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15 Mar 2001, Northern Ireland

Dear Dr. Ecommerce

What are the current trends, practices, issues and technology being used across Europe to address e-procurement in the public sector primarily Central, Federal and Local Government?

Thanks,

DJ

Dear DJ:

Unfortunately, Europe's governments have been slow to adopt e-procurement, and it is still at a very early stage. However, the EU's recent eEurope initiative does push governments to take up e-procurement. So we'll be seeing more of it over the next couple of years.

Interestingly, B2G (business to government) marketplaces will almost certainly be more successful than B2B (business to business) marketplaces. This is because businesses generally prefer to purchase from suppliers with whom they already have a relationship. Indeed, when businesses need to cut costs, they generally don't look for cheaper suppliers. They demand, request or work with existing suppliers to cut costs.

Governments, on the other hand, are usually not supposed to have relationships with suppliers. Such relationships would be perceived at best as favouritism and at worst as corruption. Government purchases need to be based on the merits of the deal - and this is perfectly suited to on-line marketplaces.

You may want to take a look at www.kablenet.com, an on-line magazine about e-government. I expect you will find a lot of useful information in there.

Good luck,

Dr. Ecommerce