Public Spend Forum: The challenges small businesses face while searching for public sector resources

Public Spend Forum (PSF) is a public sector procurement global community and market intelligence platform dedicated to improving public buying everywhere. GovShop is its free-to-use global government market research tool for finding and connecting with suppliers. Read more from PSF and GovShop founder Raj Sharma here: Working towards a more open and accessible public sector marketplace – for suppliers and buyers.

This week’s latest from PSF:

The challenges small businesses face while searching for resources on public procurement

It can be difficult to navigate government contracting in almost any country. The breadth and scope of public institutions provides no shortage of opportunity for frustrating acquisition experiences borne from a largely disjointed and fragmented procurement information ecosystem. Small business owners and leaders, perhaps more than any other demographic, understand this. In the recently published Public Spend Forum Barriers to Entry in Government Markets Report, suppliers ranked the complex, costly, and inefficient processes associated with working with government as one of the most vexing obstacles hindering their ability to work effectively within the public sector.

This article identifies the major shortcomings of the current US procurement information ecosystem and underscores the need for more comprehensive and accessible procurement resources, relevant to all administrations — it covers the following themes:

Small businesses need and organized procurement ecosystem

General accessibility remains a challenge

Information depth varies significantly among agencies

Design shortfalls pose major obstacles to user experience

Small businesses need a better way to navigate public procurement

Read in full here.

The Govshop Small Business Resource Center (SBRC) — is a one-stop-shop containing anything a small business would need to know to navigate public procurement in the United States, and beyond.

Search and Match with Suppliers

And in other news …

Evaluating social value in tenders 

Turning urban waste streams into value-added products for cities  

IT Subway Map Europe shows dynamic shifts

https://spendmatters.com/2021/06/24/evaluating-social-value-in-tenders-what-should-we-focus-on/

£1.6bn investment to upgrade UK Defence estate, four contracts will deliver repairs and maintenance services

Transformation in the Public Interest

The World Health Organization broke its own rules to spend millions on BCG consultants

UK National Procurement Policy Statement – Government’s plans to transform public procurement

New procurement framework to help schools with sourcing and buying ICT

Jab of compliance for companies in Central and Eastern Europe

EU Council agreement on International Procurement Instrument to level playing field for European rail suppliers in international public procurement

EU member states overcome nine-year blockade on procurement instrument to ensure European companies have access to third countries’ public procurement markets 

Download the 7 Principles for GovMarket Growth here: Your Free Guide

Contact Public Spend Forum

Contact support@publicspendforum.net if you’d like to understand more about public procurement, the effect of the pandemic, where to find suppliers for a specific category, or any other burning issue you have.

PSF would also love to hear from you if you have a success story within your organization you’d like to share. If you’d like to share your opinions or insight on a public-procurement-relevant issue please see the Guest Author Guidelines here.

Schedule a free GovShop demo

You can book a free consultation and demo to learn how to best leverage GovShop! You’ll learn how to build your market research skills and use GovShop to search across 2 million traditional and non-traditional suppliers, quickly generate lists and reports in minority and small businesses, and find contracts that match your needs.

Contact Frank McNally from the Government Success Team