Local Authorities, Health Boards and Government bodies are forging ahead, getting ready to do business online, throwing open their tendering and sourcing process to a wide market. This new method of public procurement using the Internet is known as eProcurement, a general term used to describe the range of technologies that facilitate automation of the public procurement process.

eProcurement offers an opportunity for SMEs to expand their business into the public sector arena. And for those SMEs who are already doing business in the public sector they must now face the challenge of doing this business online.

With the benefit of trans-national collaboration between each of the partners and the sharing of knowledge and experiences from each country it is envisaged that EPROC will take the North-West European region to the vanguard of the eProcurement arena.

There are many aspects to the introduction of eProcurement. There is the question of the new wider source of suppliers that local businesses must compete with. There is the question of skills available to SMEs to participate in the electronic procurement process. And there is also the issue of underlying infrastructural requirements such as Broadband connectivity that SMEs need to level the playing field with competitors.