Parking Review Feature Just
20 July 2021
Reproduced in full from Parking Review. July 2021
THIS IS JUST WHAT YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR
Enforcement market integration will transform the challenges of debt recovery services procurement into an opportunity
Procurement for many is considered as a compliance function that sits in the corner and is consulted to get notices published on e-tendering systems. The reality is, however, that when procurement is done well, it can be used to deliver massive benefits to buyers including bringing in new suppliers to participate in the competition and enhancing social value contributions.
The issue for many buyers, however, is balancing the need for new suppliers against the time and money it costs to procure. Some requirements just do not offer enough benefit to spend a great deal of time engaging with the marketplace, bringing new suppliers forward, or communicating with wider stakeholder groups that have an interest.
That is why initiatives such as the government’s digital marketplace have been so successful, with there being a £7bn spent via the service it in the last nine years. This shows, if you can bring the aggregated gains of many buyers together, you have more to invest in procuring the right suppliers for the service.
That is what Just aims to do through their Enforcement Market Integrator.
Just was launched in 2019 with a vision to transform the challenges that traditional procurement has into opportunities for buyers with dynamic needs. It is a majority owned subsidiary of The Arum Group, which has been providing debt and credit related services to government and banks for over 20 years.
While enforcement market integration is relatively new, debt market integration is not. In 2015 the UK government launched a joint venture that has subsequently recovered over £2.3bn of public debt. It is not difficult to see why, with £7bn of spend through a framework and £2.3bn of collections via an integrator, Just are focussing on making procurement easier and more dynamic for the enforcement of public sector debt.
Nick Georgiades, Managing Director of Just, says: “Using the enforcement market integrator allows a client to procure once, but use multiple suppliers, test performance, switch new suppliers on, and old ones off, and consolidate the industry’s expertise to deliver better outcomes. “Just engages with the industry, procures the supply chain on a continuous basis, manages their performance, their compliance, overall outcomes, and allows clients to re-distribute their physical and financial resource elsewhere. It’s a single route to use expert enforcement suppliers to resolve problem debt.”
Working alongside Georgiades to deliver enforcement market integration is a team of recognisable faces from the government’s joint venture together with Jamie Waller, Chair of Arum Group and the founder and former Chief Executive of one of the largest traditional enforcement agencies in the UK.
“We created Just in 2019 to offer clients a single route to use the private sector to help resolve problem debt through a network of debt recovery, litigation, and enforcement suppliers,” says Jamie Waller. “We focussed early on technology and underpinned it with some of the most experienced debt resolution experts in the industry. Many of our team were part of the UK’s first debt market integration project that was formed in 2015 as a joint venture with the UK government for the collection of £2bn.
“We are a business that balances purpose and profit and consider the impact of our decisions on our people, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment. We are part of a global movement of people that are using business as a force of good.”
The progress of the enforcement market integrator since its launch in 2019 is documented on the company’s website which talks about new suppliers, new clients, introducing the innovation of virtual enforcement, and the work they have undertaken with the Ministry of Justice to publish statutory guidance on the issue of enforcement fees, and the charging of VAT.
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