SME Supplier Spotlight: Q1 2022 Update

Thousands of SMEs supply the public sector with products and services. Some of these up-and-coming companies have seen their public sector business accelerate in recent times on the back of their innovative and unconventional solutions.

If you're looking to encourage new SMEs into your future procurement processes, and bring fresh solutions to your authority's problems, it's well worth you having these kinds of SMEs on your radar.

In this new series, we're using Tussell's market intelligence platform to spotlight SMEs doing innovative work with contracting authorities across the UK, quarter-by-quarter.* Skip ahead to read about:

1. Liquidlogic
2. Huggg
3. Vanguard Healthcare Solutions
4. Channel 3 Consulting
5. Exception

Liquidlogic - in their own words - are "the UK’s fastest growing supplier of software for local authority social care and education management services". Founded in 2000, they're owned by healthcare software providers System C, and are based near Leeds.

Liquidlogic provide a wide range of software solutions, including their flagship Children's Social Care System (LCS) - a case management system designed for "children in need, looked after children, adoption and child protection cases" - and a number of attachable modules, like their Early Years & Education Management System.

Liquidlogic was one of the highest earning SME IT suppliers in Q1 of this year,** having earned over £5 million in public sector revenue from 59 different Local Government authorities across the UK. In fact, Liquidlogic has made quarterly public sector earnings exceeding £4 million in 16 of the past 25 quarters from Q1 2016 to Q1 2022.

Over this period, Liquidlogic's largest customers - by total revenue earned - were:

• Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council (£7.39mn)

• Manchester City Council (£3.7mn)

• Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (£3.6mn)

• Bristol City Council (£3.6mn)

• Norfolk County Council (£3.5mn)

In Q1, Liquidlogic were awarded a number of sizeable contracts from local authorities:

LCS/EHM Hosted Service

Contracting authority: City of Bradford Metropolitan Council

Award date: March 2022

Award value: £331,000

This modification of an existing contract requires Liquidlogic to transfer its 'Liquidlogic's Children's Social Care System Software' (LCS) and 'Early Help Module' (EHM) from on-premises to remote hosted.

CPU 2175 Social Care Case Management System

Contracting authority: Nottingham City Council

Award date: March 2022

Award value: £639,000

Awarded for the provision of a Social Care Case Management System, awarded via the CCS e-marketplace.

Liquidlogic Application - Hosted Service

Contracting authority: Enfield Council

Award date: March 2022

Award value: £726,000

To provide Enfield Council with Liquidlogic's "hosted children's social care system".

Tussell's frameworks analytics shows that Liquidlogic operates through a number of framework agreements, having most recently been awarded work via Data Applications Solutions (RM3821) and G-Cloud 12.

Huggg are a gift card and voucher provider, based in Bristol.

While Huggg mainly cater for private sector organisations, Huggg has recently seen an uplift in demand from public authorities to assist in the dissemination of support vouchers and funds to residents.

In Q1 of 2022 alone, Huggg earned £8.1 million from public authorities. Across 2021, Huggg earned £20.7 million: a staggering 546% increase on their £3.2 million revenue for 2020.

From Q1 2016 to Q1 2022, Huggg's largest customers have included:

• Derbyshire County Council (£7.2mn in earnings)

• Warwickshire County Council (£5mn in earnings)

• East Sussex County Council (£4.4mn in earnings)

• Nottinghamshire County Council (£3.9mn in earnings)

• Luton Borough Council (£3.2mn in earnings)

A number of the contracts underlying this spend relate to Huggg's voucher platform, through which authorities can provide the likes of "grocery vouchers, school uniform vouchers, clothing vouchers, home essentials vouchers", and more. Examples include:

Voucher Scheme Platform

Contracting authority: Nottingham County Council

Award date: October 2021

Award value: £900,000

Vouchers for School meals during the Summer Holidays

Contracting authority: Luton Borough Council

Award date: June 2021

Award value: £642,000

PB2020-00237-HUGGG Portal for Voucher Scheme

Contracting authority: Darlington Borough Council

Award date: December 2020

Award value: £11,000

Of the contracts listed in Tussell, none have been identified as being awarded via a framework agreement.

Vanguard Healthcare Solutions are a Gloucester-based healthcare provider, specialising in mobile, modular healthcare facilities.

Vanguard's fleet comprises of mobile operating theatres, hospital wards, dialysis centres, minor injuries units, and other speciality units. These units can help healthcare authorities increase capacity, retain operations during refurbishment, and bring healthcare services closer to local communities.

In Q1 of this year, Vanguard earned £13.9 million from the public sector: their second-best quarter to date. Indeed, Vanguard have seen their book of business with the public sector grow sizably since 2016, expanding from £12.9 million in 2016 to £39.3 million in 2021. 

By total spend, Vanguard's biggest relationships in the public sector are with:

• St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (£10.1mn)

• Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (£8.7mn)

• NHS Highland (£8mn)

• Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (£7.9mn)

• Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (£7.6mn)

Underpinning Vanguard's impressive growth are a number of sizable contracts with healthcare authorities, including:

Enabling Works - Grantham Theatres

Contracting authority: United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust

Award date: October 2020

Award value: £17.5 million

This large contract was awarded to provide the Grantham 'Green Site' with additional surgery capacity - namely, "Breast, Women's Health and Cancer Surgery" - from December 2020, "to ensure continuity of theatre services". This contract was awarded via NHS Supply Chain's Mobile and Strategic Clinical Solutions framework.

Award of Mobile Operating Endoscopy Unit

Contracting authority: NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde

Award date: December 2021

Award value: £3 million

Short-Term Rental of a Staffed Temporary Surgical Unit

Contracting authority: NHS Highland

Award date: April 2016

Award value: £829,000

Awarded by NHS Highland, this contract sought the provision of temporary theatre coverage while its main theatres underwent refurbishment, including the provision of "appropriately qualified and experienced supporting staff", upkeep and security, in a 16 m x 10m area.

Since 2016, Vanguard have operated via the Mobile and Strategic Clinical Solutions framework, Insourcing of Clinical Support Services framework and the Framework Agreement for the Supply of Module Buildings.

Channel 3 Consulting are digital consultancy firm, whose services aim to help public health authorities to operate more efficiently and effectively.

Channel 3 Consulting - based in London and founded in 2009 - specialise in improving adult social care systems, designing and implementing clinical digital transformation strategies, and - recently - helping newly formed Integrated Care Systems to properly integrate technology and data into how they operate.

Q1 of 2022 was Channel 3 Consulting's best quarter to date, having earned £4.3 million from public authorities. Since Q1 2016, Channel 3 Consulting have earned a hefty £41 million in public sector revenue.

Since 2016, Channel 3 Consulting have received most of their public sector income from:

• Central & North West London NHS Foundation Trust (£9.9mn)

• East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust (£5.6mn)

• Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (£4.7mn)

• Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (£4.1mn)

• Reading Borough Council (£3mn)

Some of Channel 3 Consulting's largest success stories to date include:

Test Supply Programme

Contracting authority: Department of Health & Social Care

Award date: December 2020

Award value: £817,000

This contract - Channel 3 Consulting's largest published contract to date - entailed the provision "of support for the Covid Testing Validation Group (TVG) and test supplies".

Consultancy - Optimisation Review

Contracting authority: Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust

Award date: January 2022

Award value: £442,000

For the provision of "EPR optimisation with supporting configuration and documentation review".

Consulting Support for Technology Validation Group (TVG)

Contracting authority: Department of Health and Social Care

Award date: March 2021

Award value: £391,000

This contract requires Channel 3 Consulting providing leadership and support services to support the TVG.

Of Channel 3 Consultancy's published contracts, a few were awarded via the Lots of Management Consultancy Framework 2.

Exception are an Edinburgh-based digital solutions provider.

Exception's specialisms span three broad areas: helping organisations with their digital transformation, cloud migration, and providing general technical and digital expertise.

Q1 of this year was Exception's second-highest quarter since 2016, having earned at least £3.9 million in public sector revenue. Having reached a record £4.2 million in the quarter prior, 2021 was Exception's biggest year by public sector revenue, at £12.1 million: a staggering 7860% increase on its earnings in 2016.

Exception has worked most intensely with:

• Student Loans Company Ltd (£37.3mn)

• Scottish Government (£2.6mn)

• Police & Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire (£521,000)

• Westminster City Council (£298,000)

• The National Archives (£45,500)

Some of Exceptions most notable work with the public sector has included:

GB-Glasgow: Infrastructure, Iteration Management, DevOps, Cloud and TG Project Services

Contracting authority: Student Loans Company Ltd

Award date: March 2020

Award value: £13mn

Consultancy for the Future Service Provision Programme in terms of all ICT aspects and advice

Contracting authority: Police & Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire

Award date: November 2021

Award value: £959,000

Drinking Water Quality Data Management System

Contracting authority: Scottish Government

Award date: January 2022

Award value: £859,000

Tussell identified at least two of Exception's contracts as having been awarded via G-Cloud 10 and Digital Outcomes & Specialists 5.

*

The 5 SMEs spotlighted above are just a handful of the small businesses solving the public sector's problems every day.

Spotting SMEs working in your category or region can be difficult and resource-intensive. If you and your procurement team want to start proactively encouraging more SMEs to get involved in your upcoming procurement processes, take a look at our free how-to guide on how to find new SMEs to work with.

All the SMEs in this blog were identified using data from Tussell's market intelligence platform. To learn more about how Tussell can help your procurement team to identify SMEs, improve social value, and deliver better value for money, book in a no-obligations demo with our team.

* The SMEs chosen in this blog were done so subjectively, orienting loosely around which SMEs had earned a high level of public sector revenue in Q1 2022 across different sectors.

** Due to a lag in the publication of invoice data by contracting authorities, the revenue figures quoted for Q1 2022 may be undervalued.