BSI First in Industry to Integrate with Zanzibar

07 September 2009 - BSI has become the first hotel booking agent and the first in the business travel and accommodation service sector to integrate with Zanzibar, the eProcurement system delivered by ProcServe on behalf of HM Treasury.

The achievement follows the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) awarding their accommodation contract to BSI and a commitment from BSI to meet CPS's aspiration to work in partnership to deliver integration with CPS's chosen eProcurement system. Following a pilot of the system, BSI will be able to provide CPS with electronic billback invoicing, which will go directly (and automatically) to the booker's cost centre/department, via whatever authorisation/clearance rules they choose to set up in Zanzibar.

The process developed by ProcServe and BSI is specific to accommodation booking requirements. While Zanzibar is used to purchase a range of goods and services, the dynamic nature of hotel bookings requires a bespoke solution which ProcServe and BSI successfully implemented.

James Carr, Contract Delivery Manager from CPS, said; "Following the contract award we felt confident that BSI would not only reduce the time and cost of bookings for accommodation and meetings through negotiations, considerable cost avoidance and streamlined technical offering, but also deliver significant back-end, payment process efficiencies through the delivery of integration with Zanzibar".

The enhancement to BSI's public sector service offering comes at an ideal time, following Zanzibar being pinpointed as key to delivering UK public sector procurement savings by the Operation Efficiency Programme (OEP). Alistair Darling recently supported these recommendations in his 2009 Budget Statement stating that public Sector organisations should "...make better use of existing investments in e-Procurement tools, such as Zanzibar, to support greater uptake of collaborative category deals."

Veera Johnson, Chief Executive of ProcServe, commented; "The announcement by Alistair Darling is great news not only for the Zanzibar community of marketplaces but for all Public Sector suppliers such as BSI. Public Sector organisations have been given a clear recommendation by the Chancellor to use collaborative contracts. These collaborative contracts are available on Zanzibar, the secure ‘Amazon' for government procurement, easy to connect, simple to use and delivering real value."

Trevor Elswood, BSI Group Managing Director stated; "Based on the OEP recommendations and 2009 Budget Statement we expect to see a greater take up of Zanzibar across the Public Sector and BSI is now well placed to provide superior payment processes to this market place following our industry first. The development is available to other public sector organisations through the CPS contract which was recently opened up as a framework agreement."

For further information please contact:
Laura Tallett or Sylvie Pender at Corixa Communications 0117 949 3394.
Email: laura.tallett@corixa.co.uk, or sylvie.pender@corixa.co.uk

Cora Byrne at ProcServe 020 7881 3445
cora.byrne@procserve.com
 

Notes to Editors

• BSI specialise in delivering stream-lined, cost efficient, customer focused accommodation solutions and meeting and event management services, booking in excess of 1.7 million room nights and in excess of 17,000 memorable meetings and events last year.
• BSI was recognised at number 2 in Business Travel World's 2009 Top Hotel Booking Agencies.
• It operates four centres of excellence located in Taunton (24x7), Cheadle and Nottingham in the UK, and BSI Paris in France. It also owns London based Olive 360, one of UK's leading full-service event management companies.
• BSI offers an integrated suite of four web-based procurement systems for both call centre agents and corporate customers. These reduce call times required to make a reservation, automate the process for generating preferred rate programmes and drive down customers' accommodation and meetings costs. These systems include an accommodation procurement system, which is not GDS led, the policy complaint self-booking tool and an automated competitive bid and auction tool.
• During 2008/09, BSI has been rolling out a series of bespoke technological advancements to its systems and portfolio of tools that together will provide clients with the ultimate management platform to support all their bookings and procurement needs relating to business accommodation, conferences, events and meetings. This investment will provide BSI group clients with:
•  A 360 degree view of their MICE and accommodation spending patterns and demand drivers
• Synergies that deliver compelling savings and functionality
• The highest level, detailed management information
• Automatic solutions and policies for fulfilling Corporate Social Responsibiliy and compliance obligations
• Comprehensive and superior data connections between BSI and its accommodation partners
• The lowest cost distribution systems
• Specialist divisions in BSI that will offer specialist, tailored solutions.