The Purchases and Supplies Board of Mendoza County
Government Ministry of Finance (Argentina) is in charge of the hiring procedures
and the management of large purchases for all County public bodies. It is also
responsible for Mendoza County Suppliers Registry.
Among other objectives, the Board of Purchases and
Supplies aims at achieving higher transparency in the management of public
hiring, centralizing information on public sector demand and increase goods and
services offer by encouraging potential suppliers to submit quotes while
modernizing purchase management through the application of TIC.
Looking for a solution
The Purchases and Supplies Board required to improve information
access and to extend broadcasting and publication channels for public contracts.
Additionally, it aimed at centralizing information on public sector demand while
decentralizing publication operative management. It also intended to facilitate
proceedings for incorporating new suppliers by generating a single base for
public queries.
These requirements had the objective of increasing goods
and services offer by encouraging potential suppliers to submit quotes in a
simple and effective manner. The Board had then a static portal that provided
information on calls for bids, where potential suppliers could download a form
containing the requirements to register as suppliers.
Solution found
The solution was to develop a Purchases and Supplies Portal with
GXportal in the Internet, which integrates GeneXus systems using Web Services.
The project was completed with the support of ACP Ingeniería en Sistemas
SRL.
The integration of the portal to other existing
applications in the Government of Mendoza, such as the file tracking system and
the system of queries on payments to suppliers (both developed with GeneXus) was
solved with GXportal using Web Services.
Additionally, the portal is integrated to SIDICO, the
information and management System of the County developed with GeneXus (with 500
tables and over 6,000 GeneXus objects), which has been operating for over 10
years and was implemented with GeneXus Generator Cobol/400.
All security control components for users of the different
knowledge bases were solved using Web Services and GXportal.
The Purchases Portal is divided in three channels: public
channel, purchasers channel and suppliers channel. Each channel allows for the
recording, publication and registration of potential suppliers, calls for bids
and their results.
An information scheme with three different environments
was designed for the implementation of this project, developing applications and
features that allowed meeting the objectives proposed for each user profile. The
public environment provides unrestricted access, general information on
contracts, applicable regulations, and the directory of those bodies making up
the system. Using a search engine developed with over 10 selection criteria it
is possible to obtain details on all public contracts and download information
such as conditions, official minutes, etc. The buyers' environment has
restricted access limited to authorized users and allows working and applying
actions such as creating, publishing, inviting, attaching files, etc. Finally,
the suppliers' environment also has restricted access and customizes associated
contracts information according to items the supplier is interested in, thus
facilitating interaction and follow up.
Users security integration was achieved by joining AS/400
users with GXportal users.
Results
The
development of this Purchases Portal resulted in the decentralization of
contract publications management in over 200 government purchasing units, while
allowing the submission of quotes to these units. Over 100 purchasing units are
currently authorized to provide information on their contracts in the system,
and the remaining units are in the training stage.
Suppliers data updating process and new suppliers
incorporation to the suppliers register have already started through the online
registration form. The system allows incorporating new suppliers and update data
of around 5,000 suppliers.
This portal is used for the publication of contracts for
annual amounts of approximately US$ 150 million.
http://www.compras.mendoza.gov.ar
http://www.acpsistemas.com.ar