Every year, public authorities award around 2.4 million tenders throughout Germany, incurring administrative costs to the tune of several billion euros. Industry representatives therefore criticise the public tender system as being far too costly, too bureaucratic and not transparent enough, arguments which in future should no longer apply in the region.
The e-tender platform for the MRN has been online at auftragsboerse.de since the end of 2009. Not only can companies use it to search for public contracts from the region, they can also call up tender documents from 65 local authority districts online, process them directly at their computer, and then send them to the agency issuing the tender over the Internet. An uncomplicated software program guides bidders through all the stages of the tender procedure and helps them to avoid any irregularities in their offers, for example, which previously often resulted in their being excluded from submitting a quotation. This saves time and money. Not only that, but the service is completely free for companies.
The e-tender platform contributes to a sustained optimisation of the tender award process in the participating local authority districts. This inter-state solution, unrivalled in Germany, was made possible thanks to the efficient and purposeful co-operation of local authority districts, chambers of industry and commerce/crafts and trades, the Rhine-Neckar Regional Association and MRN GmbH. It took just two years to enlist the support of co-operation partners, define the specification profile of the platform, organise and conclude a European-wide tender, standardise the tender procedure across three federal states, and finally to put the new e-tender platform into operation in the local authority districts. This was a feat of strength which also impressed the Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Association for Materials Management, Purchasing and Logistics, with the inter-state e-tender solution being awarded the "Innovation schafft Vorsprung" (or "Innovation gives you a headstart") prize at the beginning of 2010.
