Nortal helps public procurements go mobile

Anyone who has ever participated in a government tender bid has probably witnessed just how much of a hassle it can be. In Estonia, however, the state believes it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. With the help of Nortal, the Estonian Ministry of Finance will have a new, simpler, user-friendly Public Procurement Register ready by next year.

The new version of the register means that Estonia will soon make a complete transition to e-procurement, Mihhail Korb, Estonia’s Minister of Public Administration, believes.

“Already, 90 percent of all public procurements are carried out electronically. The new register will provide the best technical capabilities to ensure that both domestic and international procurements run smoothly,” said Korb.

Working closely with an expert group consisting of actual register users, Nortal recently finished the first phase of the registry – its user-friendly design, search engine and desktop view are now ready. On top of the desktop version, the register will be accessible via mobile devices such as cell phones or tablets.

“The goal of this improved register is to attract more suppliers. We are also aiming to make the public procurement system even more transparent, by gathering statistical data on different sectors,” said Lauri Tammiste, Head of the Public-Sector Business Unit at Nortal. “Numerous tests have been carried out and the requests of different stakeholders have been taken into consideration to assure this complete transition to e-procurements will be as smooth as possible,” he added.

Tammiste predicts that one of the most significant changes that the new register will bring is an activity-oriented approach that will allow those involved to sequence activities more flexibly and to process parts of procurements separately. The new approach improves the quality of service and makes the procurement process faster and more straightforward.

The planned total cost of the new register is 2.5 million euros. Datel AS carried out the preliminary analysis of the project “Development of e-procurement’s full capacity”. The project is funded from the European Regional Development Fund.