CASE STUDY: EVIDEN
Horizons is a suite of supply chain diversity programmes that nurture small social, academic and digital enterprises to build commercial, technical and social value maturity.
Eviden is committed to collaborating with digital SME (small and medium enterprises) and VCSE (voluntary, community, social enterprises) partners to integrate, scale and deliver innovative solutions and social impact for our clients. Alongside driving over £100M of spend through Horizons partners since 2021, the programmes deliver knowledge sharing and pro bono professional coaching. The objectives of these activities are to facilitate exchange of cross-community best practice and drive collaboration across supply chain ecosystems including suppliers of differing scales.
For example, Eviden has successfully delivered a series of knowledge share sessions focusing on social value for our digital innovator community. Social value is key to driving responsible business and plays a crucial role in public sector procurement whether SMEs are bidding directly or as part of a supplier ecosystem. The series began with an overview session, introducing different social value models to build capacity for our partners by alleviating research investment and signposting to resources. Directed by feedback from our community, Eviden then ran deep dive sessions on specific elements of social value creation such as wellbeing and fighting climate change. Sarah Bennett, CIO for Mercator Digital, a Horizons partners said: “The programme provides countless knowledge-share sessions on various topics, from social value elements to bid qualifying and writing. These sessions are well thought through and offer targeted learning to help SMEs reach their goals and put processes in place which enable growth.”
Our Horizons Programme uses pro bono as a mechanism to build upon group knowledge sharing but on a 1:1 basis. For example, following social value knowledge exchange both between SMEs and from Eviden, we offered additional support to map organisation specific credentials to appropriate social value models. This equipped partners to translate existing initiatives and articulate creative propositions within a bid setting independently from Eviden or in collaboration. This mutually beneficial approach has empowered diverse partners to embed social value into delivery whilst enhancing impact through collaboration with entrepreneurs who are actively investing in sustainability practices.
