Annual Report: CEO's Report
The higher education sector continues to face significant headwinds, and the past year again presented our community with challenges that taxed our collective ingenuity.
My personal thanks go to our Members, Suppliers, and Board of Directors for their collaborative commitment to drive value and deliver impressive outcomes for our Consortium, our Member institutions and their students.
A focus on student welfare
PURCO SA has a unique bird’s eye view of procurement trends in higher education.
While the range and variety of the tenders and contracts we concluded in the past year has expanded, a key trend is an increased focus on student welfare.
We facilitated a growing number of infrastructure-related tenders and consulting contracts for on-campus and outsourced student accommodation. More is being invested in security upgrades to ensure a safer environment on and around campuses. And institutions are investing in improved transport services to boost capacity and frequency, and to ensure reliable and safe student transport.
There are also influences driving the demand for convenient, on-demand education, including services such as online learning, ebooks, and 24/7 tuition accessible via smart devices. Education is no longer traditional, linear, or limited to face-to-face teaching in the classroom or lecture hall. Consequently, we have seen more tenders that improve interactive and real-time learning services for students who want to study anytime, anywhere, at their convenience.
Membership grows again
Our strategy to offer membership benefits to TVET colleges gathered momentum during 2018. Our efforts culminated in a membership increase from 49 to 60 instititutions, and a 48% growth in contract spend from TVET Members. Several other colleges will join the Consortium early in the next financial year.
Improved collaboration
The demands on procurement teams to deliver more value with constrained resources has translated into improved utilisation of PURCO SA’s services.
Members are increasingly deriving efficiencies and savings through PURCO SA collaborative contracts, and relying on the Consortium’s consultancy services to assist with peak workloads and special projects.
Key financial outcomes
A consequence of the rise in reliance on PURCO SA services and the expansion of our scope of activity is increased procurement spend on PURCO SA-negotiated contracts and greater utilisation of other PURCO SA services.
As a result, PURCO SA again delivered outstanding financial results: collaborative spend through PURCO SA contracts grew by almost a quarter of a billion Rand to R1.69 billion, in the process delivering savings of R214 million for participating institutions.
Consultancy revenue surged by 83%, contributing to a 26% annual increase to the R28.7 million surplus attributable to our Members.
It is a very credible result that is ultimately to the benefit of the million-plus students in our institutions.
Opportunities for suppliers
On the supply side, suppliers are under pressure to maintain their existing base of business. Yet there are opportunities for real growth within our sector.
As higher education becomes more inclusive and accessible to growing numbers of students, the good news for suppliers is that procurement spend on all categories of products and services is increasing.
The value of a sought-after PURCO SA contract as an access point to the supply of the products and services to our Member institutions cannot be underestimated.
Training and ESD
We are also proud of our contribution to development. During the past year, we invested over R320 000 in Member training and R168 000 in Enterprise and Supplier Development activities.
In the planning phase is a new initiative to promote access to Higher Education markets for small black owned businesses. The initiative will be piloted at our 2018 Annual Conference in Johannesburg.
First foray into International collaboration
An exciting development this past year was our appointment by the University of Antwerpen (UOA) to implement their Collaborative Online International Learning System at four South African universities.
There is a significant amount of international collaboration between institutions and we are well positioned, through the PURCO SA Consultancy Service, to become a key implementing partner.
ISO 9001:2015 certification
Notably, the collaboration with the University of Antwerpen came about directly as a result of PURCO SA’s internationally accredited ISO rating.
This year we achieved the upgraded ISO 9001:2015 certification, again reflecting our externally measured commitment to quality operations and processes.
PURQ launched
The key highlight of 2017-2018 has been the launch of PURQ, our centralised online platform for academic information.
As a student-centred service PURQ is already supported by twenty institutions, representing 70% of all higher education academic records.
More than 44 000 users and students access the consolidated 23.2 million PURQ stored on the platform. In doing so they benefit directly as banks, financial institutions and background screening companies use the data to verify students’ and graduates’ qualifications and enrolment status, and secure advantageous financial risk evaluations.
Thank you
In closing, I’d particularly like to acknowledge our National Office for the unconditional way in which they meet the needs of Member institutions.
I’m exceptionally proud of their diligence, resourcefulness and reliability in providing value for our Members and their student bodies. This is PURCO SA’s core mandate on which we have collectively delivered.
Selvan Govender
Chief Executive Officer