Reseller bags QLD government e-procurement deal

Local government reseller IPlatinum has won a lucrative deal with Local Buy to integrate the marketboomer e-procurement system for 125 Queensland local government councils.

marketboomer had previously been used for around 12 months by the councils as a 'standalone solution', to handle around $1.5 billion in annual online IT and office equipment purchases by councils in the state.

Local Buy -- a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Local Government Association of Queensland -- is driving the project for the councils and is believed to have around 400 suppliers already dealing through the online procurement system.

Mike Preedy, CEO at iPlatinum, said the reseller would integrate the system throughout 125 councils across the state and had a deadline of 1 July 2004.

iPlatinum was working with around 10 suppliers of backend financial systems to local councils, to allow invoices for purchases by council staff to be imported directly into individual council's financial software platforms.

'Where they purchase goods through marketboomer, that transaction will backend into their [the council's] financial systems,' Preedy said.

Financial software suppliers to Queensland councils include the likes of Technology One with its Finance One package, Practical Computing and Jigsaw, which sells the JD Edwards software suite, Preedy said.

The integration services would be delivered progressively between now and the end of June next year. 'iPlatinum is providing the local government expertise, the project management and interaction with financial management system suppliers,' he added.

Under the arrangement, marketboomer -- which is an Australian government endorsed supplier -- is paid an annual fee and transaction fee for each order that is placed online. Preedy said the company is turning over $3 million a month in transactions and with 125 Queensland councils jumping on the bandwagon over the next six months, the 'numbers could be quite high'.

The system would also let councils integrate with supplier's websites for the purpose of ordering goods and services and querying real-time pricing. It would also let users connect to the marketplace using the same user ID and password that they use for other internal systems inside each council.

This is the first e-procurement contract marketboomer has signed outside the hospitality and health care markets where it claimed it dominates.

David Mayman, managing director at marketboomer, claimed councils could achieve purchasing and administrative cost savings by being part of a larger council buying community and can be assured of the best price for every order.