1) The NHS sid4health platform enables suppliers to create online profiles containing pre-qualification information to reduce barriers for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) competing for public sector contracts. 2) Over 500 NHS contracting authorities and 80,000 suppliers have registered with the platform since its launch in 2009. It facilitates sharing of supplier information across NHS authorities. 3) Lessons learned include the importance of joint operational teams to resolve issues, engaging users in design, and maintaining backwards compatibility to reassure existing users. The platform could potentially be expanded across the UK and Europe.

1. Reducing the barriers companies face when competing for public sector contracts: The UK NHS sid4health case Dr Dimitrios Perperidis Senior Consultant EUROPEAN DYNAMICS [email_address]

2. Improving Procurement Processes e-Procurement has the potential to yield important improvements in the overall administration of public procurement. However, there is a need to: Make all procurement opportunities more open and transparent Make the procurement process simpler: Encourage Innovation; Improve Contracting Authority Capability; Ensure fair opportunities to SMEs. The timescale from advertising an opportunity to awarding a contract needs to be reduced

3. Qualification of suppliers Supplier Qualification process: The selection of suitable suppliers is a very important task in public procurement: Any misjudgment might lead to an exclusion of a suitable supplier. The selection of suitable suppliers is based on various eligibility criteria; It is observed that similar supplier information can be requested in numerous procurement processes: This process requires significant effort and resources; Small firms (e.g. SMEs) face substantial difficulties in supporting this process: Thus, small firms find it difficult compete on an equal basis with larger enterprises which have established collaborations with the public sector and have a much larger business development work force.

4. Qualification of suppliers Drawbacks related to the Contracting Authorities: SMEs can provide innovative and technologically advanced products and services; SMEs can provide better value for money services; The more suppliers, the better the competition, and hence, the better the quality (in technical and financial respects) of the proposed solutions; The effort overhead is reflected (directly or indirectly) within the suppliers’ financial offers, increasing the cost of public procurement;

5. Addressing the problem The UK government: In 2008, Lord Glover reported: Opportunities should be transparent; The process should be as simple as possible; A strategic approach is required to encourage innovation and give SMEs a fair deal. In 2011, the new coalition government: The government is working towards making procurement more transparent and accessible by SMEs. Thus, an approach for eliminating/reducing the supplier pre-qualification process is required. The European Commission: In 2010, the Green Paper on Expanding the Use of e-Procurement in the EU reports on the importance in making procurement more accessible to SMEs.

6. The NHS Sid4Health Platform The NHS sid4health platform: Enables suppliers to prepare and manage profiles: Containing an agreed range of pre-qualification information Make the profiles available on-line to NHS buyers Enable suppliers to re-utilise their profiles in a number of procurement processes; Integration with Dun & Bradstreet NHS considers this platform as a significant step in order to improve the capability to manage procurement data; Provides NHS authorities with a common data set for pre-qualification: Driving good practices; Facilitating the sharing of information between the NHS authorities; Enables the transfer of supplier data and profiles to other procurement e-Procurement systems; Reduces processing costs for both suppliers and NHS authorities.

7. Usage of the System The system operates since May 2009: 500 NHS Contracting Authorities are registered in the platform; 80.000 suppliers are registered in the system; The specifications of the platform were developed by representatives of NHS, various suppliers and EUROPEAN DYNAMICS; The platform’s functionality is constantly enchased to address further user needs;

8. Lessons Learned and Conclusions Lesson 1 ( Operational teams): It was expected that a business change with such a large scale would cause some operational issues (e.g. the allocation of the correct DUNS® numbers). Having a joint operational team between NHS, Duns & Bradstreet and EUROPEAN DYNAMICS played an important role is resolving all theses issues effectively and quickly. Lesson 2 (Identification of requirements): The establishment of the sid4health user group (consisting from NHS authorities and suppliers) was crucial to ensure the good design and development of the platform. A sense of ownership was enabled by both groups of users (suppliers and buyers). They are now actively involved in designing features for future releases. Lesson 3 (Keep some things the same): It was important to reassure certain NHS agencies that they will still have access to all data they previously received from Dun & Bradstreet. The Sid4health platform included the capability to produce a Dun & Bradstreet report (in the same format that the report is produced by Dun & Bradstreet).

9. Future Benefits to the NHS: The sid4health platform has significantly benefited all contracting authorities of NHS. Extension within the UK: A similar platform should extend the provided services beyond the limits of NHS in order to be beneficial to a wider base of contracting authorities and suppliers. The Scottish Government has initiated the sPQQ Project which has a similar scope with sid4health and is due to launch in early 2012. Pan-European scope: This initiative should also be extended on a pan-European scope making easier for small firms to extend their market activities across the borders of their countries. Enable contracting authorities to widen their options by taking the opportunity to capitalize on innovation (and/or better value for money services) which firms from other countries can offer.