• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Housing Technology logo

Housing Technology

Housing | IT | Telecoms | Business | Ecology

  • Free Subscription
  • Search Archive
  • Home
  • Research
  • Magazine
  • Events
  • Recruitment
  • Blog
  • On Demand
  • Contact
Home / Magazine Articles / Midland Heart streamlines procurement with Probrand

Midland Heart streamlines procurement with Probrand

Midland Heart has streamlined its IT procurement processes using the Probrand Marketplace buying platform.

Rob Cross, technical service team leader, Midland Heart, said, “Procuring IT products and services can eat up a lot of time; without preferred suppliers, we would have to go out to three different suppliers. And we needed a more efficient solution than that.”

Midland Heart looked at Probrand Marketplace which helps users save time and money by offering price comparisons on more than 300,000 products from over 2,500 brands and suppliers. All prices and stock levels are updated by-the-minute in a ‘live’ transparent environment which the Midland Heart team can access online at any time.

Probrand Marketplace gives Midland Heart access to sector and technical consultants when needed, helping Midland Heart to source items and then employing Probrand’s technical engineers to deploy them when required.

Probrand’s consultants also alert the team when market prices are at their lowest and when sector-specific discounts become available to housing providers. If Midland Heart chooses to buy at an opportune moment, it can then take advantage of Probrand’s bonded stock service which lets them put items in storage until required.

Midland Heart said that access to Probrand’s IT procurement consultants and technical expertise has been a great help, especially when it has needed to source obscure items or more complex solutions. This level of knowledge proved highly useful when Midland Heart wanted to deploy a HP Synergy infrastructure platform and modular storage array.

Cross said: “Having Probrand on hand to talk to, and being able to engage their technical team alongside that of a vendor’s engineers to ensure the specification is correct and installed properly is a significant advantage. On a day-to-day basis too, it’s great to be able to have conversations with them and trust the advice given is right.

“When it comes to researching prices and stock availability, my team now check the Probrand Marketplace daily. We regularly benchmark to ensure we’re getting the best prices and about 85 per cent of the time Probrand has the lowest.

“Probrand’s bonded stock service has been essential. This was especially helpful when we bought 85 machines and monitors for a project which was delayed; we would have had nowhere to store them if it wasn’t for Probrand. This can also be very handy if you buy ahead of time. Probrand know our buying patterns, so they will let us know when prices hit a low point. With the bonded stock arrangement, we can buy now and deploy later.”

See More On:

  • Vendor: Probrand
  • Housing Association: Midland Heart
  • Topic: Finance Management
  • Publication Date: 061 - January 2018
  • Type: News

Primary Sidebar

Most Recent Articles

  • Free cyber-defence tools from NCSC
  • Learning from history
  • Grand Union Housing gets connected with Aico HomeLink
  • The silences in the system: Predicting and preventing damp and mould
  • Looking back and to the future: Cyberthreats in social housing
  • Hyde signs repairs contract with Totalmobile
  • Fuelling high performance automation
  • Morgan Sindall’s Carbon Zero decarbonisation tool
  • An ethical approach to arrears
  • Housing and the ever-evolving workplace
  • Supporting residents with home safety risks
  • Less innovation & more service design at RHP
  • Ateb Group outsources IT help desks to Central Networks
  • Capital Letters partners with Evo Digital to tackle homelessness
  • Calico appoints M247 for digital transformation
  • 24/7 care requires 24/7 technology
  • Govtech trends for 2023
  • Are you ready for business process automation?
  • Lincoln council moves to the cloud with Civica
  • Why do IT business improvement projects fail?
  • Flagship and Ebrik launch augmented reality app
  • Following the golden thread
  • Setting the standard for carbon-monoxide protection
  • The business case for data
  • Digital twins – When, not if…
  • Using data to build communities
  • The cyber-security jigsaw’s missing piece – Managed detection & response
  • Cyber-security challenges in housing
  • Digitalising retrofits with SHDF & HomeLink
  • Tips for improving care and support

Footer

Housing Technology
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Contact
  • Free Subscription
  • Book an event
  • Blog
  • Search All Articles
  • Research
  • Update Your Subscription
  • Privacy Policy

Welcome to the housing Technology – Trusted Information For Business Professionals in HOusing

Housing Technology is the leading technology information service for the UK housing sector and local governments. We have always believed in the fundamental importance of how the UK’s social housing providers use technology to improve their tenants’ lives.

Subscribe to Housing Technology to gain market-leading research, unsurpassed peer networking opportunities and a greater understanding of your role to transform your business.

Copyright © The Intelligent Business Company 2022 | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy
Housing Technology is published by the The Intelligent Business Company. A company with limited liability. Registered in England No. 4958057 | Vat Registion No. 833 0069 55.

Registered Business Address: Hoppingwood Farm, Robin Hood Way, London, SW20 0AB | Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8336 2293

htc23 pop banner