eProcurement Project to Go Ahead

Public
sector spending is big business these days. In fact, spread right
across the public service from Healthcare, to Education, to
Communications and a variety of goods and services it is worth
approximately 9 billion euros worth of business annually.

In
April 2002 the Government’s eProcurement strategy was launched. Local
Authorities, Health Boards and Government bodies are forging ahead,
getting ready to do business online; and this poses an opportunity and
at the same time a threat to SMEs. It is an opportunity to expand or
continue their business into the public sector arena but it is also a
threat for those who do not do business online.

On November 26^th
last Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce hosted a one-day seminar for SMEs,
Local Authorities and all those interested in the topic of
eProcurement. Speaking at this event, Margaret Grene from the TSSG
warned that eProcurement cannot exist outside of the broader context of
eBusiness and SMEs who fail to embrace eBusiness will also miss the
opportunity that eProcurement promises.

There is also the issue of the process - a large unwieldy process may prove prohibitive to the SME.

The
eProc project, which has just been approved for European Regional
Development Funding under the INTERREG IIIB North West Europe Community
Initiative on Territorial Planning, will address these issues. The
Irish partners, the TSSG and the South Eastern Regional Authority
(SERA) (on behalf of 6 Local authorities in the region), together with
lead partner Antur Teifi Cyf of Carmarthenshire (Wales)and other
partners in Cardiff (Wales), Stuttgart (Germany), Mülheim an der Rühr
(Germany) and Utrecht (Holland) have identified the following work plan
for this three-year project.

1.      Investigate eProcurement policies and strategies across North West Europe and solution developments.

2.      Evaluate and benchmark the SMEs (in agreement with the Local Authorities) in respect of their use of ICT, eCommerce and eProcurement.

3.      Investigate methodologies in use for eProcurement

4.      Devise a suitable methodology with step-by-step guides for all participants in the process

5.      Pilot this methodology and evaluate.

With the benefit of trans-national collaboration between each of these partners and the sharing of knowledge and experiences from each country it is envisaged that this €1.2 million project will take the North-West European region to the vanguard of the eProcurement arena.