The term eProcurement refers to the use of electronic means in conducting a public procurement procedure for the purchase of goods, works or services.

In order to have a common view within the eProcurement Forum, for the scope of this initiative the following sub-phases of the electronic public procurement process have been identified:

·         eSourcing: preparatory activities conducted by the contracting authority/entity to collect and reuse information for the preparation of a call; potential bidders may be contacted, if admitted by the legal rules, by electronic means to provide quotations or manifest interest.

·         eNoticing: advertisement of calls for tenders through the publication of appropriate contract notices in electronic format in the relevant Official Journal (national/EU); electronic access to tender documents and specifications as well as additional related documents are provided in a non-discriminatory way.

·         eAccess: electronic access to tender documents and specifications as well support to economic operators for the preparaton of an offer, e.g. clarifications, questions and answers.

·         eSubmission: submission of offers in electronic format to the contracting authority/entity, which is able to receive, accept and process it in compliance with the legal requirements.

·         eTendering: is the union of the eAccess and eSubmission phases.

·         eAwarding: opening and evaluation of the electronic tenders received, and award of the contract to the best offer in terms of the lowest price or economically most advantageous bid.

·         eContract: conclusion, enactment and monitoring of a contract / agreement through electronic means between the contracting authority/entity and the winning tenderer.

·         eOrders: preparation and issuing of an electronic order by the contracting authority/entity and its acceptance by the contractor.

·         eInvoicing: preparation and delivery of an invoice in electronic format.

·         ePayment: electronic payment of the ordered goods, services or works.

To successfully conduct electronic procurement across borders, eProcurement systems rely on some "key-enablers":

·         eSignature: data in electronic form which are attached to or logically associated with other electronic data and which serve as a method of authentication with regard to this data.

·         eIdentity: dynamic collection of all attributes, in electronic format, related to a specific entity (citizen, enterprise, or object) which serve to ascertain a specific identity.

·         eAttestations (Virtual Company Dossier): set of certificates and attestations, in electronic format, to be provided by a supplier to prove compliance with the selection and exclusion criteria of a procurement procedure.

·         eCatalogues: electronic supplier catalogue prospectuses used to prepare and submit offers or parts of them.

·         eArchiving: use of electronic means for long-term preservations of documents in digitalised format, ensuring that they can be easily retrieved without conversions.

For the Web2.0 community, the definition of Public eProcurement and of its phases can be slightly different. See, for example:

·         Public e-Procurement definition in Wikipedia

·         e-Government Procurement and related terms definitions by the Multilateral Development Banks

Do you agree with them? Please, send us your comments.

We also invite you to suggest additional terms and definitions, in order to create a complete Glossary for Public eProcurement.

Nature of documentation: Article