In the aftershock of the Coalition Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review in March, whereby schools e-Procurement will no longer involve the support of the Department for Education to OPEN eMarketplace provider ProcServe, the anticipated £1 billion of school savings to be invested directly in frontline services will no longer be available and a replacement service for OPEN is to be considered after 1st September 2011.

OPEN (Online Procurement for Educational Needs) was an education e-procurement services
system, which replaced manual systems with electronic systems and enabled schools to more effectively search, compare and select goods and services online from a wide range of school or local authority suppliers.

An e-marketplace – a web based system running eprocurement software to enable an entire e-procurement services operation to be comprehensively managed – can be used to select and order goods from a supplier, track the status of orders and receipt of goods, and customisable to include regulated invoicing and payment cycle procedures.

As a successful e-procurement system used daily by many schools across the country, it proved to be an invaluable tool for clear price comparisons, efficient electronic ordering and invoicing processes. Consequently, in the interim and under prevailing economic pressures, there is considerable impetus to increase necessary purchasing from existing budgets.

An e-procurement solution, undoubtedly, meets the education IT buyer’s critical requirement of improving technology education in the classroom at a time when advanced IT can now be purchased in a more cost effective environment.

Schools and higher education institutions are provided with key contract efficiencies delivered by an e-marketplace emphasis on expenditure on institutional contracts with clear benefits for finance departments obtained by significantly improved purchasing performance.

It is estimated that eprocurement services can help schools and Local Education Authorities to make a substantial average saving of 15 per cent on their IT budgets and considerable time previously spent on the negotiation process.

A summary of benefits of electronic procurement within an e-marketplace environment, include :

• Comprehensive, informed choice.
• Significant time saving on routine administration, product selection and purchasing.
• Instant appointed institution-user access to agreed contracts.
• Electronic quotations on request.
• Rigorous and detailed audit trails, ensuring compliance with financial regulations and the requirements of HM Revenue and Customs.
• A single, uniform purchasing procedure.
• Instant and uncomplicated simultaneous contract supplier product comparison and contrast on a single screen.
• Frequently purchased products from contracted suppliers can be viewed to provide quick and easy comparison and enable a significant savings opportunity.
• Reduction of undisciplined spending behaviours.