A public consultation on the future MERX — Give your opinion!
Context
The Government of Canada has an on-going requirement to continue the Government Electronic Tendering Service (GETS) as a result of trade agreements and operational needs. The GETS is an Internet accessible system that advertises government business opportunities to industry and citizens, currently provided under the trade name MERX™. Approximately 11,200 Government of Canada competitive opportunities are advertised per year.
The Government Electronic Tendering Service is currently identified as the next component to be considered under the Buyandsell.gc.ca initiative by 2013. The purpose of the Request for Information is to engage industry and other interested stakeholders in order to receive feedback on planned or proposed changes about how business opportunities and other information are made available via the Internet.
Time and Place for Submission of Responses:
Suppliers and other interested stakeholders interested in providing a response must complete the electronic questionnaire which can be found at:
https://buyandsell.gc.ca/forms/gets-rfi-questions
This questionnaire will remain active until April 18, 2011 (2:00pm EDT)
QUESTION 1
Please identify any potential benefits to your organization regarding the two options detailed in this Request for Information for the next generation of the Government Electronic Tendering Service.
QUESTION 2
Please identify any areas of concern to your organization regarding the two options detailed in this Request for Information for the next generation of the Government Electronic Tendering Service.
QUESTION 3A
Are you aware of another government domestically or internationally that you believe the Government of Canada could learn from when it comes to publishing business opportunities or other procurement information services?
QUESTION 3B
If yes to question 3A – what country/province/municipality are you referring to and what do they do that the Government of Canada should consider doing?
QUESTION 4A
If Government of Canada “opportunity alerts” were made freely and anonymously available on the Internet via syndication / electronic distribution, do you believe there would be an opportunity for intermediaries to deliver value-added services or for suppliers to gain operational efficiencies? Examples could include:
a. Making available a feed of all “opportunity alerts” in order for intermediaries to present them through their own channels such as web sites, newsletters, and meetings;
b. Professional intermediaries could develop matchmaking services for suppliers;
c. Chambers of Commerce or other geography centric industry groups / associations could leverage their channels and relationships with local businesses to raise awareness of Government of Canada business opportunities within their geographic area;
d. Businesses with sales force automation tools could have an automatic feed of the opportunity alerts into their sales funnel, reducing the effort to identify new Government of Canada business opportunities.
QUESTION 4B
Please provide additional examples and ideas of how professional intermediaries could add value to Government of Canada business opportunities distribution.
QUESTION 5A
Would the syndication / electronic distribution of Government of Canada “opportunity alerts ” through alternative distribution channels (as outlined in Question 4A) increase the Canadian business community’s awareness of Government of Canada business opportunities?
QUESTION 5B
Do you have additional comments regarding mechanisms that could increase Canadian business community’s awareness of Government of Canada business opportunities?
QUESTION 6
What kinds of process improvements and information sharing practices could the Government of Canada adopt in its procurement information services, including its electronic tendering service, to best meet your organization needs?
a. Standards for procurement documentation, including structure of tender documents.
b. Standard templates for tender responses to make it easier to prepare compliant bid responses.
c. Standardized classification of goods and services to research business opportunities.
d. Standardized classification of geographic regions to research business opportunities.
e. Open data standards to allow free and anonymous access to procurement data and information (e.g. contract history, notifications, standing offers, and directories) so that interested stakeholders can easily download procurement information and use them within the software and systems of their choosing.
QUESTION 7
Would your organization access Government of Canada business opportunities and other procurement information services such as notification of updates and amendments to business opportunities if they were made available through alternatives channels?
- RSS (Really Simple Syndication – is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content)
- Twitter (Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers).
- SMS (short message service – is the text communication service component of phone, web or mobile communication systems currently used by 74% of the world’s mobile phone users).
- Email (electronic mail)
QUESTION 8
What additional procurement information would add the most value for your organization in pursuing business opportunities with the Government of Canada?
a. The Government of Canada departments and agencies that buy goods and services that are of interest to your organization (such as historical spend information by department by goods and services, geography, etc.)..
b. The existing methods of supply (Standing offers, Supply Arrangements) for the goods and services of interest to your organization (list of Standing Offers and/or Supply Arrangements by good and service category, geography, department, etc.).
c. The refresh dates for existing methods of supply (i.e.Standing Offers, Supply Arrangements) that are of interest to your organization.
QUESTION 9
Are there other information services that would provide value for your organization in pursuing business opportunities with the Government of Canada?
QUESTION 10
Please provide any additional comments in regards to this RFI that you feel Canada would benefit from.
