“eProcurement” was devised as a concept to promote transparency and cost-effectiveness mainly in the public procurement process. eProcurement is used for all steps of the procurement process in the EU including bidding for public sector contracts in a simpler and more efficient way thus helping towards achieving the Internal Market. eProcurement covers the interaction among enterprises, between enterprises and the government, and between enterprises and consumers in the purchase of supplies, work and services with the support of information technology.

The current economic crisis seems to be both a challenge and an opportunity for eProcurement community. The European Commission organises a workshop to find answers on exactly this challenge: “How does the eProcurement world react to the immediate need for public financial processes that are both transparent and cost effective?”

The workshop “eProcurement in the time of economic crisis” is an initiative supported by the eProcurement Forum community on ePractice, and the Informatics Directorate-General of the European Commission. It will take place in Brussels, on 25 May 2011. The eProcurement Forum was initiated to help all practitioners in public electronic procurement to meet and share their experiences and knowledge, to ask and provide support.

Workshop topics

This workshop invites all eProcurement stakeholders, and especially those linked to European Union funded initiatives to discuss these issues. The workshop topics include:

• Current findings of EU-funded activities related to eProcurement, such as PEPPOL, STORK
• Studies on best cases, success stories, and knowledge sharing activities related to eProcurement in the EU.
• Standardisation reports in view of the forthcoming eProcurement Map (Spring 2011).
• eProcurement practice from 2008 to the future: the next step for public administration.
• Interoperability mechanisms of eProcurement at European level.

Additional subjects falling within the umbrella of the workshop’s topic on eProcurement in general are also welcome based on potential speaker proposals.

Important deadlines to remember:

Submission of summaries/abstracts: 15 May 2011

Confirmation of speaker participation: 20 May 2011

Publication of workshop proceedings: Mid June

Speakers/Audience:

The workshop is open to anyone interested on eProcurement:eGovernment stakeholders; representatives of eGovernment research projects in FP6 and FP7; researchers; businesses, European Commission officers; ePractice members; etc.

Registration:

To register for this workshop, please create an ePractice account at http://www.epractice.eu/en/user/register if you are not a current member. Subsequently, kindly login and once you are in this page click the yellow button that reads "Participate in this event" to activate your registration. ePractice members can simply login and click on the same page as described above.

Submission of summaries / Presentation slides:

To be considered for a speaker placement kindly submit a summary of one page and four presentation slides of your intended presentation to events@eurodyn.com. Regarding your summary, please download and complete the workshop proposal form that may be found in the presentation and documents section below. Final presentations should not exceed 7 power point slides and should be concise and factual. Please, don't use busy slides, too many graphics or pics and consider that every slide should not use more than 6 bullet points per slide. The main point of your presentation is to briefly inform about the project/initiative and encourage participation, questions and overall discussion.

Networking & Roundtables:

This workshop is all about networking. A few selected speakers will set the scene with a 15 minute presentation and the rest of the programme will be dedicated to roundtable discussions and networking purposes.

Contact:

Please, direct all queries to the above events@eurodyn.com.The event managers will assist you promptly.