Move over Facebook and Twitter, Peppo is Coming!
Boundary-less Public Procurement
The European dream of a market without boundaries is edging closer to realization as a common framework for e procurement EU nears. But will a common public procurement framework open the world's largest market to all, or simply result in an increased concentration of big vendors? More importantly what does it mean for your business?
The EU is moving speedily towards cross border, or more precisely borderless procurement in respect of public sector purchases. Now you would be forgiven for imagining that that was already in place, but the free market for public procurement has in reality been constrained.
The Limitations of Public Procurement Access Today
Theoretically it is possible at present for any company from any EU member state to compete for public contracts in another, yet there are practical barriers. For one different countries apply directives differently, and more important still there is no universal business processes, standards, classifications and signatures governing e-procurement. Additionally electronic signatures often not recognized across many EU countries. However, all this is soon set to change!
Creating The Worlds Biggest Marketplace
The EU has set the objective that any business of any size anywhere in the EU (or the EFTA indeed) will, at a click, be able to access public e procurement throughout the union - a market valued at 1500 million. That makes it one of the worlds biggest markets - bigger than the entire UK market for example! That means this is potentially bigger than web 2.0. than Twitter and Facebook! The world's bigger marketspace is now being built.
It is worth repeating the objective behind this initiaitve - any company (including SMEs, and indeed according to policymakers especially SMEs) in the Union will be able to communicate electronically with any EU governmental institution for all procurement processes. Wow! This is the biggest thing to happen to public procurement ever!
A Single Window for EU Public Procurement
The initiative is driving union-wide e procurement, through the adoption of a common set of policies, templates and frameworks. It will result in a single window to European public procurement that will encompass all aspects of the procurement process from pre-tendering to e-catalogues, e-ordering and e-invoicing, with e-signature thrown in for good measure.
National procurement solutions will not be replaced, instead they will be aligned with common European standards and then linked through a common interoperability infrastructure. This will see member states standardize the languages, the terminology, the procedures and the technology involved in public sector buying.
The Objectives of Pan European Public Procurement Online
Driving this is an initiative is called PEPPO - that is short for Pan European Public Procurement Online. Its objectives are as follows:
- Save time and money for buyer and seller
- Create new markets for sellers and open up buyers to new suppliers
- Reduce barriers to e Procurement
- Increases competition among suppliers
More specifically the initiative is targeting; 100,000 work years being saved in public sector annually. 1-2 billion invoices generated and 23 million SMEs adopted eProcurement. All that sounds great, but will the BIG BROTHER of public procurement have unforeseen consequences.
