Frequently asked questions

2. What does the acronym/abbreviation PEPPOL stand for?

3. What are the objectives and benefits of PEPPOL?

4. What are the advantages of standardised electronic procurement?

5. What influence will PEPPOL have on the European procurement landscape?

6. Is the implementation of the project associated with cost savings? If so, what are the estimates of savings for the participating countries and in what timescales?

7. Who is going to profit initially from the implementation of the PEPPOL project?

8. What disadvantages may occur in certain areas when implementing the standardised electronic procurement?

9. Who is the initiator of the project? And who is in charge of monitoring the compliance of the project?

12. What fields of activities are included in the overall PEPPOL project?

13. How are these activities distributed?

14. What tasks are in detail included in each work package relating to project partners from the respective countries?

15. How long will it take before the project begins to be implemented throughout Europe, or has a time-frame already been established?

16. Who are desirable partners from the economic sector, civil society and the opinion-forming sector able to implement the project successfully?

17. What challenges do institutions involved have to face during the process of implementation?

18. In practice, what aspects of the procurement process will be covered by the PEPPOL project?

19. Has a legal obligation been established, and if so, is this already being implemented?

20. What organizations have to adhere to the legal obligation so established ?

21. To what extent will the savings that will result from the standardised eProcurement for the participating countries compensate the implementation and development costs?

PEPPOL (Pan European Public Procurement on-line) is a Large Scale Pilot driven by participating countries and focusing on cross-border provision of ICT services that are already operating at national, regional or local level. These pilot projects aim to develop common specifications that can gain wide acceptance, enabling different national systems to communicate and interact with each other so that citizens and businesses can enjoy the full benefits of the single market.

This pilot project focuses on cross-border activities within the procurement process. It will enable all Member States and other stakeholders, including standardisation bodies, the software industry and SMEs, whether participating in the project or not, to follow the work and influence the definition of specifications as they will be developed.

The European Commission is moving a step closer to making it easier for companies, in particular Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), to bid for public sector contracts anywhere in the EU; a crucial step towards achieving the Single European Market.

The Commission is co-financing this project, driven by several European countries that will create the conditions to link existing national electronic public procurement (e-procurement) systems. Simplifying cross-border procurement will generate savings on administrative and transaction costs and will benefit taxpayers who ultimately pay for public purchases. The project will invest more than ? 19 million over three years, ? 9.8 million of which will come from the European ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP), which is part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP)..

2. What does the acronym/abbreviation PEPPOL stand for?

Pan European Public Procurement Online

3. What are the objectives and benefits of PEPPOL?

The objective of the PEPPOL-project is to set up an integrated pilot solution across borders, capitalizing each country's strength/advantage in existing national systems that jointly facilitate the enabling of an EU-wide interoperable solution for public eProcurement.

The final outcome of PEPPOL will be the demonstration of an integrated operational solution that builds upon national systems and provide cross border access to public eProcurement supporting the full cycle of e-procurement activities to economic operators and awarding entities. This means that the PEPPOL-project will allow any economic operator in the EU and the EEA to respond to and enact upon any published public tender throughout the EU and the EEA community from their own national infrastructure to any another national infrastructure. The deliverables will especially allow for the engagement/participation of SMEs in public eProcurement.

The PEPPOL-project is seen to bring about many benefits on different levels as seen above.

Benefits of the PEPPOL-project also include flagship position with additional effects for the establishment of an EU-wide eGovernment as well as considerable macro-economic benefits to be gained such as improved functioning of markets. Similarly, benefits deriving from reduction of administrative costs such as reduced tax levels relate to a citizen theme and will be regarded as additional benefits.

4. What are the advantages of standardised electronic procurement?

E-procurement already allows businesses to bid for the largest buyers in the EU ? governments. By making sure their systems work together, Member States are helping European businesses to win public sector contracts anywhere in the EU. This is a crucial step towards completion of the Single European Market.

Several Member States have already realised the high impact of e-procurement, generating savings on administrative and transaction costs by eliminating invoices and orders by fax or email, the reduction of data entered manually and the time businesses spend queuing, filling out forms and sorting out paper work.

5. What influence will PEPPOL have on the European procurement landscape?

Government contracts amount to more than 16% of the EU?s gross domestic product (GDP), but many European companies, especially SMEs, miss out on this substantial business because of the extensive paperwork required for bidding for government contracts, particularly across borders.

PEPPOL will enable companies from one country to respond to public procurement tenders in another. The project will not replace but rather build on existing national e-procurement systems using information and communication technologies to enable them to communicate with each other. This would allow, for instance, a Czech or Swedish company to bid for a Spanish or Hungarian government contract as easily as for a contract in their home country.

The results go beyond saving taxpayers' money and having leaner procedures: by levelling the playing field for SMEs, the backbone of Europe's economy, cross border e-procurement can boost competitiveness by providing tools for businesses to access the entire European market for public services. At present, SMEs account for 67% of employees in the business sector and 58% of turnover in the EU, but only win 42% of government contracts.

The PEPPOL-project will contribute to EU?s Lisbon Agenda. In specific, the PEPPOL-project is considered an instrument that will accomplish the implementation of a high impact service and thus directly relate to the eGovernment i2010 European objective ?implementation of high impact services?. Internationally, the PEPPOL-project will be seen to strengthen and underpin the values of eProcurement, particularly for those countries that currently are in the process of developing or taking in use public eProcurement on/to a national level.

Furthermore, the PEPPOL-project will act as a bridge builder towards reaching the i2010 eGovernment Action Plan target of 100 % availability and 50% usage of public eProcurement for all EU states. That is, the outcome of the PEPPOL-project might be seen to trigger Member States reaching their national public eProcurement target in terms of availability and usage since far from everybody has reached the stated objectives as of now.

On a strategic level the PEPPOL-project is in line with different national efforts in terms of promoting generally and more specifically public eProcurement.

6. Is the implementation of the project associated with cost savings? If so, what are the estimates of savings for the participating countries and in what timescales?

Electronic public procurement initiatives clearly demonstrate the significant cost savings that are possible. If eProcurement was introduced all over the EU, annual savings could amount to over ?50 billion

7. Who is going to profit initially from the implementation of the PEPPOL project?

On a paramount level as funded under the CIP programme, PEPPOL will boost growth and jobs in Europe. In particular, PEPPOL will take part of the enabling of Europe to exploit the full potential of ICT and similarly drive forward innovation through the best use and wider adoption of ICTs.

In specific, PEPPOLs significance relates to the strengthen competitiveness of SMEs EU wide . Through the results of PEPPOL the European SMEs will get the possibility to widen their markets and be in the position to carry out better, simpler and more secure procurement due to predefined eprocesses compliant with the procurement legislation. Reuse of data in the complete procurement process from eCatalogue to eInvoice with the specified standards will contribute to a more economic and secure process for the operators.

8. What disadvantages may occur in certain areas when implementing the standardised electronic procurement?

National solutions from both suppliers and governments need to be aligned with common European standards, which will require some investment.

9. Who is the initiator of the project? And who is in charge of monitoring the compliance of the project?

The European Commission is the initiator of the project and is in charge of monitoring it.

12. What fields of activities are included in the overall PEPPOL project?

Work Package 1 eSignature
Work Package 2 Virtual Company Dossier (VCD)
Work Package 3 eCatalogue
Work Package 4 eOrdering
Work Package 5 eInvoicing
WP6 Project Management
WP7 Awareness, Training & Consensus building
WP 8 Solutions architecture, design and validation

13. How are these activities distributed?

List of participants:

Participant no.*	Participant organisation name	Participant short name	Country	Certified representative of a national administration?
1 (Co-ordinator)	Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (DIFI)	DIFI	Norway	Yes
2 (Participant)	Senator of Finances Free Hanseatic city of Bremen	Bremen	Germany	No
3 (Participant)	University of Koblenz-Landau	UKL	Germany	No
4 (Participant)	Consip S.p.A.	Consip	Italy	No
5 (Participant)	N/A
6 (Participant)	National IT- and Telecom Agency	NITA	Denmark	Yes
7 (Participant)	PEPPOL.AT: Consortium Ministry of Finance Federal Computing Center and Federal Procurement Agency	PEPPOL.AT	Austria	Yes
8 (Participant)	The Ministry of Finance	VM	Finland	Yes
9 (Participant)	Centro Nazionale per l'Informatica nella Pubblica Amministrazione	Cnipa	Italy	Yes
10 (Participant)	Ministry of Economy and Finance	MEF	Italy	Yes
11 (Participant)	Central Services Directorate General	KSZF	Hungary	No
12 (Participant)	Intercent-er	Intercent-er	Italy	No
13 (Participant)	CSI Piemonte	CSI Piemonte	Italy	No
14 (Participant)	InfoCamere	InfoCamere	Italy	No
15 (Participant)	Assistance au developpement des echanges en techologies economiques et financieres	Adetef	France	Yes

WP1 : Bremen, DIFI, CONSIP,
WP2: UKL, PEPPOL.AT, Infocamere, DIFI, FR
WP3: CONSIP, MEF, INT, CSI, DIFI, NITA, Bremen, KSZF, VM, PEPPOL.AT
WP4: DIFI, PEPPOL.AT, UKL, CONSIP, KSZF, VM, NITA
WP5: NITA, PEPPOL.AT, VM
WP6: DIFI, VM, KSZF, Adetef
WP7: PEPPOL.AT, UKL, Adetef, NITA, DIFI, KSZF, Consip, VM
WP8: NITA, DIFI, Bremen, KSZF, VM, UKL, Consip, Adetef, PEPPOL.AT

14. What tasks are in detail included in each work package relating to project partners from the respective countries?

eSignature (WP1)

The Guidelines to Common Specifications for Cross Border use of Public eProcurement document states: The lack of interoperability between the different national schemes for electronically signing tender documents is the single most important blocking factor to cross-border eProcurement. WP1 of PEPPOL will develop guidelines and specifications and pilot solutions to overcome this interoperability challenge.

WP1 shall not address the electronic signature theme in general, but shall concentrate on the specific problems of creation, verification and acceptance of electronic signatures on electronic procurement documents, and in particular tender documents. Validation and acceptance of eID certificates required in the different phases of the procurement cycle are also topics that are within scope.

Liaison and co-operation with the parallel CIP pilot on Pan-European Recognition of Electronic IDs (awarded to the STORK consortium) will be established, notably by CNIPA (Italy) who is active in WP1 in PEPPOL and also a member of the STORK consortium. The Guidelines to Common Specifications for Cross Border use of Public eProcurement document lists four main barriers to adoption of eSignatures in cross-border eProcurement:

Lack of consensus on critical concepts such as advanced electronic signature and different levels of trust in signatures. PEPPOL will address this by providing definitions for quality levels for advanced electronic signatures.
Legal hurdles due to different legislations in the EU Member States. PEPPOL will survey the status in eProcurement and will identify national regulations that must be changed in order to enable cross-border eSignatures in particular countries. A set of common specifications for use of signatures in eProcurement processes will be developed, leaving some flexibility in order to cater for different national requirements.
The acceptance of electronic solutions for signing documents by the public sector. PEPPOLs common specifications will address signing by both sides of an eProcurement process: Awarding entity and economic operator. Both must be provided with solutions for signing and verification; the verification challenge being mainly (due to the number of economic operators) on the awarding entity (or national infrastructure) side.
Limited support from service providers for development of interoperable solutions. PEPPOLs common specifications will provide guidance on integration of the necessary signing and verification functionality at appropriate points in the workflow implementations. Interfaces (APIs and service interfaces) specified by PEPPOL must be easy to use in order for service providers to actually make the necessary integration. PEPPOL will investigate both a software only solution and a service-oriented approach where service providers not only obtain functionality but also reduced risk.

Virtual Company Dossier (VCD) (WP2)

The overall aim of work package 2 (Virtual Company Dossier VCD) is to provide interoperable solutions for economic operators in any European country to utilise company information already registered somewhere and to submit this information electronically to any public sector awarding entity from a different Member State when these economic operators decide to apply for public contracts.

There are a number of national and international activities already going on. These shall be streamlined and assessed towards the development of a European-wide interoperable and standardised VCD which facilitates public eProcurement within the European market. The interoperability issue thereby lies in the interactions between tenderers or candidates from different Member States to single eProcurement platforms or systems in other Member states. This also includes several interactions between issuing authorities and the authoritiy which creates the VCD.

The general objective encompasses the following more detailed goals:

Analyse, synthesize and assess existing company dossier structures of individual Member State countries (AT, DE, IT, NO, etc.) and of other standard specifications
Consolidate existing solutions with the PEPPOL needs, and develop a technical specification of the VCD (in a standard schema format)
Implement and pilot the VCD
Develop an easy to use implementation and application guideline (roll-out roadmap), as well as respective training material for the target users
Apply and use the VCD, and settle a maintenance process

The VCD specification and pilot implementation shall provide a key building block for pan-European eProcurement, which allows the connection of different eProcurement systems among - as well as within - different countries, be they part of the project consortium or not in order to uniquely describe and exchange data between bidders and contracting authorities.

The WP activities shall ensure that a significant part of the public procurement processes can be made through electronic cross-border transactions under consideration of the organisational, semantic and technical challenges that have to be resolved in order to develop a sophisticated VCD. The figure below shows the Public Procurement process and its division into three main phases: pre-awarding, awarding and post-awarding.

eprocurement stages

Figure: Positioning the VCD in the different stages of the eProcurement process (including pre- and post-awarding phases)

The VCD will mainly be applied within the pre-warding phase as it provides important information about a business entity, which is needed for the selection of tenderers. Likewise, a standardised VCD supports the selection phase in view of the awarding of the contract.. In specific cases, the VCD may also support the eOrdering of the post-awarding phase (providing key qualification documentation for the business entity which will deliver the product or service).

The VCD will support tenderers in creating their information and qualification package in their home country more easily and with a higher degree of quality (through standardised specifications and the VCD services offered in the home country). With the VCD it shall be easier for business entities to make a cross-border eSubmission and, thereby, to increase the ratio of meeting the legal and formal company qualification criteria for the awarding phase.

It is to be stressed that a significant interrelation and interdependency exists with the use of eSignatures (WP 1): local policies for the use of eSignatures, being mandatory for the awarding phase, need to be considered. A prerequisite for digitally signed electronic certificates on individual documents of a VCD dossier is that the tenderers or orderers countries accept and are able to handle the digital signatures of the bidders countries.

The VCD specification and implementation in this work package will embark on results already existing in different Member States (especially from partners in this WP) and from specific projects (e.g. BRITE). Its aim is to advance these developments towards a full implementation and application of the VCD with the purpose to enable simple, automatic and efficient public eProcurement across European Member States.

eCatalogue (WP3)

The lack of a standard definition of eCatalogues across all EU countries is one of the existing or potential hurdles that all enterprises - and especially SMEs - face when trying to carry out cross-border public e-procurement transactions. Defining a shared standard for the presentation of eCatalogues should hence enhance both the creation of wider market opportunities and the uptake of ICT in procurement procedures.

In order to define such standard, a number of issues have to be considered: the provisions of EU PP Directives (e.g.: how do provisions of articles 42.2 and 42.4 of Directive 18/2004 apply?), the solutions currently available in the market, and the standards actually adopted by the administrations. This should take into account existing relevant work by the European Commission.

In this context, the objective of Work Package 3 is the creation and testing of a solution to manage eCatalogues (eC) used in the framework of public procurement procedures, both as part of a bid submitted by competing tenderers, and as a basis for issuing orders to economic operators.

The test of the solution should prove the possibility for any buyer/supplier of one countrys eProcurement system to request/propose an eCatalogue from/to a second countrys supplier/buyer as part of an offer and as a basis for ordering, through the seamless connection of the two countries existing eProcurement systems.

The ultimate goal of the WP is to contribute to the PEPPOL Projects general goal, and to make so that a significant part of the public procurements are made through cross-border transactions.

Starting from the international standardization initiatives already in place at various levels (most important of which is the CEN BII Workshop), the solution will be based on the creation of building blocks, allowing the connection of different eProcurement systems among - as well as within - different countries systems, be they part of the project consortium or not.

A shared and actually used eCatalogue standard will push economic operators to invest into the creation of an electronic prospectus of their offer, because it can be re-used the for dfferent tenders and across more sectors. This will benefit most of all SMEs, for which the fix costs to create an eCatalogue have a higher weight on their business.

At the same time, open source solutions will benefit a large number of public administration small offices, which do not have budget for the purchase of proprietary eProcurement applications or softwares, and/or the installation thereof, and very often do not have even the know-how to choose the right market solution.

The characteristics of the target solution are described in following paragraphs in terms of interoperability architecture and expected results, after having reviewed issues to tackle and existing infrastructures.

eOrdering (WP4)

The eOrder process deals with the electronic transmissions of documents during the eProcurement phase that starts with the issuing of orders by the buyer and ends with the receipt of an order response and the transmission of the delivery instructions of the ordered goods or services from the supplier.

Ordering is an important phase of the public procurement process and has a tight connection with invoicing and strongly affects the other phases, from catalogue to payment. There is a strong desire from both Awarding Entities and Economic Operators for automation and efficiency across the procurement process. This requires an information model ensuring a flow of information between different parts of the process and models ensuring data synchronisation.

The Project will analyse the eOrdering process and seek to implement and pilot arrangements for the exchange of eOrdering documents between all awarding entities and related Economic Operators. Processes will be benchmarked and good practices highlighted and communicated.

The project will use previous work in the area and seek cooperation with current initiatives e.g. CEN ISSS WS/BII. The CEN BII WS/BII has already established a WG for cooperation with pilot projects, the objective of the workshop and the timeframe of 3 years makes it a perfect cooperation partner.

The goal is to implement a European Ordering (EOI) framework that allows SMEs to adopt eOrdering in an effective way to lower their cost of entry and operating costs.

The expected impact will be demonstrating the business case and acting as a catalyst for full adoption of eOrdering through piloting a European eOrdering Framework.

eInvoicing (WP5)

The eInvoicing process deals with the claim for payment for the goods and services that have been either ordered or delivered received or consumed under the conditions agreed by the buyer and supplier. eInvoicing links the two important value chains, the procurement process and the payment process. Invoicing is an integrated and significant part of the procurement process, as well as the starting point for the payment process. Invoicing is the subject of legal restrictions that are different from country to country, which has created barriers for cross border invoicing. eInvoicing is a part of an electronic procurement process aiming for automation and efficiency. It is based on an information model ensuring flow of information between different parts of the process. eInvoicing, creating efficiency and certainty, has the potential to unleash great savings and release resources for more innovation.

The Project will analyse the eInvoicing process and seek to implement and pilot arrangements for the exchange of eInvoicing documents between all awarding entities and related economic operators. Processes will be benchmarked and good practices highlighted and communicated.

The project will use previous work in the area and seek cooperation with current initiatives e.g. CEN ISSS WS/eInvoicing 2, CEN ISSS WS/BII and the eInvoicing Expert Group. The CEN BII WS/BII has already established a WG for cooperation with pilot projects, the objective of the workshop and the timeframe of 3 years makes it a perfect cooperation partner. The objective of the eInvoicing Expert Group is also a significant reason to seek cooperation with this group.

The goal is to implement a European eInvoicing (EEI) framework that allows SMEs to adopt eInvoicing in an effective way to lower their cost of entry and operating costs.

The expected impact will be demonstrating the business case and acting as a catalyst for full adoption of eInvoicing through piloting (part of) a European eInvoicing Framework.

15. How long will it take before the project begins to be implemented throughout Europe, or has a time-frame already been established?

The project duration is three years. It is expected that activities will continue afterwards for a longer period to rollout the solutions.

16. Who are desirable partners from the economic sector, civil society and the opinion-forming sector able to implement the project successfully?

The project and its results have to be accepted and well-known by all keys players in the EU. Results have to be made available to all stakeholders to ensure awareness and acceptance on all levels across Europe. The main stakeholders to be addressed are shown in the diagram below:

desireable partners

A number of architectural and adopters conferences and workshops will be held regularly in all three stages of the project. The conferences and workshops will be open to all EU member countries. The project management team will be responsible for giving a number of presentations at European and international conferences.

All developed standards will be made available to interested parties through the project web site or alternately through the web site of the applicable standardization organization. It is an important goal that all work with the development of new specifications it submitted to existing standardization organisations.

17. What challenges do institutions involved have to face during the process of implementation?

Institution must align their national systems, standards and legislation to overcome the interoperability challenge.

18. In practice, what aspects of the procurement process will be covered by the PEPPOL project?

The final outcome of PEPPOL will be an interoperational environment build upon national systems and infrastructures supporting the full cycle of eProcurement activities.

The pilots that will be developed in PEPPOL will support any economic operator in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA) to respond to any published public tender notice electronically and to govern the entire procurement process from their own national infrastructure to any another national infrastructure.

19. Has a legal obligation been established, and if so, is this already being implemented?

A new legislative framework for the use of electronic means in public procurement entered into force in January 2006. Below follows the directives and thereafter the explanatory documents concerning the context of electronic public procurement. Consequently the PEPPOL-project will strive to proceed in compliance with the new directives. These are

Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors

Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1564/2005 of 7 September 2005 establishing standard forms for the publication of notices in the framework of public procurement procedures pursuant to Directives 2004/17/EC and 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council

Commission Directive 2005/51/EC of 7 September 2005 amending Annex XX to Directive 2004/17/EC and Annex VIII to Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on public procurement

Directive 2001/115/EC of the Council of 20 December 2001 with a view to simplifying, modernising and harmonising the conditions laid down for invoicing in respect of value added tax:

Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 on a Community framework for electronic signatures

Commission Regulation (EC) 213/2008 of 28 November 2007 amending Regulation (EC) NÂ° 2195/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) and Directives 2004/17/EC and 2004/18/EC of the European parliament and of the Council on public procurement procedures, as regards the revision of the CPVÂ

20. What organizations have to adhere to the legal obligation so established ?

Governments and their suppliers have to adhere to those regulations.