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Mainz-Kastel, October 21st, 2009 – In August, the European Commission has announced the finalists of this year's European eGovernment Awards. Furthermore, some of the submissions have been awarded a Good Practice Label in recognition of their solutions’ excellent quality. A total number of 259 projects from 31 European states have participated in the competition. In view of this competition, Healy Hudson is particularly glad to be involved in even two prize-winning projects. The OWL tenders portal, based on Healy Hudson's tendering and awarding solution Deutsche eVergabe, has been awarded the Good Practice Label. The solution has thus been acknowledged as a commendable example for similar solutions all over Europe. In addition, the e-Shop of Austria's Federal Procurement Association (BBG), which has been realized with Healy Hudson’s ordering and order processing software Impact Ordering, was qualified for the final stage of the competition. The prize giving ceremony will take place in Malmo, Sweden, on November 19th.

It has not been easy for the award consortium to take a decision. In June and July 2009, all 259 participating projects have been thoroughly tried and tested by three independent experts in a two-step selection process. The objective was to identify exemplary eGovernment projects as part of the European eGovernment strategy, in order to present them to the public at large and give suggestions for similar projects in the EU.

In the course of this test, the jury awarded the Good Practice Label in the category “eGovernment enabling administrative efficiency and effectiveness” to the tenders portal of the tender association East Westphalia-Lippe. With this decision, the jury honours the improvements in the citizen service and the realization of potential savings, which are possible with the Deutsche eVergabe.

On the portal, potential bidders can search in all available announcements for free and they can tender electronically, provided that the contracting organisation wants to allow this. The platform can also be used to publish information about contracts that have already been awarded as part of the German economic stimulus package II. Via the portal, the contracting organisations present themselves as modern and citizen-friendly institutions, and for this reason they have now been awarded the Good Practice Label from “highest European authorities”. Frank Breitenfeld from the district Minden-Lübbecke: „Of course we are very pleased about the honour given by the European Commission, and it’s an acknowledgement of our efforts to constantly improve the service for the companies in our region. In the meantime, more than 30 institutions from all over East Westphalia-Lippe participate in the portal and this confirms that with our innovative solution, we are on the right track.”

The BBG’s e-Shop has already won several prizes, and is now in the final of the European eGovernment Awards. The basic idea for the precisely customized e-procurement system goes back to the year 2002. After an exact specification of the requirements, the project was put to an EU-wide tender and has finally been realized with Healy Hudson. Right from the start, the e-Shop developed to be a success story, and in the meantime it’s Europe’s biggest procurement platform for the public sector. More than 400.000 items from about 300 catalogues can be ordered via the system. In 2008 alone, an average of monthly 10,5 Mio EUR purchasing volume have been processed via the platform, and the trend is upwards.

One reason for its success is that close attention is given to small suppliers’ requirements. By using special import functions, they can easily electronically integrate their catalogue data. „The e-Shop is a lively solution“, says project manager Johannes Wimmer. „We are proud of the fact that our cooperation with Healy Hudson has also convinced the Award consortium and we hope that we will be among the prize winners. Of course we focus on the further enhancement of the platform, and we already have many innovative ideas on the agenda.”
As part of this year’s European eGoverment Awards, an audience prize will also be awarded to one of the 52 finalists, elected by registered users of the portal www.epractice.eu. Registration on the portal is free.

Please click here to learn more about the OWL tenders portal.

Please click here to learn more about the BBG e-Shop and Impact Ordering.