The Government has outlined plans for a new central digital platform for public sector procurement as part of its broader plans for the activity.
The Cabinet Office has published a green paper on the issue that lays out its objective to speed up and simplify procurement, including details on a new platform and service architecture.
These would include a standard set of services, such as: buyer and supplier identities accessible from other systems; the capacity to receive inputs from both sides; functions to provide data tailored to user needs; and a series of defined interfaces with other systems.
Core features would be public access to all the data online and through APIs, notices from the Find a Tender and Contracts Finder services, links to e-procurement systems, access to commercial data analysis tools, and a capacity to prepare suppliers by price and performance.