BBG reaches second place at European eGovernment Awards

Austria’s Federal Procurement Association (BBG, Bundesbeschaffung Österreich) has reached the second place at the 4th European eGovernment Awards. A total number of 259 projects from 31 European states participated in the contest, 118 of them in the category “eGovernment enabling administrative efficiency and effectiveness”, in which the BBG also entered the competition.

„Winning the second place in the category with the most competitors is an important honour for us. It shows that we are not only on the right path with our electronic procurement solutions, but that we also serve as a role model throughout Europe”, says Andreas Nemec, Managing Director of the BBG, proudly. The association succeeded in particular with its e-Shop which permits a bundled and efficient procurement in the first place. In 2008, goods and services amounting to 829,8 million Euro were ordered from the portfolio of the BBG. Through the bundling and standardization of the customers’ requests, 177,6 million Euro (resp. 17,6 %) could be saved. About 200 million Euro of the procurement volume were processed via the e-Shop of the Federal Procurement Association. 12.800 customers are registered in the e-Shop, carrying out 36.000 online orders in 2009. Over 400.000 products from about 300 catalogues can be ordered over the system.

The basic idea for the precisely customized e-procurement system, which has already won several prizes, 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, realized with the software solutions Impact Ordering and Dynamic Staging, developed to be a success story. In the meantime it has become Europe’s biggest procurement platform for the public sector.

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 system that is constantly improving and developing in order to match the requirements of the customers“, says project manager Johannes Wimmer. „We are proud of the fact that our cooperation with Healy Hudson has also convinced the Award consortium.

The other prize winning projects that have been honoured during a cordial ceremony in Sweden are:

- The project Genvey, offering access to all important information and services of the public authority in Denmark.

- EU-OPA (European Order for Payment Application), a joint project from Germany and Austria.

- The Italian E-Procurement solution MEPA (Italian Public Administration eMarketplace).

- The project Multibanco ATM Network from Portugal for the electronic ordering of hunting licenses.

- SMS INFO from Turkey won the public voting prize. With this service, lawyers and citizens can subscribe information via SMS about ongoing judicial processes, judicial hearings or complaints handed in against them.