Euroalert.net: Aggregating Public Procurement Data to Deliver Commercial Services to SMEs

Introduction

Euroalert.net (Euroalert.net, 2012) (ISSN 1988-3382) is a brand owned by Gateway Strategic Consultancy Services, S.L. (Gateway, 2012), which is focused in delivering innovative and cost-effective information services. These innovative services are designed to add value to public sector information generated within the framework of public contracts published by government bodies in EU Member States, as well as within the activities and policies developed under an EU general framework. Euroalert.net monitors, processes, and stores information in four main areas: (1) News about EU Institutions activity, (2) EU Legislation, (3) EU Funding opportunities and (4) Public Contracts issued in EU Member States.

The use case described in this chapter is specifically focused on public procurement information which, by itself, is a big challenge to be solved in order to provide new customized services to organizations and companies across Europe. Once processed, all data about public procurement is indexed, enriched, mashed-up and repackaged to deliver products under the brand 10ders, mainly focusing in SMEs market.

Although they might seem apparently unrelated, there are two main driving forces in this context which are crucial in order to understand why Euroalert.net decided to meet the challenge and build such a platform to contribute to a more competitive EU single market. These two elements are, on the one hand, the EU political determination to modernise and simplify public procurement rules as a way to support growth and employment (European Commission, 2011) and, on the other, the development of the European Commission Open Data Strategy (European Commission, 2011b).