ElectronicTender

e-procurement is gradually emerging as the desired method of doing procurement by Government organizations in various countries. Typically, 10% to 20% of a country?s GDP can be attributed to Public Procurement (Source: The World Bank). The value of Government procurement globally is of the order of trillions of US dollars. The World Bank and other international bodies have been advocating e-procurement/ e-tendering/ ebidding for over 16 years now to enhance transparency and efficiency in public procurement. The emerging market-size and potential for internet-based software & services for publicprocurement is therefore huge. While a number of initiatives have taken place globally in the area of e-procurement, their focus has been primarily on e-Marketplaces, e-Catalogue Purchasing, Reverse-Auction and its adaptations. Government tendering or bid-invitation process has peculiar characteristics, with requirements of ?transparency and security?, which can be addressed only by software designed especially for this purpose. However, based on available information, most of these eprocurement initiatives offer 'limited functionality?, and ?do not comprehensively address the requirements of security and transparency? for public-procurement. The current sites for Government tendering are either merely Tender-Notice sites (e- Publishing sites), or are doing bidding with ?rudimentary and restricted? features, without appropriate security and transparency. Furthermore, many of these initiatives have come up in response to some specific Government project and therefore cannot be readily supplanted/ deployed in other organizations and countries.