BBG in Greece: EU Project for the Full Implementation of E-Catalogues

Setting the Context

Since April 2019, BBG experts are working on an EU-funded project with their Greek colleagues from the General Directorate of Public Contracts (GDPC), part of the Ministry of Development and Investments, and the Ministry of Digital Governance (MDG). BBG supports the full implementation of an e-catalogue and e-ordering solution within the National Electronic Public Procurement System (ESIDIS) during a two-year technical assistance project. GDPC acts as a National Central Purchasing Body (CPB) for Goods and Services in Greece. Its mission is to plan, design and centralise the management of core and auxiliary activities to ensure procurement of goods and services for the public sectorwhile at the same time striving towards continuous operational improvement and sustainable growth through new technologies and modern methodological tools. The implementation and usage of an e-catalogues solution and corresponding e-ordering processes are key to achieve these goals. BBG, with its vast and long-standing experience in the area of e-procurement and e-shop solutions, was awarded for this contract by the European Commission and has since shared its expertise to build knowledge and reach the first project milestones set. 

Ambitious Goals for E-Catalogues

The project is of strategic importance: Public procurement and government expenditure represent a significant percentage of the Greek GDP. In the framework of the project, funded by the European Commission Directorate General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM), BBG supports GDPC and MDG in creating a fully functional post award e-procurement system – with e-catalogues connected to the existing electronic public procurement platform. This will include e-ordering, e-delivery and e-invoicing and lead to an end-to-end electronic workflow for structured orders from Greek public authorities to the awarded suppliers.

Next Steps 

The successful first project year has almost passed and experts are looking forward to the milestones in the future. During the project year ahead, the detailed analysis, defined strategy and resulting recommendations from the first phase will be transferred into practice and ultimately result in the integration of an e-catalogue/e-ordering solution into the existing e-procurement platform ESIDIS. In parallel, the focus will be on organisational capacity building and training of GDPC’s personnel and other relevant system users, to ensure effective and efficient handling and to safeguard operational improvements. Work continues even during the current crisis around the Corona virus: A large part of the day-to-day work, meetings and experience transfer was carried out already remotely via Skype and other online collaboration methods in the past. An established working method which has now become even more crucial and ensures continuity of the project.