February 2005

UK Government e-Procurement
online procurement takes a step forward

The United Kingdom Government and the Scottish Executive have both indictaed their intention to move e-Government forward.

The government plans to complete beta testing a new set of e-Procurement tools, which it says will make it easier for small businesses to compete for lucrative government contracts, by the end of May 2005.

OGCbuying.solutions, the trading arm of the Office of Government Commerce, has signed a four-year deal with and

Electronic procurement specialist BravoSolution will host and manage a web-based buying service, covering the full life cycle of the bidding process. The new system will move the whole tendering and request for quotation process online, and should help level the playing field between suppliers.

With traditional procurement processes there are costs for paper, printing, stamps maybe even courier costs - costs which may not be a major factor for larger companies, but which can quickly add up for smaller businesses. Because thie new service is all online the cost of submitting bids will be minimised.

The new system covers the areas of tendering, evaluation, contract management and collaboration. Companies will be able to submit their bids at the last minute.