News

An online survey was distributed to all registered suppliers for The City of Edinburgh Council Meet the “Real” Buyer event. Of those who responded to the survey 88% participated in the event and 13% did not attend.

The post-event survey highlighted that 71% of Scottish SMEs said they were more likely to bid for public contracts after participating in the event.

When suppliers were asked if they think they would have engaged with supply chain opportunities without The City of Edinburgh Council Meet the “Real” Buyer event, 57% said no and 43% said yes.

86% of respondents thought area-specific events definitely support business and public sector procurement in the local area they are based in.

As this was the first City of Edinburgh Council Meet the “Real” Buyer event in two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Council wanted to know, if after attending the event, have suppliers identified any significant barriers as a business in bidding for public contracts. 71% said yes and 29% said no.

When asked to elaborate on these barriers some comments from suppliers included:

• “The amount of compliance and associated paperwork required of a small company at the outset.”
• “Getting on the radar of the buyers.”
• “Being able to let contacts within the City of Edinburgh Council know about the range of training we offer.”
• “As a new homecare agency in the City of Edinburgh, we have found it very difficult to get help in getting clients in Edinburgh. We have been told the Council doesn’t admit new companies to the Providers list, so it has been difficult for us as a new company.”

Social Media Analytics

The Supplier Development Programme has a robust social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, which is utilised to promote contract opportunities and engagement events on a regular basis to Scottish businesses. In advance of the Edinburgh Meet the “Real” Buyer event, SDP promoted the event across its social media channels. The promotion ran from 6 to 25 October and collectively the posts earned 2,353 impressions (the number of times users saw a post) and 180 engagements (the total number of times a user interacted with a post).

Newsletters/Mailings

On 21 September, SDP included a “save the date” for the Edinburgh Meet the “Real” Buyer event in its monthly mailing which received 88 clicks. The event was again featured twice in the programme’s October mailing, which collectively received 145 clicks.