Three London boroughs have launched a joint online tendering system open to companies wishing to apply for contracts.
The tri-borough partnership of Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham says the new system, capitalEsourcing, will save money.
The system has already been successfully used for the procurement of the joint framework contract for ICT provision which was awarded to BT and Agilisys in December.
Melvyn Caplan, Westminster City Council’s cabinet member for finance, resources & customer Services, said: “The Tri-borough partnership was set up to tackle common problems, improve people’s lives and make public money go further.
“The capitalEsourcing system will do all three. By streamlining the tendering process, it will help the three boroughs to manage and monitor their relationships with their suppliers. It will improve everyone’s productivity.”
Once a supplier has registered on capitalEsourcing, they will be informed about potential contracts as well as when they are going out to tender.
Companies will also be able to monitor the progress of bids they have made.
The system will cover any, and all, contracts for any services whether they’re for just one council or the Tri-borough partnership.
It will use the BravoSolution engine used by a number of central government bodies.
Anthony Oliver, Westminster’s chief procurement officer, said: “capitalEsourcing has been developed by local government for local government. It standardises the way we do business, simplifies the engagement process and so will provide efficiencies for the Triborough councils and their suppliers. We have already had other councils showing real interest in using the same system.”
