Kista, Sweden -- (SBWIRE) --06/02/2011 -- The Swedish Cloud Process company eBuilder and the French e_government software company ATEXO have agreed to embark upon a European cooperation that will offer customers a complete solution with processes for eProcurement, eSourcing, and supplier connections across Europe. Both companies have extensive experience delivering IT solutions to government agencies and organizations; together they have over a hundred government clients in several European countries.

A Pan European e-Procurement Project

Government agencies are the largest buyers in the European Union; government purchases in Europe account for about 16% of total GDP, which is equal to €1,500 billion. But government agencies lag behind major industries when it comes to electronic data exchange with suppliers for eProcurement and eSourcing.

Governments want to manage their key processes with suppliers, such as tenders, orders, delivery notes, catalogs, invoices, and payments electronically. Lack of common standards for electronic information and a common eProcurement infrastructure have been obstacles to achieving this goal, especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that want to participate in public procurement processes in Europe. EU member states have therefore put in place the PEPPOL project to transform public procurement significantly with the goal of strengthening SME competitiveness and participation. (PEPPOL stands for “Pan-European Public Procurement Online”).

240 Swedish Government Agencies To Procure New IT-Solutions

From 2011 to 2013, over 200 Swedish government agencies and organizations will procure new IT solutions for e-commerce. This same challenge awaits virtually all countries in the EU.

“We have been designated as one of three suppliers to the ESV (Swedish National Financial Management Authority), and we have also set up the Swedish PEPPOL gateway — Sweden’s procurement link to Europe. We are now building a European network of strategic partners to support the implementation of PEPPOL across the EU eBuilder’s and ATEXO’s common solution can be used by all EU countries and Norway, as well as in other markets," says Lars Ringsby senior vice president, Business Development, at eBuilder.

“Governments, local authorities and agencies are seeking efficiency in their procurement. They need a global solution that ranges from tendering to the end of the delivery-invoicing-payment process and that is designed to comply with the legal specificities of public procurement” says Pierre Fau, managing director at ATEXO.

The joint offering of eBuilder and ATEXO is the only integrated solution for both pre-award and post-award public procurement. This cooperation is long-lasting, originated in 2007 on the PROCURE project, a parent project of PEPPOL, of cross-border European e-tendering. Leveraging this experience, ATEXO was involved in the specification of the Virtual Company Dossier of for the PEPPOL architecture (pre-award).

This is PEPPOL

The broader vision for PEPPOL is that all companies in the EU and Norway, including SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), can communicate electronically with EU governmental institutions for all procurement processes. The goal of the PEPPOL project is to establish a pan-European pilot solution that can work together with existing national solutions and facilitate the procurement process for all suppliers in the EU and Norway. For more information, visit www.peppol.nu.

About eBuilder
eBuilder is a global leading provider of Cloud Processes that enable companies and organizations to automate, control, and manage their value networks for travel, purchasing and logistics. eBuilder is unique in its ability to deliver multiple standard processes on the same platform and to customize both processes and integrations. Today eBuilder has customers in more than 60 countries. Operations are managed from Stockholm, Sweden, with regional offices in Australia and Sri Lanka, as well as representative offices in Finland and China. For more information, visit www.ebuilder.com.

About ATEXO
ATEXO is a software company specialising in the Public Sector. It has developed the LOCAL TRUST software suite enabling Public authorities to dematerialize their functions and competencies. ATEXO has 8 years experience in the providing of SaaS e-tendering of public contracts to 120 large accounts of the Public sector in France and abroad. As a whole, ATEXO manages the tendering process of over 100 000 public tenders of any type, each year. ATEXO is based in Paris (France) and Rabat (Morocco).

For more information, visit http://www.atexo.com/eng.