Winners celebrated at the USW Supplier Awards 2023

The University of South Wales (USW) has celebrated the work of their external suppliers at the 2023 USW Supplier Awards. The Awards ceremony took place at USW’s Treforest Campus on Thursday 30 November, as part of the first in person Supplier Town Hall event, with the theme ‘Building Better Tomorrows’.

The day was split into two parts. In the morning, presentations from stakeholders and a Q & A session with the USW Executive team followed by the Awards Ceremony where the winners of the six Supplier Awards were announced. The afternoon saw two USW led workshops on supplier relationship management, and supplier collaboration to decarbonise our supply chain.

The 2023 USW Supplier Awards showed an appreciation for the difference USW suppliers have made to colleagues, students, and the wider community over the past twelve months.

Led by USW’s procurement team, the awards were split into six categories, with nominations going through a two-stage panel shortlisting process. The winners of this year’s awards are:

Service award winner - Mental Health University Liaison Service

This award recognises suppliers who have gone above and beyond the call of duty.

The judging panel felt that this supplier nomination exemplified everything the award is designed to recognise. The supplier allows USW to cater for a greater range of student well-being concerns, ensuring the support to students is balanced, appropriate and cost effective. The partnership has allowed for collaborative working with other Universities and has presented USW’s Student Services with extensive and exceptional training opportunities.

Innovation award winner – OCS

The Innovation award is designed to recognise suppliers who have proactively delivered ideas and opportunities for continuous improvement and innovation at USW.

The judging panel recognised that for OCS, each of USW’s campuses brings a different challenge, but through their innovation and different cleaning techniques they have been able to ensure they meet USW’s needs. Whether through Robotics or new chemicals and cleaning equipment, OCS seek out the most up to date innovations to deliver their service.

Collaboration award winner – Neon Events

The Collaboration award is designed to recognise suppliers who have demonstrated a proactive and cooperative approach to supplier relationships and their partnership with USW as a customer. The award also seeks to recognise those suppliers who demonstrate the same approach with other USW suppliers or the wider community, with mutual goals and benefits.

Neon Events work closely with USW, demonstrating how a supplier can become an extension of USW teams. They have integrated with the USW Events and Engagement Team to ensure they appreciate the internal workings of USW. The partnership with this supplier has also meant that USW now has dedicated expertise in festival event management. These tangible benefits from such a collaborative relationship ensured this nomination was a strong one.

Social Value award winner – E Cycle

The social value award is designed to recognise suppliers who proactively create specific initiatives which USW has implemented to support colleagues, students, and the local community.

Through E Cycle, USW was able to provide IT equipment to our partner university, the Kharkiv State Academy of Physical Culture, in Ukraine. E Cycle collected our equipment, wiped all the data, re-imaged them, paid for the Windows licences and delivered them back to campus. They also supplied laptop bags for all the devices. All was done free of charge. This supplier demonstrates everything the award is designed to recognise.

Health and Safety award winner – Kingdom Security

The Health and Safety award is for suppliers who have introduced new ways of working to USW and recognises suppliers who foster a positive health and safety culture.

Student and staff well-being is always important to USW; it is vital that suppliers based on campus can respond with the required pace and skillset. Kingdom Security embody this in full, and have dealt admirably with many incidents, some of which have been serious medical situations. During all incidents, students’ welfare was always put first. The panel admired what the supplier had done, and the nomination clearly shared the human stories associated with this activity.

USW STAR (Supplier Thank You and Recognition) award winner – OCS

The USW Star award is designed to recognise a supplier who has gone above and beyond expectations or who has proactively delivered ideas and opportunities to drive value and improvements for USW’s staff, students or the wider community. It also recognises suppliers who consistently exemplify and demonstrate the five USW values; collaborative, professional, creative, inspiring, and responsive.

The winner of the USW STAR award, OCS, is a supplier that directly benefits student experience at the University. As a sometimes-overlooked aspect of daily business at USW, the service provided by OCS deserves to be recognised. It is through their service provision that USW are able to operate safely each day. The effort that OCS put in is palpable, so much so that at a recent internal conference, a speaker commented on how much cleaner our sites are.

Catherine Lund, Procurement Director at USW, said: “After the success of previous USW Supplier Awards, we are very excited to hold the 2023 Supplier Awards and Town Hall in person. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to recognise the brilliant performances of our external suppliers over the past 12 months.

“We received a diverse range of nominations this year and are proud to acknowledge several suppliers who have stood out in their performance for USW. Congratulations to all this year’s winners.”

Mark Milton, Chief Operating Officer at USW, said: “The Supplier Awards are a great opportunity to thank suppliers and celebrate their efforts in helping USW operate successfully over the past 12 months.

“The winning organisations are shining examples of what effective collaborations can achieve. Congratulations to all the winners and thank you for making such a difference to our colleagues, students, and the wider community.”