Press Releases

Get Connected! - New business opportunities via a planned Government Web Portal

Millions of businesses nationwide will soon have direct access to local and central government business opportunities, thanks to a new national web portal the Small Business Service (SBS) and Office of Government Commerce (OGC) jointly announced today.

The SBS launched the open competitive tendering process for the provision of the national web portal service that will make it much easier for businesses and government buyers to do business.

The aim is that the portal service will be so easy to use that it becomes the main gateway to government sub-OJEU opportunities.

All businesses will benefit, but the SBS and OGC believe the portal will quickly become popular with the 4 million small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the UK, which make up around 99% of all UK companies.

The planned launch of the national portal follows one of the recommendations of the 2003 Better Regulation Task Force/Small Business Council report on reducing barriers facing any business wishing to become involved in public procurement.

It will build upon lessons that the OGC and SBS learned from the SME procurement pilots in the West Midlands and Haringey, and will greatly ease the process of bidding for potential public tender opportunities whilst allowing public sector buyers to get ready access to a very broad range of potential suppliers.

OGC will additionally offer suppliers access to simplified pre-qualification documentation, develop 'buyer awareness' training for government purchasers and help the SBS in the development of training and advice.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Paul Boateng said:

"I am delighted that the potential advantages identified by the West Midlands and Haringey pilots have contributed to the process of breaking down the barriers facing SMEs when trying to do business with government. The practical help and advice that the pilots developed can now be rolled out nationally, proving that the pilots were not just a one-off project, but part of government's continued commitment to helping SMEs to access the public sector marketplace."

Small Business and Enterprise Minister Nigel Griffiths said:

"I want to make sure that small firms of all types have access to a slice of the public sector procurement cake. By developing a national portal to bring together buyers and sellers we can cut the time and effort that small firms spend hunting for contracts while increasing the options available to public sector buyers, helping to ensure better value for money for the taxpayer."

The West Midlands pilot helped small local businesses in the following ways:

• A simple web portal was established for government buyers to advertise low value contracts; this made opportunities more accessible to SMEs.
• Training workshops on how to put a tender together and how to find opportunities were delivered free of charge to SMEs. To support this, training on the benefits of using SMEs was given to government buyers. Over 300 of the SME and buyer training places were filled during the pilots
• A simplified tender document was tested by several government departments in the West Midlands area, which successfully reduced the bureaucracy involved in the tender process. A standard pre-tender document has now been developed for use with the national portal.
• The project worked with 'prime contractors' in the area to encourage them to open up their supply chains to SMEs. Ten large suppliers in the region are now primed to open up sub-contract opportunities in the supply chain.

Notes to Editors

SBS has issued the invitation to service providers by way of a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) in line with European procurement law under reference number: 04/S 250-215936/EN.

Click this link to view: http://ted.publications.eu.int/udl?request=Seek-Deliver&language=EN&docid=215936-2004

The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) ran the SME procurement pilot scheme in the West Midlands and the Small Business Service (SBS) continues to run the pilot scheme in Haringey, North London which includes low-value tender portal for SMEs.

The pilots were launched in response to the Better Regulation Task Force (BRTF) and Small Business Council (SBC) report titled Government: Supporter and Customer. This report stated that SMEs faced a number of barriers when trying to compete for government contracts and made 11 recommendations to help SMEs.

The West Midlands SME procurement pilot project sought to address some of the report's recommendations. The specific objectives of the pilot were to:

• Realise the intent of recommendations 1, 3, 5, 6 and 9 of the report (click below to view the BRTF/SBC report). http://www.brtf.gov.uk/docs/pdf/smeprocurement.pdf
• Simplify the mechanism for small to medium sized businesses to both find out about and bid for government opportunities.
• Streamline public sector procurement processes to provide a simpler and more cost effective approach to small suppliers.
  The OGC has recently published a review of the pilot it ran in the West Midlands, which can be viewed by clicking on the following link:
  www.supplyinggovernment.gov.uk

About SBS

The Small Business Service (SBS) is an agency of the Department of Trade and Industry. It has a simple vision - to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business. The SBS is working with the rest of government to deliver this vision.

It aims to:

• Champion a culture that prizes and fosters enterprise, and help businesses start and develop as their capabilities grow.
• Make sure that government support services (including access to finance) are accessible, relevant and of high quality.
• Make special efforts to release the enterprise of ethnic minority groups, women entrepreneurs and others who have potential to contribute to UK business.

About OGC

The Office of Government Commerce, an office of HM Treasury, exists to act as a catalyst in procurement issues and to work with central civil government and the wider public sector to achieve best value for money in their commercial activities. Against an initial target of £1 billion, OGC achieved Value for Money (VFM) gains of £1.6 billion up to March 2003.

Between 2003/04 and 2005/06 its target is to deliver £3 billion VFM gains from more effective government procurement. A new target was set for the Spending Review 2004 period to deliver a further £3 billion VFM saving by 2007/08 from public sector procurement through improvement in the success rate of programmes and projects and through other commercial initiatives.

SBS Media Contact information

T: 020 7215 6137

F: 020 7233 6865

E: rhyddid.carter@dti.gsi.gov.uk

OGC Media Contact information:

T: 020 7271 1318

F: 020 7271 1345

E: press@ogc.gsi.gov.uk