Public Sector Consultation

v Much local authority buying in Leicestershire is highly decentralised. The City Council has a small central procurement team. The County Council relies on ESPO to negotiate its major contracts; all other purchasing is decentralised. Northwest Leicestershire District Council also operates a decentralised purchasing system.

v ESPO has a potentially important role to play in the future development and implementation of a coherent e-procurement strategy for Leicestershire and the East Midlands. At present, however, ESPO tends to be responsive to the demands of its members rather than suggesting strategic initiatives to its partners.

v The EU procurement directives are not necessarily a constraint on SMEs being able to bid for work with public sector organisations. However, some buyers tend to interpret the directives in a way which can limit the scope to involve SMEs' involvement in the bidding

v Many SME suppliers do not understand the rules by which public sector organisations have to abide when seeking bids. This fact notwithstanding, the public sector could do more to explain to its suppliers the rules and procedures to which it has to adhere.

v There is a general awareness, particularly in local government that SMEs need to be given more information about what is expected of them if they are to bid effectively for public sector contracts

v Many public sector organisations (particularly local government) see it in their interests to support local business and are generally keen to support SME's where this makes good business sense.

v There is a worrying fragmentation of approach towards e-procurement and e-business within the public sector. Most local authorities appear to be pursuing their own plans and agendas in isolation of each other.

v Without a coherent approach to e-business and e-procurement, one which almost certainly needs to be based on a common open standard, the advent of e-procurement in any meaningful form is likely to be much slower and much more expensive than it needs to be.

v BASDA is heavily committed to an eBIS-XML which specifically excludes hosted options. It appears to have buy-in to this from the OGC (or at least to the eBIS-XML concept).

v Awareness of the GPC, how it can be used to streamline procurement activities and what benefits it can deliver is low in local government circles in Leicestershire. Yet the GPC is seen by many current users as a first step on the road towards e-procurement. Furthermore:

o The GPC has major backing and support from the OGC
o GPC transactions count towards the achievement of the government's e-procurement targets.

v While Leicestershire has a relatively high proportion of SME businesses which are owned by ethnic minorities there is little to suggest that ethnic ownership itself affects ICT take-up. More likely influencing factors are those relating to the low added-value business sectors in which these firms tend to operate.