Cloud company eBuilder partners with ATEXO

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.

Government agencies are the largest buyers in the European Union; government purchases in Europe account for about 16 percent 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 Pan-European Public Procurement Online (PEPPOL) project to transform public procurement significantly with the goal of strengthening SME competitiveness and participation.

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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 Swedish National Financial Management Authority,” Lars Ringsby, senior vice president of business development at eBuilder, said. “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.”

"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,” Pierre Fau, managing director at ATEXO, said.

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.

Edited by Kevin Scarpati