Welcome

Contract opportunities with government are of increasing importance to SMEs, representing a valuable route to a growing market which each year procures around £175 billion of goods and services (about a third of all public spending*). In today’s economic climate, the fact that public sector customers traditionally pay promptly makes them excellent clients, offering SMEs stability and business growth.

The Supply2.gov.uk portal was developed to assist in removing the first barrier SMEs face when selling to the public sector marketplace – access to contract opportunities, particularly those of lower value (typically below £100,000), which fall below the advertising thresholds of the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).

Since its launch in spring 2006, Supply2.gov.uk has assisted over 156,000 SMEs in accessing public sector contract opportunities through a central platform, created with the prime objective of facilitating the advertisement of national lower-value contracts, uniting buyers and suppliers online for the first time.

The challenge for SMEs

There are clear benefits from doing business with the public sector. However, once a viable contract opportunity has been identified, for small businesses with limited resources the tender application process can often become cumbersome and time-consuming, because these companies do not fully understand the procedures and documentation involved.

Understanding the documentation

The Supply2.gov.uk 2009 autumn roadshow is a must for SMEs new to public sector tendering or looking to improve their chances of success in selling to this market.

This one-day seminar provides an explanation of tendering documentation, exploring its essential aspects, and introduces basic procedures that suppliers need to understand to tender successfully in the public sector marketplace.

With up to 3000 new contract opportunities published in the UK every month across all business sectors, a sufficient understanding of documentation and tendering procedures is paramount for any business investing valuable time, resource and expense in responding to government contract opportunities.

Who should attend?

This roadshow has been designed to provide guidance on a variety of issues central to public procurement.

It will be of special interest to:

• Suppliers new to the public sector marketplace
• Suppliers which already engage with the public sector but wish to improve or refresh their knowledge of current procurement processes
• Organisations which find the procedures difficult to understand
• Organisations which feel they need to develop their skillset to improve their tendering success rate with the public sector

Places are limited, so book now to avoid disappointment.

View the full agenda and presenter biographies. If you require any further information please contact the Events Team on: events@supply2.gov.uk.

*(Source: www.hm-treasury.gov.uk)