needed a more reliable and stable solution, with integrated review, scoring, workflow, and reporting features.

Solution

Democratising data on a single unified platform

JAGGAER was selected as the Procurement platform for the newly created FCDO organization in 2020. This required substantial change within the commercial department, as the Supply Chain Risk: Ethics team, historically based in the DFID, had not previously used JAGGAER, having relied instead on a supplier information management system.

With limited time until their previous supplier’s contract expired, and subject to the same budgetary constraints as all other government departments, it was apt for the team to investigate the functionality for managing compliance inherent within JAGGAER. “Plus, it tied in with the wider strategy of ‘one commercial’—that we would all work on one tool, with data available across different teams for different uses, but in a single location,” says FCDO Supply Chain Risk: Supplier & Financial Team Lead. When coupled with the opportunity to deliver cost savings and work across the FCDO’s entire commercial department from a “single system”, JAGGAER’s potential presented a vast opportunity and an easy decision for leadership to support. Indeed, integrating compliance processes with the procurement process within a single system has created potential for greater collaboration within that wider commercial department.

“That’s why we first and foremost investigated JAGGAER—it met those needs. And it didn’t need complex procurement after that because it had the functionality we were already paying for within our contract,” they continue. With JAGGAER already in place at the FCO as a source-to-pay procurement platform, the newly merged FCDO added Supplier Management, Sourcing, and Contracts solutions. Information was transitioned from the legacy SIMS system to JAGGAER. The Supply Chain Risk: Ethics team supported suppliers with onboarding through the creation of training videos and user manuals with the Supply Chain Ethics Risk Manager and colleagues acting as ad hoc consultants to address any outstanding issues or queries—mostly around log-ins.

“I’m still in the process of an initial deployment, as we have certain points in our cycle where we’re doing things for the first time in the live environment,” says the FCDO Supply Chain Ethics Risk Manager.

While around 450 people are currently using JAGGAER across the commercial department—with a total of 500 licenses—that figure is around five for compliance, predicted to grow to 100, including suppliers.

Organisation Impact

Optimising workflows for enhanced supplier engagement

When JAGGAER was implemented as a compliance tool, it dramatically improved the supplier experience. After launching JAGGAER for supplier collaboration, supplier complaints dropped significantly freeing up FCDO resources from circular investigations. “We had very positive feedback from suppliers,” reports the FCDO Supply Chain Ethics Risk Manager. “They like the way JAGGAER looks, the way it works, and the fact that it’s stable and reliable.”

“We’ve had very positive feedback from suppliers. They like the way JAGGAER looks, the way it works, and the fact that it’s stable and reliable.”

— Supply Chain Ethics Risk Manager, the FCDO

Where scoring was previously stand-alone via Excel spreadsheets—now, question sets, responses and scoring are all contained within the system. This enables better record keeping and makes it easier to access records and transfer responsibility for suppliers between team members in the event of absence or role change. Staff within the wider procurement team have visibility into whether a supplier is Code compliant or not, and integrating compliance processes with the procurement process within a single system has enabled greater visibility of supplier code compliance status within the wider commercial department.

With JAGGAER, the FCDO can now align the supplier’s Code compliance record with the Standard Selection Questionnaire (SQ) process—the first step in proving a supplier is qualified to submit a tender which involves them providing a considerable amount of basic information. Previously, suppliers had to provide this twice—once when preparing the tender and again as part of the compliance process. “Because we’re now on the same system, we’ve aligned the questions we’re asking for process documents in SQ to the questions we ask under the compliance process,” says the FCDO Supply Chain Ethics Risk Manager. “We’re comparing apples with apples—so if suppliers can show they’re Code compliant, they’re spared the time and effort of having to do it again.”

Conclusion

The Supply Chain Risk: Ethics team successfully delivered the transfer of supplier information from its legacy compliance system to JAGGAER within a tight timescale. In doing so it is supporting an essential process of government with compliance now integrated into the full procurement lifecycle.