MOD in Hot Water

Now it is the turn of the Ministry of Defence to come under fire for its approach towards cost cutting in the recession. It was reported in The Times on August 18th that:

“Private consultants are being paid £4,000 a day by the Ministry of Defence to help it to cut the costs of its contracts…

Under an agreement described as “extraordinary” by one MP yesterday, eight consultants will also receive a 30 per cent “success fee”, pushing their daily pay to more than £5,000 each.

It is also understood that the MoD departed from normal practice in awarding the contract, worth up to £12 million, by failing to advertise it before recruiting Alix Partners, a US-based company with a London office.

Industry experts criticised the deal, saying that the fees were unusually high and that the failure to advertise the contract might have led to an unnecessarily high bill for the taxpayer. The details have come to light as the Armed Forces pension scheme is cut and hundreds of redundancies are made.”

You can go here to read more.http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/defence/article3137644.ece

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Celebrating the UK’s best business talent – Auditel to sponsor the 2011 IoD Director of the Year Awards UK Final – Large Company

On Friday 23rd September, the IoD Director of the Year UK Awards UK Final ceremony will take place at London’s Lancaster Hotel at a special celebratory lunch. The event is the IoD’s premier event in their calendar.

This year’s Director of the Year Awards have once again attracted an abundance of exciting high-calibre entrants from across the UK. The shortlists have now been drawn up and the second round of judging is underway, which means this year’s competition is reaching its conclusion.

Founded in 1994, Auditel  is the UK’s premier cost and purchase management specialist. Auditel manages the full range of business expenditures for more than 3,400 clients ranging in size from multi-nationals to museums and from national charities to local manufacturers.

They are delighted to be sponsoring the Large Company category at the IoD Director of the Year Awards again this year and welcome the involvement in raising awareness and celebrating the very best of business leaders in the UK. The award is open to Directors from FTSE and other large listed companies who have shown excellence in their own region.

“The Most Successful Auditel’s Supplier Conference and Exhibition”

Auditel, the UK’s largest independent cost and purchase management consultancy, recently hosted their 11th Supplier Conference and Exhibition at Whittlebury Hall near Towcester, Northants. Their partner companies for the event included EDF Energy, British Gas, Shell LPG, Travelex, Bluefin Insurance Services, Accept Cards, UK Telco, Scottish and Southern Energy and NatWest Mentor.

Auditel’s Managing Director Chris Allison, reports: “This was our most successful conference. It was a bigger and better event than ever before. Thirty five market leaders presented their unique offerings to our largest ever gathering of cost and purchase management specialists under one roof.”

Suppliers and Consultants agreed.

• “Particularly pleasing to see so many high profile suppliers.” Laurence Fitch, Auditel Consultant
• “The best conference we have ever attended at!” Leighton Wilcox, Cashflow Protector
• “What would I change? Nothing really!” Peter Harrison, Auditel Consultant

Team Auditel finishes the Great British Bike Ride – 350 miles in 5 days

Team Auditel - Day 5

The Great British Bike Ride, which was staged from Land’s End to Twickenham Stadium is completed. The five-day ride was designed for cycling enthusiasts, sportsmen and women wanting to take on a real challenge and at the same time, raise some much-appreciated funds for highly deserving charities.

Team Auditel, consisting of five intrepid Auditel consultants, their Business Development Director and a representative from one of their suppliers, took part in this year’s gruelling ride. All seven team members cycled the 350 miles from Land’s End to Twickenham Stadium. The target was to raise at least £10,000 for Auditel’s chosen charity, Help for Heroes. With an average of 70 miles to cover on each day of the ride, Team Auditel started training in October last year.

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24 billion Euros of fuel costs avoided from wind energy in 2015

Expectations of wind energy have been substantially increased in recent months due to the combination of rising fossil fuel prices, devastating oil spills and the shelving or downsizing of several nuclear programmes following the crisis at Fukushima.

Every month in 2009 and 2010, the global wind energy industry installed new capacity equivalent to the output of 1.2 average nuclear reactors. According to the EWEA^*, expectations are that in 2015 wind power will avoid € 23.7Bn of fossil fuel costs – € 15.1Bn of coal costs, €6.4Bn of gas costs and €1.7Bn of oil costs – to produce electricity. This is based on a moderate development of wind power, with 460 GW of global cumulative wind power capacity installed by 2015, compared to 200 GW last year

Figures for 2020 will be even more substantial (€87Bn of fuel costs saved), whilst for 2030, EWEA forecasts that wind energy will meet 26-34% of Europe’s electricity demand, with almost as much electricity coming from offshore turbines as from those onshore.

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Top ten tips to cut your business energy costs

With continuing high oil prices, the uncertainties over the the Middle East and nuclear concerns since the disater in Japan, wholesale energy prices have soared in the last six months, with little signs of it coming down any time soon. The major energy providers have steadily passed these price increases on to business customers, many of whom face energy bills which could be 50% higher than they were paying only two years ago.

However, despite the pressures in the market, there are a number of things businesses can do to manage and reduce the cost of this expensive business overhead.

1. Don’t bury your head in the sand

There’s an alarming gulf in the price businesses pay for what is essentially the same product. On the whole, it’s passive companies – those who fail to take action on their energy contracts – who wind up paying the biggest tariffs.

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18% of SME’s don’t understand energy contracts or energy options

Small businesses must be protected by electricity market safeguards to prevent energy bills from escalating further as small firms say they are concerned about the rising cost of energy, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said in a new report.

In the 2011 Budget, the Government announced plans to reform the electricity market and introduce carbon pricing – a mechanism that artificially increases the prices of electricity generated from fossil fuels – in order to make renewable and nuclear energy more attractive energy sources and decrease the UK’s dependence on fossil fuel energy.

But, ahead of the White Paper on Electricity Market Reform due tomorrow (Tuesday 12), the FSB is raising concern that electricity generators will pass on the extra costs to consumers. In a new report, ‘Small business and infrastructure: Energy‘, the FSB is arguing that while it supports the idea of incentives to invest in low carbon infrastructure, there needs to be safeguards in place to prevent electricity generators from passing the carbon price on to end users by pushing prices up further.

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Auditel’s professionalism and personal service produce impressive savings of over £77,000 for the Peepul Centre

Peter Harrison, Debra Avery, Peepul Centre Operations Manager, John Frape, Peepul Centre Head of Services for Sports & Fitness & Mike Ramsden

Opened in 2005 and situated just minutes from the heart of Leicester city centre, the Peepul Centre is a unique and inspirational social enterprise. It offers a multi-purpose venue for the local community. Facilities and services provided at and by the Centre range from civil weddings, conferences, exhibitions and events to an Ofsted-inspected nursery, a gym, theatre, restaurant and bar.

Auditel has been at the forefront of cost and purchase management for over seventeen years. In that time, they have built a dedicated 200-strong network of professional consultants who manage the full range of business expenditures for thousands of clients across the UK.

The Peepul Centre has benefited from Auditel’s professionalism and increased the value of their organisation. Debra Avery, Operations Manager of the Peepul Centre explained: “Auditel’s service is much broader and more holistic and it goes far beyond simple cost-cutting. Their recommendations take into consideration everybody concerned with and affected by our Centre to ensure we get the best option, not just the cheapest. They go the extra mile for us.” Read more…

Team Auditel – Day Four of the Great British Bike Ride

Team Auditel reached home ground in Winchester yesterday. 3 days of continuous cycling have taken their toll on our intrepid team. There were concerns about Ed’s knee, but we were delighted to see him take his place this morning with the rest of Team Auditel.

The GBBR group were joined today by rugby commentator John Inverdale and English prop, Phil Vickery. The group are facing intermittent showers and windy conditions today as they make their way towards Esher, where they will spend their last night before heading to Twickenham. Follow Team Auditel via Twitter for the last part of their journey.

Team Auditel – Day One of the Great British Bike Ride

Team Auditel left bright and early this morning from Lands End. Taking part in the Great British Bike Ride means a grueling average of 70miles a day to cycle the 350 mile route to Twickenham over 5 days. Team Auditel are cycling the ride in order to raise money for Help For Heroes. Donations can be made on their Just Giving page and you can follow their progress on  Twitter .

Team Auditel consists of Auditel Consultants: Adrian Burton, Chris Bridge, Laurence Fitch,  Claire Power-Browne, Steve Ray and our Business Development Director Ed Brewer