E-Procurement in Public Sector

Abstract

ARTICLE IN PRESS

Int. J. Production Economics 90 (2004) 79–102

An e-procurement system for governmental purchasing Nikolaos A. Panayiotou*, Sotiris P. Gayialis, Ilias P. Tatsiopoulos

Section of Industrial Management and Operational Research, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 157 80 Zografos, Greece

Received 15 April 2002; accepted 10 April 2003

During the last few years, a large number of new procurement business models has been developed, mostly concerning companies operating in the private sector. Their main objective is the introduction of new technologies such as e-business for the fulfilment of the procurement process of indirect goods. Lately, such models are also developed for organisations operating in the public sector all over Europe. This paper presents a case study concerning the analysis of the Greek governmental purchasing process carried out from the General Secretariat of Commerce, part of the Ministry of Development and the functions’ definition of the new e-procurement system. The methodological approach as well as the tools used are analysed and the achieved results are presented. The objective of the analysis is the identification of potential problematic areas and the design of new processes in order to maximise the possibilities of a successful implementation of a new e-procurement system. The outcome of the new process design enabled the definition of the analytical functional specifications of the appropriate solution.

r 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Keywords: Supply chain management; E-procurement; Public sector; Governmental purchasing; Case study

1. Introduction

E-procurement solutions, the Internet technol- ogy platforms and services that make corporate purchasing activities more efficient and cost effective are moving from the early adopter stage to rapid adoption by mainstream companies. E-procurement—the purchase and payment of goods and services—can assist the...