Are council suppliers keen on e-procurement?
Peter Howarth is keen to address the whole supply chain – from the provider in terms of the suppliers right through to the user. For example if you look at adult social services it is actually about how you address the acquisition of that service in an electronic way so that the procurement aspect is just one link in that chain in providing the end service and benefit to the user. It’s actually about making sure that the supply chain is run more effectively, more efficiently and at less cost. And we have also got to think about the other side of the coin because procurement is a two way street. We still haven’t managed to convince all the suppliers that they want to come to the party. Sometimes their excuses are fairly feeble – if my plumber can send me his quote and invoice by email it is not too much to ask an SME dealing with local government to do the same. Andrew Rudd agrees that SMEs have much to gain: There was some concern in the early days that e-procurement worked against the
