Crown Representative for SMEs - Stephen Allott

The role of the Crown Representative for SMEs

“His task will be to build a more strategic dialogue between HM Government and smaller suppliers – giving those suppliers a strong voice at the top table” – Francis Maude, Strategic Supplier Summit, 11 February 2011.

There are two main ways that Stephen Allott, as SME Crown Representative, will do this:

1. Understanding the concerns of SME suppliers
Stephen will listen to and understand the issues and concerns that SMEs have, and there are a number of ways in which SMEs can feedback.

• If you’re from an SME and would like to give us feedback about your experiences (good or bad) with a specific public sector procurement exercise you can act as a Mystery Shopper through our Supplier Feedback Service. You can tell us about tenders you don’t understand or instances of what you believe to be poor procurement practice.  We will investigate all your submissions and commit to publish the results of the Mystery Shopper investigations regularly. 
• Or, if you’re from an SME and have a comment or suggestion to make about making government procurement process better, go to the No 10 website where you can join the online discussion.  Comments and suggestions are looked at every day.
• Stephen is a member of the Cabinet Office’s SME Panel and engages regularly with SME representative organisations, getting feedback and passing information back through them as well as providing updates to the SME community through this website.

2. Open up Government procurement to SMEs
As well as strategic dialogue, Stephen will help Government open up more business to SMEs in three ways.

1. Organise Product Surgeries - where SMEs can present direct to Government buyers. The surgeries are intended to improve Government buyers' awareness of SME offerings, but they are not linked to specific procurements.  
2. Input into the redesign on the public procurement process to make it more SME friendly. 
3. Give input to officials when they are considering procurement practices and policy, giving SMEs a voice at the top table.

Stephen's biography

The appointment of Stephen Allott was announced in February 2011 at the Strategic Supplier Summit hosted by Frances Maude. The Summit was attended by David Cameron who gave a speech on Government Procurement. 

He has over 16 years of experience in the SME sector. He has chaired the boards of seven technology SMEs and led the successful growth of one SME from 50 to over 800 people. He has also been heavily involved in providing management consultancy to SMEs, founded the ‘Cambridge Computer Lab Ring” and is a judge on the software and internet track for the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs Business Plan competition. Stephen is a graduate of Cambridge University and a speaker and author on the growth of technology SMEs. 

Please follow Stephen's Twitter feed @SMEcrownrep to keep up to date with the work he is doing to open up Government business to SMEs.

Opening up Government Procurement

Measures to open up the way Government does business to make sure that small companies, charities and voluntary organisations are in the best possible position to compete for contracts were outlined by the Prime Minister in February 2011.

• First quarterly SME Programme Progress Report - July 2011
• News release - Government opens up contracts to small business Resources
• Contracts Finder website - all public sector contracts opportunities over £10,000 
• Dynamic Marketplace Supplier Registration
• Departmental SME action plans
• Mystery Shopper scheme and Mystery Shopper investigations
• Product Surgeries 
• Your Problems with Procurement - We want you to tell us, in plain and simple terms, how we need to rip up the red tape and bring more sense into the winning of government contracts. 
• Innovation Launch Pad - a large scale product surgery, where SMEs were invited to register proposals for products or services that Government could buy, which would save money or create value.

Registering your interest in SME Product Surgeries

Opening up the government marketplace to SMEs isn’t just a question of fairness and wider competition. Smaller businesses host some of the best management and most exciting, innovative thinking in the country, and we want to tap into that.

Product Surgeries, led by Stephen Allott, the Crown Representative for SMEs, are designed to enable selected SMEs to 'pitch' innovative products and services to a panel of senior decision makers in departments.

The surgeries are not usually linked to specific procurements but are intended to improve government awareness of innovative SME offerings that could deliver better value for money.

Departments are establishing their own Product Surgery programmes and will be responsible for inviting SMEs to participate.  All departments will have access to a central database of those SMEs who have expressed an interest in taking part in a future event.

If you represent an SME (as defined here) and would like to register your interest in a future Product Surgery, please email the ERG Service Desk at servicedesk@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk