SCEMES Ltd – A Brief History

Origins

SCEMES was founded in 1999, following major changes in the educational marketplace that saw Headteachers and Bursars gain control over their own budgetary spending.

The changes brought a number of benefits to individual schools, but also threw the marketplace wide open, leaving school purchasers unsure of where to turn to source reliable and competitive suppliers.

SCEMES noticed that Headteachers and Bursars wanted to take advantage of the open market and source best value products and services for their schools, but lacked a single point of reference to which they could turn to find dependable suppliers serving the educational marketplace.

SCEMES’ mission became to bring buyers for education together with local and national suppliers by creating a comprehensive directory of suppliers in the procurement process and making it easily accessible for all school purchasers.

SCEMES Online

This mission began in 1999 with an online directory that was made available free of charge to all educational purchasers.

The database allowed schools to search for product and service providers both nationally and from within their local region and gave businesses the opportunity to advertise their services directly to the educational marketplace.

The response to the database was so positive from both businesses and educators, that SCEMES decided to expand its product base, making its services more easily accessible to schools across Britain and appealing to a broader spectrum of suppliers.

The Handbook of Procurement

In 2001, SCEMES produced its first edition of the Headteachers and Bursars Handbook of Procurement. The Handbook, which was designed specifically for educational decision makers, contained details of all the businesses listed on SCEMES Online and was organised according to business type and geographical region.

The Handbook was sent free of charge to 32,000 schools and colleges across the UK, introducing thousands of schools to SCEMES’ services, and helping to establish SCEMES as the number one resource for educational purchasing.

Growth

Following the introduction of the Handbook of Procurement, SCEMES’ business went from strength to strength. Companies advertising with SCEMES reported seeing large increases in profit after breaking into the lucrative educational marketplace, and more and more businesses signed up to advertise in the Handbook of Procurement, the leading supplier directory for schools.

A new edition of the Handbook of Procurement was issued to every school each September, and soon schools across Britain came to recognise SCEMES services as invaluable to the field of educational marketing and to rely on it for all their purchasing needs.

SCEMES’ staff grew to such an extent that the company was forced to move premises and in 2006, the company moved to its current offices in the very heart of Oswestry in Shropshire.

Prizes

To celebrate SCEMES’ position as the number one resource for educational purchasing, and in a bid to support schools yet further, SCEMES began organising competitions for schools in 2004, and the company has donated prizes valued in excess of £100,000 to schools over the past five years.

Over a series of prize-draw events, staged at The Education Show, SCEMES has presented schools with prizes such as a brand new 17-seater LDV minibus, a cheque for £10,000, £4,000 of playground equipment and a brand new Toyota AYGO, to name but a few. Numerous schools benefited from the generosity of SCEMES and reported the difference that these awards have made to the life of their school.

In 2007, following a consultation with teaching staff, SCEMES ran its first competition involving pupils, in the form of a National Poetry Competition on the theme of ‘The Environment’.

The competition caught the imagination of schools and resulted in entries of such a high standard that SCEMES published an anthology of the pupils’ poems entitled ‘The Green Book of Poetry’.

The Anthology was sold via SCEMES’ website and other outlets, and all profits from sales of the anthology were donated to ‘Plan’, one of the largest child-centred community development organisations in the world.

SCEMES followed the success of the Poetry Competition by running a Short Story Competition on the theme of ‘One World’, again engaging pupils across Britain with global issues of sustainability and attracting entries of an impressive standard.

The Handbook of Sustainable Procurement

In 2006, the DfES Published its Sustainable Schools Consultation Document, outlining a series of targets that schools were expected to achieve by 2020 in order to become models for sustainability.

The Document encouraged schools to introduce a variety of measures to make their buildings and practices more sustainable, but failed to offer concrete solutions to the problem of how this could be achieved.

SCEMES realised that school leaders needed somewhere they could turn for a summary understanding of the issues confronting education, together with pointers to solutions for many of their questions, and produced the Handbook of Sustainable Procurement.

The Handbook of Sustainable Procurement is the first and only directory offering schools a comprehensive list of sustainable suppliers, all of whom can help schools to achieve their sustainable schools targets, and has received widespread acclaim from Headteachers, Bursars and Local Authorities.

Now in its second edition, The Handbook of Sustainable Procurement is circulated to 32,000 schools each April, and is still unrivalled in its position as the only resource offering a comprehensive list of sustainable suppliers to schools.

New Management

In 2008, SCEMES came under new management and the company moved in an exciting new direction.

Focussing attention on cementing SCEMES’ position as the number one resource for educational purchasing, the new management team drove forward a number of internal changes including increasing staff numbers, and re-focussed attention on SCEMES’ core products.

It was as a result of this re-focussing of interest, that a number of SCEMES’ key products were re-launched and that the website has been re-formed into the shape in which you see it today.

Re-Launch

In September 2008, as part of the drive to serve schools and businesses even better, SCEMES Ltd re-launched its core products, SCEMES Online and the Headteachers and Bursars Handbook of Procurement.

The re-launch has seen the website fully redesigned to incorporate not only a stylish new look but also some exciting new features, and the new site has an improved search facility, information about the latest special offers and an up-to-date news section keeping you informed about developments in the world of educational procurement.

SCEMES Online has been professionally designed to ensure that it straightforward and easy to use, whilst containing a wealth of interesting information and useful resources. It is now even easier to find suppliers of various products and services using the keyword search, which can help school purchasers source suppliers locally to them or from a national marketplace.

The Handbook, similarly, has been professionally re-designed to make it more attractive and easier to use, and we at SCEMES are extremely proud of the professionalism and relevance of the latest edition. In accordance with buyers’ wishes, the introductory section has been extended to include a wealth of information about procurement from experts in the field of school leadership, whilst the new layout and referencing system has made it even easier for buyers to find the products and services that they desire.

This is an exciting time of growth and change for SCEMES and we are extremely excited about the direction that our products and our company are moving in.

If you would like to find out more about the company or would like to work at SCEMES then please contact us.