About Us - RIVA

Our Story

School budgets are tighter than ever, resources are often lean and the pressure to cut costs can make quick tenders and low cost contracts look attractive. But these often deliver under priced, low quality contracts that can become costly and difficult to manage over time.

Tired of seeing the same issues on repeat, procurement specialist Rachel O’Grady saw a clear need provide schools with a new strategic approach to the entire procurement lifecycle – one that unlocks the true power of procurement, and delivers better results.

Seeking to disrupt the norm, break the cycle of quick wins and redefine procurement as a true competitive advantage for schools, RIVA was born!

“Support services are critical to schools. At RIVA, we harness procurement to deliver superior results, freeing schools to focus on their core competence – delivering excellence in education”

Rachel O’Grady – Founder and Director of Consultancy

Our purpose

Our mission simple: we are here to ‘harness the true power of procurement’.

Our focus is sharp and our 3 core values guide every part of our work:

1 – Purpose Led – we are relentless in our quest for
meaningful, bespoke project delivery tailored to each client’s unique needs.

2 – Partnership driven – we embed with each and every client, becoming ‘as one’ with your internal teams.

3 – Positive impact – innovating every day, we accept nothing less than the best value solutions for our clients, delivering meaningful improvement, every time.

“Having RIVA manage our cleaning and catering contracts has been an enormous benefit to the school. They hold our contractors to account monitoring the budget and KPI’s to ensure we get the very best value. Rachel’s positive relationships she has formed with contractors and clients and her excellent communications skills make this possible. I would highly recommend RIVA – they have saved the school both time and money as their expertise ensures the contracts are run efficiently.”

Jo Richardson Community School

” I can confidently say that partnering with RIVA has been transformative for our contractual operations. Their team brings unparalleled expertise in managing tenders and contracts, ensuring that we work with service providers who meet our rigorous standards for quality, compliance, and efficiency. RIVA have consistently delivered results that exceed our expectations and we now operate more efficiently, and the quality of our services has notably improved. I highly recommend their services to any organisation looking for a reliable and experienced consultancy partner.”

HISP Trust

“We really value RIVA’s sound, reasoned and pragmatic advice and support. She has supported Anglian Learning to navigate some complex procurements and her knowledge of the market has ensured that we understand and can benefit from service innovation whilst ensuring best value. RIVA have supported us more broadly as we have grown in adding new schools to our existing contracts and the procurement trainig they delivered after the new Act was very clear, actionable and hugely beneficial to a broad base of our staff “

Anglian Learning

“We have been supported by RIVA for a long time for our catering and cleaning procurement. The service has not only provided excellent support but has also ensured we have secured the right partners and have remained compliant the growing number of regulations. We would highly reccomend their services”

The Circle Trust

The RIVA Difference

We are more than procurement consultants, we are your procurement partners. We work differently, taking the time to understand your school and your teams from the inside. When you partner with us, you get:

Flexible, bespoke support models that protect your entire procurement lifecycle

A deep understanding of your school enabling completely tailored projects and outcomes

An embedded partnership where we become 'as one' with your internal teams

Strategic decision-making over the procurement lifecycle, driving better results

Hands-on responsive support, we are easy to work with – procurement can be enjoyable!

A laser focus on ensuring best value for your school, your budget and your students

Data-driven knowledge base, with a finger firmly on the pulse

Guaranteed compliance with The Procurement Act 2023

Get in touch

If you are interested in super charging your procurement activity, please drop us a line. We’d love to chat through your challenges and how we can help.

Get in touch

A digitally enabled approach

Our unique digital procurement platform RIVA Tenders ensures compliance at every step of the way. It enhances our consultants’ work, and improves the outcomes for our clients.

Our digital benchmarks ensure we have a live up-to-the-minute picture of how all support service markets are performing, ensuring we demand the best prices and standards for you, every time.

And our digital project management tools ensure our projects are super organised, and give you a clear view of progress, every step of the way.

Transparent pricing

Integrity and honesty are at the heart of everything we do. This includes our approach to pricing, and our fees.

At RIVA we don’t have large overheads to cost in to our client’s fees, just expert, efficient, streamlined processes and services that are cost effective and deliver superior results for our schools.

Each project is priced and agreed with you in advance, nothing extra and nothing hidden, ever!

Meet the senior team

Proudly female led, RIVA is a team of specialist procurement consultants and industry experts, on a mission to deliver a fresh new approach to school procurement.