Millstream, the UK’s leading electronic tendering provider has been awarded a £1.2million, five year contract to continue running the national e-procurement website Public Contracts Scotland (PCS), which handles tenders worth around £10billion to the Scottish economy every year.
The announcement of the reappointment of Millstream was made by Keith Brown, Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities, following a competitive open tender process.
Millstream, which was first appointed to design and manage PCS seven years ago, will remain sole operator of the portal for all public sector tenders, ranging from construction and transport to IT and healthcare.
This announcement is further bolstered by the Welsh Government’s decision to extend Millstream’s contract to deliver and manage its Government e-procurement portal, Sell2Wales until January 2018. Sell2Wales has been designed, delivered and managed by Millstream since June 2013.
Scotland’s Infrastructure Secretary Keith Brown said:
“Millstream’s successful bid to continue running the Scottish Government’s Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) web portal gives us the confidence that this vital service is in safe hands.
“This is an extremely exciting time for infrastructure development in Scotland, which means good news for the businesses who can bid to deliver these projects.
“Contracts mean jobs, and we’re doing all we legally can to help Scottish businesses access those contracts.
“Millstream’s plans for PCS during the next five years will see it become even more accessible for users, and that can only be good for Scottish business and the Scottish economy.”
PCS delivers business opportunities to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Scottish businesses, with figures showing that in 2015, 78% of suppliers winning contracts were SMEs and 77% were suppliers based in Scotland.
Millstream managing director Tim Williams said that the national portal has helped to standardise tendering processes into one online system for both purchasers in the public sector and private sector suppliers, opening up opportunities for companies and saving them both time and money.
“At Millstream we operate UK and EU-wide services that are leading and revolutionising the public procurement industry,” he said.
“We have introduced new functionality and features within our portals to create notices that not only save public sector organisations time and money, but also provide an important resource for suppliers - UK businesses big and small - interested in finding new opportunities within the UK public sector. Our portals provide extensive functionality and a comprehensive system that is transparent, simple to use and which maximise opportunities for users while being both time and cost effective.
“The Scottish Government has an innovative and practically-focused approach to procurement; the combination of our web development skills and our help desk, which is staffed by procurement experts, has enabled us to secure the new contract to deliver PCS, which we intend to take to even greater levels of success over the coming years.”
As the only company providing national public procurement websites for several European member states, Millstream currently runs Sell2Wales and PCS as well as operating similar procurement portals in Norway and Ireland since 2003.
Since the launch of PCS in 2008, Millstream has published more than 71,200 public sector tenders. More than 1,155 public authorities in Scotland currently use the PCS portal to procure services from 68,720 suppliers, who have access to all public sector opportunities in one place.
Millstream has also developed a Smartphone app for PCS, allowing users to access information on their phone or tablet.
Millstream’s portals simplify the creation and management of the tender documentation required by EU and UK regulations. EU legislation means that contracting authorities must adhere to transparent, non-discriminatory and proportional principles when purchasing goods and services. They must also advertise all contracts above a certain value in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).
As well as operating procurement portals for national Governments, Millstream runs its own portal, Tenders Direct, which provides private companies with comprehensive information on new business opportunities from the public sector, including the Government, local authorities, emergency services, NHS trusts and the armed forces.
It also runs myTenders, a tender publication and management service used by more than 700 public organisations in the UK to submit fully compliant contract notices to the OJEU and Contracts Finder, as well as publicising them on the organisation’s own website.
For more information please visit www.millstream.eu or call 0800 270 0249 to speak with one of the team.
ENDS