Businesses given free access to thousands of new opportunities

Every small business in the UK will now have access to thousands of lower value government contracts on the Government’s website www.supply2.gov.uk.

For three years, supply2.gov.uk has advertised thousands of public sector procurement opportunities worth up to £100,000 – making the website ideally suited to small and medium sized businesses.

The fee that was previously charged to search the site across the UK will now be removed, providing firms with better access to public sector contracts to help their businesses grow.

Business Minister Shriti Vadera said:

“Small businesses are facing significant pressure in this downturn and new contracts are essential for their return to growth.

“We want to support small businesses by making it easier to access the thousands of Government procurement opportunities that are directly relevant to them.

“This free service is an interim step along the way to introducing a single website for all public sector contracts next year.”

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Ian Pearson said:

“Small and medium businesses are a crucial part of the UK economy and in these challenging times it is essential that we support them in as many ways as possible.

“By introducing a free to use national search service we are helping to create a level playing field on which SMEs can compete with their larger counterparts. This will realise benefits for SMEs, the economy as a whole, and help drive further innovation in public services.”

Debasish Sen, Federation of Small Businesses Trade and Industry committee member, said:

“The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has been working closely with the Government to put better policies on procurement in place and we welcome this first step to create a free, national, on-line portal that small firms can use to apply for public sector contracts next year.

“FSB research shows that half of SMEs do not tender for public contracts because the process is too complicated and the contracts are too difficult to find in the first place. Making supply2.gov.uk free to access is a first step in the right direction and something the FSB has been pushing for, for a long time.”

Searching for these contracts across the UK was previously only available as part of a subscription service, which cost up to £180 per year.

This announcement is a move towards delivering on a key recommendation outlined in the Glover Review - that by the end of 2010 all public sector contracts should be accessible through a single, free online web portal.

Find out more: http://www.bis.gov.uk/businesses-given-free-access-to-thousands-of-new-opportunities

www.ukba.co.uk

Outsourcing contracts under greater scrutiny, survey finds

One in four businesses that outsource are planning to renegotiate the terms of their outsourcing contracts in response to the economic downturn, according to a survey of 200 businesses in the UK.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most common term for renegotiation is the price of the contract, according to research commissioned by Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM. One in ten respondents said that they intend to bring outsourced processes back in-house.

Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the businesses polled said they would not be reviewing their outsourcing arrangements with their current supplier, mainly to avoid the time-consuming and expensive tender process associated with a new procurement process.

It is widely regarded as best practice for a business to review regularly its outsourcing suppliers. However, because most businesses are focused on reducing costs, relatively few are asking their outsourcing vendors to retender this year.

Read more: http://www.out-law.com/page-10127

Source: Out-Law.com

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