Welcome to Quatrosystem (QS)
procurement
Excellence in the procurement and commercial function is essential in any high
performing organisation, in today's business climate it's more critical than
ever...
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marketing
Good design can achieve a lot. It can build a brand, engage an audience, inform your thinking, and even change your mind...
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research
Understanding needs, behaviours and preferences is key to developing your product
and service offerings. Getting the right information is a skilled job. We can
help.......
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learning
Having the right skills enables organisations to increase productivity and client
satisfaction and to adapt quickly in a changing environment. Skills issues have
never been higher on the agenda.......
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solutions
IT solutions should give you time to focus on strategic
activities by increasing efficiency. Sadly this is not usually the case. Find
out how to improve productivity at a low cost.....
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People
Debbie Sorrell
Procurement, Learning and Development, Director
David Forsyth
Procurement, Learning and Development
Ian Clarke
Procurement, Learning and Development
Peter Parry
Learning and Development, Marketing, Procurement
Adrian Grayston
Learning and Development, Sales, Marketing
Ian Reddington
People, Reputation and Risk Management
David Dennison
Assessments, Coaching and Psychology
Debbie Sorrell FCIPS
Procurement, Learning & Development
A Director of Quatrosystem and QS, Debbie specialises in procurement solutions, commercial business consultancy and skills development and training. She is a tutor for the CIPS, Chair of the CIPS Supply Chain Policy Group and a member of the Professional Advisory Network. Debbie has twenty five years experience in sourcing, procurement and supply chain management, across the public and private sectors. Fifteen years were spent in senior operations management roles, with eleven at director and board level, she also has six years senior management experience in a sales, marketing and business development role.
More recently as a consultant Debbie has worked with corporate customers such as Nationwide, Barclaycard, CIPS and public sector clients such as The Home Office, Criminal Justice IT, UK Border Agency, National Offender Management Service (NOMS), National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), National Grid Transco, Camden Council and West Midlands Police Authority.
Debbie read Environmental Sciences at The University of Lancaster, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS). She is a conference speaker on procurement and supply chain issues, most recently The Globalisation of Purchasing, Strategic Purchasing, e-Procurement, Before Buying e-Valuate, and the e-Tail Forum.
Debbie has a track record in achieving cost reduction targets both from the perspective of actual savings on price paid and from efficiencies driven through business process optimisation, the implementation of cost and materials management solutions, the identification and management of commercial risk and strategic sourcing and contract compliance. The development of business cases and value propositions, together with obtaining senior management approval is also a key strength.
Ian Reddington
People, Reputation and Risk Management
Ian Redington has a MA in Strategic Human Resource Management and runs Redington Associates, a strategic HR consultancy. He is also the Development Director at The Virtuous Circle, an organisation which provides professional advice on reputation and risk management; specialising in corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate reporting, ethical business behaviour and the management of associated risk.
Ian held operational, marketing and latterly HR roles in the food and dairy industry, including the Milk Marketing Board, Dairy Crest and Milk Marque. Ian also has experience of working within the public sector, having undertaken several projects with the DTI, had a long involvement with Defra’s predecessor, MAFF and also worked as an associate consultant for other Government Departments
He has a Masters degree in strategic human resource management and is a graduate in mathematics with business applications. Additionally he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), a member of both Mensa and the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), actively involved with a public speaking club, chair of a school charity and a council member of a London based charity, which seeks to help children
He is the author of a CIPD report ‘Making CSR happen: the contribution of people management’ and jointly has written a chapter on Directors’ duties. He delivers training on CSR and runs seminars on networking and persuasion techniques.
Peter Parry
Learning and Development, Procurement, Marketing
Peter started his career in the textile industry with J&P Coats and spent a number of years working in South America and in continental Europe as well as in the UK. He then moved into consultancy with PA Consulting Group before joining Exel Logistics. He subsequently returned to consultancy working for a Midlands based company with interests in marketing, business strategy and purchasing. He was instrumental in developing the company’s purchasing business and in 1997 became the Director responsible for the procurement practice. He currently runs his own business specialising in purchasing and supply chain management issues. His work includes purchasing audits, developing purchasing strategies, measuring purchasing performance and providing skills training for professional procurement staff. His clients include public sector organisations such as the NHS, the Arts Council and a number of housing associations; charities such as Oxfam, Save the Children and the British Red Cross; and corporate clients such as Barclaycard, Philip Morris and Thorntons. He has also worked recently with overseas organisations in Slovenia, Croatia, Italy and Scandinavia.
Peter regularly delivers training courses and seminars for public and private sector organisations, including the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS). These include a three-day course for buyers on developing purchasing skills and seminars on measuring purchasing performance and on buying and managing consultants. He also runs course for other organisations on sustainable procurement and on purchasing category management. Recently, he has been involved in writing content for the CIPS e-Learning programme and is an examiner for the Corporate Award programme.
Peter has also been directly involved with a number of consortium purchasing initiatives. During 2004 he was the Acting Director of one of the procurement confederations then being established by the National Health Service in England. He has also worked with consortium purchasing organisations in the social housing sector. Recently he has been heavily involved in running large skills assessment centres for procurement staff in central government.
Gerry Diebel
Design for Communications
BA (Hons) Graphic Design, DBA,
A Director of QS Gerry has acquired extensive brand design and marketing communications experience across many sectors, both nationally and internationally in the last 30 years. He has worked with Canon, Citroen, Neutrogena, Hanson, Diageo, Texas Instruments and WS Atkins amongst his corporate clients, and The Home Office, Criminal Justice System and The University for the Creative Arts in the public sector. His work for the Home Office includes the design and implementation of the new eSourcing Portal for the Home Office Commercial Directorate in 2006 and their own website as part of the Home Office website development programme.
At a local level, Gerry created the Sportspace brand, spun out from Dacorum Borough Council to be a commercially independent organisation that runs sports centres and other facilities in the DBC district of Hertfordshire. More recently Gerry has been working with the People & Development directorate of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), to communicate the active nature of this rapidly changing organisation.
Following his Graphic Design degree from The London College of Communication, Gerry worked for four years in Germany with two pan European advertising agencies before returning to London to join an established design practice. His work encompasses communication through digital media, print, interiors, events and exhibitions. He is a member of The Institute of Directors and The Design Business Association.
Jacqueline Round
Procurement and Category Management
BSc (Hons) Catering Science and Applied Nutrition
Jacqueline’s background is in the Foodservice Industry where she has worked for twenty five years for Forte and Whitbread, developing her career in various Development, Commercial and Procurement Management roles. She has worked with leading brands including Costa Coffee, Beefeater Restaurants, Premier Travel Inn, David Lloyd Leisure and TGI Fridays.
Jacqueline has a proven track record in sourcing, cost reductions, driving efficiencies through supplier optimisation, the implementation of materials and packaging solutions and ensuring contract compliance through performance monitoring. She has developed and implemented category strategies to optimise innovation, quality, costs and service.
As a Senior Procurement and Category Manager Jacqueline has twelve years experience in procurement, contract and supply chain management. Her extensive commercial expertise is supported by a broad background in manufacturing, supplier audits, product development and specification design. In the earlier years of her career she was responsible for the development of a wide range of innovative products that drove sales, grew revenue and met margin aspirations. Career strengths also include the project management of products and processes from concept to launch designing and implementing frameworks to track and monitor status. People management skills comprise seventeen years in building and developing competent buying teams to meet challenging business goals and achieve career succession.
Adrian Grayston M.A. (Oxon)
Sales, Marketing, Learning and Procurement
M.A. (Oxon)
Adrian specialises in good practice and skills of sales and account management, negotiation and complex selling. He is focused on adding the 'How to do' to the 'What to do', involving competence modelling, bespoke skills coaching and sales and management processes. Predictably he also works with the Procurement Departments of a number of large organisations.
After reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Keble College, Oxford, Adrian joined Burroughs Machines Limited (now Unisys) in Preston, Lancashire, in 1975. During the twenty years he spent with this employer he worked exclusively in sales and marketing, always customer facing and always target carrying. He progressed from territory salesman in Blackburn to Sales Manager for the East of Scotland, based in Edinburgh, and then moved South to take up further sales management roles. For the last nine years from the City of London, running the NatWest Bank account for Unisys on a world-wide basis.
As a consequence of this assignment, in which he worked with the Bank to deliver £150m of business solutions, including several significant professional services engagements, Adrian has extensive experience of Managing, Selling and Negotiating with a very large, very complex, global account. Adrian's sales track record is exceptional (nineteen years over goal out of twenty) and at the time he resigned from Unisys to join the Consultancy world he was the top salesman in Europe in terms of consecutive achievement, fifteen years in a row with all targets achieved. He was also a trustee of the Unisys pension fund.
In terms of professional activity Adrian has been working with both private and public sector clients – including Unisys, Central Government – CJIT, NOMS, IND, PricewaterhouseCoopers, i2, SSA Global, DHL, Savi Technology, Rohm and Haas and Oracle. The types of engagement have typically concentrated on the training and development of staff that are involved in the Sales and Marketing, Procurement or Account Management functions.
In 2007 Adrian delivered the latest in a series of workshops, entitled ‘Developing Skills for the Future’, a programme that was again researched, designed and delivered to NOMS Commercial and Competitions Unit in the Home Office, these programmes have been warmly praised for their design and delivery. And are now being delivered to other government clients including the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA).
During 2007 -8 Quatrosystem were engaged to deliver a portfolio of workshops for NOMS Probation Change Programme, under the “Achieving Business Excellence” banner. Adrian authored and delivers several of these interactive workshops including Negotiation Skills, How to Evidence your Value Add and Consultative Selling. In addition to this training programme there have been several other interventions in and around various arms of the Home Office, including CJIT, NOMS, the Probation Change Programme, Corporate Services Directorate and Commercial Directorate. Once again the focus of these pieces of work has usually been training, staff skills development and selection, communications and networking events, all based on exercises researched and authored by the Quatrosystem team.
Pauline Foster
Market Research and Public Consultation
BSc. MSc. MPhil (Psychology)
"Pauline's passion is discovering what motivates people to make the decisions they do. Whilst she is a trained quantitative analyst and researcher, Pauline is also a qualified psychologist and enjoys using cognitive models to add a deeper qualitative dimension to her work."
Pauline has over 20 years’ experience in public sector research. She has extensive experience of delivering quantitative and qualitative research programes, using a range of methodologies, including telephone interviews with the general public and interviews in the public sector.
QS offers the public sector regulated, rigorous and progressive online and offline research design and delivery. Pauline has over 20 years of experience delivering research programmes, insight and analysis to many local authorities, central government, a number of PCT’s and the DoH. She has also worked with major consumer and B2B brands in the UK, Europe and the USA.
Pauline holds a number of active professional memberships and delivers lectures, courses, seminars and papers. She is a contributory author of "The Psychology of Olfaction" and a full member of the Association of Qualitative Researchers (AQR), Local Authority Researchers (LARIA), ECRO (the European Chemoreception Research Organisation), a committee member of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists (SCS) and the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).and is visiting Professor in Sensory Science at Cornel University
She is a full member of the Association of Qualitative Researchers (AQR), Local Authority Researchers (LARIA), ECRO (the European Chemoreception Research Organisation), a committee member of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists (SCS) and the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).
Peter Roberts
Market Insight and Communication Strategy
BSC.Soc.Sci.(Hons) Economics, MCIM, Dip.M, Cert.NLP,
As a qualified marketing professional with 30 years of expertise, Peter brings corporate weight experience in marketing management, marketing communications and training across the public and private sectors. He has worked with some of the leading and best known commercial brands in the country including KPMG, Orange, Compaq and Canon, as well as providing consultant support to local government and NGO clients.
Insight, Analysis and Communications
Peter has worked with Pauline Foster on a number of projects including stakeholder perception research design and implementation for a financial services client and community research for a District Council regeneration programme.
· He specialises in brand and communications planning based on thorough analysis and insight, including internal and external perception, attitude and satisfaction research through online, telephone and face-to-face interviews, and staff and community focus groups.
Examples of client work
- Stroud District Council – tested different visual brand concepts among the community via local focus groups comprising general public and businesses; discovered views of key stakeholders on community leisure, arts, heritage and enterprise issues.
- UKBI – the organisation responsible for implementing national business incubation support strategy: used stakeholder and staff face-to-face interviews to discover what members, non-members and other stakeholders really think, ahead of strategic review and new marketing communications plan.
- Natural England – the organisation formed by bringing together English Nature with elements of the Countryside Agency and the Rural Development Service: used desk research to produce an analysis of market websites to support the business case for a dedicated outdoor pursuits portal.
- Dacorum Borough Council – marketing planning and change management project to help their newly formed sports trust ‘get customer-focused’; included council staff and trustee workshops, presentations, research and planning, market positioning and brand development.
- Arts Matrix - the CPD agency for creative sector businesses and practitioners in the South West, sponsored by SWRDA and Arts Council England: developed and ran a series of marketing workshops on the theme ‘Creating More Business’
Peter is a Certified NLP Practitioner, a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a qualified DipM. He graduated from Bristol University with an honours degree in Economics.
Simon Breese
Marketing, Research and Social Marketing
BA (Architecture), MBCS
“Simon is well equipped to operate at the highest levels of management, but is not averse to getting his hands dirty when required. He is never happier than when he is developing strategies and compelling propositions for clients which will encourage change and maximise the appeal of clients’ products and services.”
Simon has over 30 years international experience as a senior manager and board level with blue chip companies targeting both the commercial and public sectors. He has a wealth of experience of encouraging change through targeted, concise communication to large groups across a range of cultures.
Simon’s specialities include:
- Communication; designing communications programmes for delivery across multiple media: press, advertising, sponsorship, direct mail, email and websites.
- Market Research; design and implementation of structured interviews to establish customer preferences and self perception and identifying best practice and where necessary corrective action.
- Data analysis; working at board level to present accurate business projections.
His clients include a number of high tech companies and in the Public Sector has recently completed assignments for the NHS and SEEDA. He is currently focussing on developing QS’s capability in social marketing.
Simon is a member of the British Computing Society and the Institute of Directors. He is also Deputy Chairman of his local Parish Council and Trustee of a charity for the poor and infirm.
Mark Britton
Procurement Solutions
Director of QS and MD of Quatrosystem Mark's background is in software development. He learnt his trade at Surrey County Council which at the time was leading the way in in-house software development.
Mark left Surrey County Council wishing to expand his horizons and went freelance working at a range of companies in the insurance, banking, petrochemical and IT sectors. During the resession of the 1990s Mark began to specialise in procurement solutions as companies began to realise the importance of controlling their expenditure.
Over the next decade Mark built up greater experience in designing, developing and implementing project management, purchase to pay and other procurement related software.
Mark's experience in this field was sought after by a range of corporations struggling to implement mandated ERP solutions.
Mark continues today to involved in the development of computer solutions and was the architect of the QsBuy 2008 solution which has been successfully implemented by QS clients and is also used in-house.
Mark also plays a large part in coordinating the activities within QS. He also is the Chair of Governors at two local schools Greenfield and Pulloxhill .
