Benefits

The Workshop activities focused on spreading and facilitating the use of e-Procurement standards by suppliers and buyers, especially public administrations. It provides a basic framework for technical interoperability in electronic procurement transactions, expressed as a set of technical specifications for the relevant processes.

The BII initiative contributed to achieving European policy objectives for interoperability and standardisation in electronic procurement.

Users: contracting authorities and economic operators

The CEN BII workshop addressed issues caused by the diversified approaches to e-procurement at regional and national level in the EU, and the variety of data formats, that prevent organisations from communicating easily with each other and from pursuing potential business opportunities.

Policy makers

“Europe must ensure that new IT devices and services can interact seamlessly anywhere, just like the Internet. Weaknesses in standard-setting, public procurement and coordination between European public authorities prevent digital services from working across borders as easily as they should.”

ICT industry

ERP vendors, system integrators and IT service providers can offer standardised e-procurement software modules and services that are interoperable across Europe, based on the common specifications, expanding their business potential outside national borders.