Ensemble Purchasing

Velocity 400 Limited trading as Ensemble Purchasing is London’s shared procurement service. It gives members a high-quality professional procurement service, designed especially for smaller, non-profit higher education, Medical Institutions, arts, sciences and cultural institutions. Smaller higher education institutions in London collectively spend around £230m annually on goods, consultancy and services, mainly without professional procurement support. Selecting the right suppliers to meet their needs and managing key relationships requires professional know-how, but until now many smaller institutions haven’t been able to justify getting regular, specialist help. When acting together, however, the business case becomes far more compelling. Ensemble Purchasing is a major leap forward in shared services in London’s higher education and non-profit sector. Our mission is to to help our Members achieve VfM and manage commercial risk through providing a first-class professional shared procurement service. This is a first-in-sector partnership solution, with the opportunity for other institutions to come on board and join the service. Ensemble Purchasing operates as a non-profit company under the complete control of its members, each with a seat on the Board. Our Senior Procurement Managers treat their members as clients, working under their instructions to identify significant procurement projects and working with key stakeholders within the organisation to attain the best supplier to provide the service normally through a transparent tendering process. In addition, the Senior Procurement Managers also develop guides for staff, strategy and policy documents to ensure that the institution is both legally compliant and attaining VFM. All contracts are entered into directly with the supplier by the Member.