The Government Procurement Service (GPS) has awarded a contract to NQC Ltd to develop a single supplier registration platform.
A new centralised system is expected to make it easier and cheaper for suppliers to compete for government and public sector opportunities, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said. The new system will mean suppliers only have to register once to have access to a range of contracts.
Currently, suppliers to government and the public sector have to register on several systems to be able to tender for business opportunities. This can be quite a hassle for smaller companies.
The new cross-government system will replace an existing system with more than 80,000 registered suppliers and almost 80,000 customers using it.
Mr Maude said: “We’ve always said we want to simplify the procurement process, and it won’t make it easier for new suppliers to bid for government business if we’re asking them to register on several systems in order to access these opportunities.”
“That’s why we asked GPS to bring together the current myriad systems and tools into one single place of registration, holding accurate and up-to-date information on suppliers. It’s simple and innovative; it will reduce the time and cost spent tendering for government business – especially important for SMEs – and will improve how we share analysis of supplier financial information across government.”
The new registration platform will be available from April 2013 for the health sector initially and then extend across other sectors in following months.
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