The implementation of the eProcurement Scotland scheme has been named as a worldwide public sector best practice winner by the Boston-based AberdeenGroup.
It has also been identified by the European Commission as a good practice case in e-government programmes.
The programme is also an important part of the government's drive to improve the way the public sector deals with the business community, which could deliver particular benefits for small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs).
The Scottish Executive's Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform Tom McCabe said: "The eProcurement Scotland initative is an important part of achieving efficiency and effectiveness in the public sector.
"It is particularly pleasing to have international recognition that Scotland is leading the way in e-procurement and e-commerce.
"Being selected as the best public sector implementation in the world by the AberdeenGroup clearly highlights the progress we are making in driving forward reform in the public sector."
eProcurement Scotland is a round-the-clock hosted eprocurement service which uses a common technical platform for use by the public sector in Scotland.
Capgemini, the ePS service providers, host the service and, together with a central programme team, are tasked with managing the roll out of the service across the public sector in Scotland.
It uses the eprocurement software 'PECOS' and Dynamic Trade Centre for eTender and eAuctions by Elcom Technology providers.
The Aberdeen Research Group is recognised as the major independent Supply Management research group in the world.
In December 2005, AberdeenGroup will publish the Best Practice report featuring the winning customer profiles, together with best practice frameworks, and general market information pulled from Aberdeen's on-going research of the E-procurement market.
Elcom, the eProcurement Scotland service software provider, nominated the work conducted on e-procurement by the Scottish Executive to the Aberdeen Research group.
The ePS scheme was a finalist in the eGovernment awards held in Manchester and received a good practice label for its work in rolling out e-procurement across Scotland.
Autor: Jon Land
Quelle: 24dash, 16.12.2005
