Dematerialisation of Public Purchasing procedures: SynerDeal announces the launch of Syner2005.

Ahead of 1st January 2005, the public sector can already apply the New Public Contracts Code using Syner2005.

Europe's premier supplier of ePurchasing solutions and pioneer in the domain of online competition and tender management for the French and English public sectors (June 2000 and February 2003 respectively), SynerDeal is now launching Syner2005, a solution specifically designed to meet the obligation to dematerialise Purchasing procedures.

With Syner2005, a software solution in ASP mode, local authorities and civil service departments can now dematerialise their tender procedures.

Developed under the control of Mr. Philippe Delelis* from the firm "Denton Salès Vincent & Thomas" in strict compliance with the New Public Contracts Code and decree no. 2002-692 of 30th April 2002, Syner2005 enables the requirements of article 56 to be met, namely:
- the possibility to put tender packages online, to facilitate access to public orders (art.56.1)
- receipt of tenders in electronic format, to help to simplify responses to public Calls for Tender (art.56.2).

Thanks to a secure electronic "safe", Syner2005 fully incorporates the particularities and stringency of public purchasing: secure transmission and access, authentication of public corporations and companies submitting bids (use of electronic signatures), confidentiality of information sent, exchanged and stored (data encryption), time stamping of all actions performed, intangibility of information communicated and archiving of data.

For local authorities and civil service departments wishing to go beyond simple regulatory conformance, Syner2005 is also one of the rare contract dematerialisation solutions wholly consistent with a more global system covering collection of internal data and reverse eAuctions (art. 56.3). They can thus enhance the attractiveness of their tender packages to bidders and increase productivity of public purchasers. This opportunity is in line with a more general approach - that of modernising local authorities, facilitated and simplified by information technology.

* Mr. Philippe Delelis, graduate of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, Doctor of public law and member of the committee responsible for preparing the Public Contracts review (Ed. Juris-Classeur), is an Associated Lawyer heading the Public Law (Business) department with "Denton Salès Vincent & Thomas", the French office of "Denton Wilde Sapte".

Extract from the New Public Contracts Code - Section 8
Dematerialisation of procedures
Article 56

Exchanges of information occurring in application of this code may take the form of an electronic transmission.

1. The conditions of tender, the tender letter, specification, documents and additional information may be made available to companies electronically under the conditions set by decree. However, where these companies so request, these documents are to be sent to them by post.
   
2. Unless otherwise specified in the information notice, the applications and tenders may also be communicated to the public corporation electronically, under the conditions defined by decree. No information notice may prohibit this with effect from 1st January 2005.
   
3. A decree shall specify the conditions under which electronic auctions may be organised for the purchase of standard supplies.
   The stipulations of this code which refer to written documents do not prevent replacement of these by electronic media or exchange.
   

Questions and Answers on dematerialisation :

What procedural documents are affected by dematerialisation?

• All documents comprising the tender package submitted by a company
• The reply envelopes: applications and tenders.

What are the conditions of implementation proposed by the decree?
With regard to the tender package:

• 
  The documents must be accessible to any person who requests them. This person is required to give a business name, a name and an e mail address where he may be contacted
• It must be possible to download and save the documents.

With regard to the reply envelopes:

• Their issuer must be able to provide authentication,
• Their acceptance by the public purchaser generates an electronic receipt showing a definite date.

What are the responsibilities of the public corporation?

It is expressly stated that the public corporation must be organised so that:

• The network is accessible to bidders without discrimination,
• Transactions are secure,
• Confidentiality of information contained in the applications and tenders is ensured,
• The system must be available by 1st January 2005 at the latest.

What are the expected benefits?

• Improved productivity for Public Purchasers;
• Reduction in administrative costs (costs of publication, postage, paper) added to price reductions which may be gained during auctions;
• Increased attractiveness of tender packages to tendering companies, and ease of reply, particularly for small and medium sized companies.