“The tendering process can vary depending on the complexity of the tender but most public bodies offering contracts over €50,000 would seek tenders online.”
Close to 3,000 Irish public sector bodies that are seeking goods and services through the tender process do so via the Government’s eTenders public procurement portal, which is run under the guiding hand of Nolan, a key figure in Ireland’s e-government strategy.
According to new figures, there are now more than 30,000 firms large and small across Ireland registered on the Government’s tendering site, up 100pc since the Department of Finance first publicised the site’s existence. In the first six months of 2006 it is estimated that a further 3,000 firms have signed up for the free service where an estimated €15bn worth of business is transacted each year.
The actual number of awarding authorities seeking goods or services through the tender process that are posting online has risen by 75pc in the past two years and now stands at 2,791. Everything from pencils for the local primary school right up to major construction projects are hosted on the eTenders website.
Advocates of the site say that it has created a level playing field for small and medium-sized businesses to pitch for business from government. Examples of the kind of business that could be won include LGM, a small Dublin company that won the contract to clean the Spire on O’Connell Street, and Aspenhill Construction, a construction firm in Kerry that won a €9m contract to build 64 townhouses and a creche for Kerry County Council. In recent days An Garda Síochána has issued a tender for Bluetooth headsets and the Department of Justice has tendered for a major firewall to protect its new Dublin data centre.
Nolan says the website is evolving over time and she is adamant that a large proportion of small and medium-sized companies are winning business from public bodies through the site. “The feedback from public bodies is quite positive,” she explains. “They get better competition and in most cases this leads to lower prices. One public body I spoke to more than halved the transaction costs involved in tendering in terms of postage and time.”
In terms of the ongoing development of the eTenders website, Nolan says that while under EU rules the Irish Government can’t favour smaller companies over larger companies, they can make it easier for smaller companies to bid for tenders.
“We are looking at ways that small and medium-sized businesses can be encouraged to tender for more public sector contracts. One of the approaches is to create standardised templates to make life easier for them, so they won’t be put off by bureaucracy or red tape.”
At present, although public tenders are now published online, bidders still have to wait on a manual process that could take weeks or even months before a contract is awarded. Nolan says this is about to change. “Ideally suppliers bidding for a contract should be able to conduct the entire tendering process from seeing the notice to the awarding of the contract online. One of the options for this is to hold reverse auctions. “While eTenders won’t host the auctions there are several providers who could do so on behalf of public bodies.”
In terms of the deciding factor behind the awarding of a contract, Nolan said most public bodies in Ireland when deciding to conduct business with a supplier follow the doctrine of ‘most economically advantageous tender’. “Under this process they would look at different criteria, including quality. So while cost would be a factor, it’s not necessarily the most important. It’s a combination of different policies and firms get marked on each one.”
Nolan says it’s her ambition that all government business is tendered on the portal. “By making these services free we aim to encourage small, medium and large businesses to use the site. What we hope to demonstrate is that anything and everything a public body needs can be tendered on the site, from pencils to cleaning the O’Connell Street Spire.”
Case study: Gallant effort at online success
Blanchardstown-based Gallant Security Systems has won a number of contracts based on tenders published on the Government’s eTenders website. The contracts won would range in size from €130,000 to €300,000 on average.
The company provides key facilities such as the CCTV systems, access integration, barriers, intercoms and the networking that go into modern buildings.
It currently employs 35 people in the provision of high-end security systems for a variety of sectors ranging from state hospitals to supermarkets and hotels as well as new property developments like the Tullamore General Hospitals and the refurbishment of Dublin’s Ilac Centre.
The company’s managing director Ken Nolan explained: “As a multimillion-euro business these would be niche contracts as opposed to our main thrust but the site has proved useful, certainly.”
His colleague sales executive Tom Michael adds: “We have won business to provide security systems for hospitals, semi-state bodies, nursing homes, colleges and county council offices. However, while it is a source of business, it wouldn’t be our main vein. Once a week we would go into the site and see if there are any interesting tenders out there and if there’s something that looks juicy we would offer our services.”
Michael added that after tendering for a contract it could take months before the business is awarded. “If we put in a proposition, we would forget about it for a few months. We wouldn’t rely on it as a fundamental source of revenue but I don’t think there’s anyone in business today that would not keep an eye on it.”
Useful e-procurement resources for business
- www.etenders.gov.ie: The Irish Government’s e-procurement portal, where public bodies publish requests for tenders for the provision of goods and services
- www.procurement.ie: This website offers quick links to all official public sector websites and web pages that have significant public procurement related content
- www.ppp.gov.ie: This site provides direct access to key documents and the latest news regarding public private partnership initiatives by the Irish Government
- www.simap.eu.int: This site provides background information, links and automatic exchange tools to public purchasers and businesses interested in public procurement opportunities across the EU
- www.ted.europa.eu: Tenders Electronic Daily is an online version of the Official Journal of the European Union and could open up export-oriented Irish firms to overseas opportunities.
Autor(en)/Author(s): John Kennedy
Quelle/Source: Siliconrepublic, 20.07.2006
