How Constellia will reform MOD’s Procurement
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has selected Constellia to accelerate its procurement of novel technological goods and services.
Constellia enables and empowers organisations to better buy and manage category-specific spend. With a range of solutions to do this, Constellia's private sector solutions focus on services, including Consultancy and for its public sector clients, this extends to wider goods and works procurement.
Constellia is one of Britain's fastest-growing private companies (ranked #13 in the Sunday Times 100). Established in 2007, it now manages over £200m, (approx US$261.4m) of spend across 400+ subcategories – which is delivered through its Neutral Vendor solution and dynamic marketplace of 2,000+ pre-vetted suppliers.
Constellia is also the UK's only Neutral Vendor Managed Service Provider to provide public sector organisations access to goods, works, services and technology – your one-stop shop for procurement.
The company has confirmed that it has been awarded the Neutral Vendor Framework for Innovation (NVFi) by the MOD to compliantly and transparently increase speed and value for money in digital and innovation procurement as part of the MOD's procurement reform.
The NVFi has been developed to bring new technologies to users faster and to work with suppliers to address entry barriers for Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Constellia's CEO, Rob Levene says: "Driving technological advantage and innovation is at the cornerstone of the MOD's digital strategy. We are thrilled to be able to work with and be the commercial vehicle that accelerates innovative technology into operational deployment, giving
"His Majesty's Government (HMG) a strategic technological advantage, whilst continuing to support start-ups and small businesses.
"At Constellia, we are committed to supporting the MODs SME Action Plan in improving access for Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) to do business with defence, as well as enabling exciting opportunities for new, non-traditional and adjacent sectors to support innovation."
What is NVFi?
The NVFi has been developed by Commercial X, the flagship Defence Commercial programme to increase speed and value for money in digital and innovation procurement as part of the MOD’s procurement reform.
It offers commercial officers across government a route to market to procure these innovative technological goods and services at pace and scale.
NVFi will be a significant game changer for the digital and innovation communities to provide greater opportunity to engage more closely with the ecosystem of technology suppliers in an efficient manner.
The framework will be elevated to the benefit of wider government with access open for use across public sector entities, subject to the completion of access agreements by framework users and their approval by MOD as the framework authority.
Commercial X will lead the learning and awareness programme about the framework across Defence and wider government.
The scope of the framework covers fourteen science and technology areas of significance to the national security and defence community, covering goods and ancillary products as well as associated consultancy, engineering, research and development and systems integration services.
Defence Innovation Unit is one of the central enablers to innovation in defence, ensuring the Armed Forces maintain military advantage over ever-evolving global threats. The NVFi also supports the Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) delivery.
"Thrilled to be collaborating"
Dina Kakaras, Head of Commercial X, adds: "The NVFi will be an amazing resource for our government Commercial officers to use in order to bring in and scale some of the new technology use cases that we have in Defence.
"We are thrilled to be collaborating with the Defence Innovation Unit on this and to be supporting industry to help us find brilliant ideas, brilliant suppliers and do so at the pace of relevance."
Victoria Cope, Commercial Director of Defence Digital, says: "NVFi is a great example of how we are raising the bar commercially in the digital and innovation space. Creating innovative, agile and scalable routes to market for defence capability whilst introducing new, creative and pioneering digital suppliers to the Defence and security ecosystem."
The NVFi also supports the Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) delivery and John Ridge, DIU director adds: "The Neutral Vendor Framework for Innovation is a novel and potentially game-changing approach to contracting, which will benefit Defence and the broader national security community.
"Getting to this stage has required determination and a willingness to challenge convention. Once in place, the Framework will accelerate the acquisition of innovative new capabilities, helping establish and sustain strategic advantage."
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