Facilitating interoperable electronic procurement across Europe : e.PRIOR.
Date: 2010-11-08
Institutions: Directorate-General for Digital Services, Directorate-General for the Internal Market and Services
Subjects: award of contract, cross-frontier data flow, electronic document, information technology, public contract, systems interconnection

EUROPEAN
COMMISSION

Directorate-General for the
Internal Market and Services

Facilitating interoperable
electronic procurement
across Europe

‘The Commission, and DIGIT 
in particular, is currently 
exploring ways to bring 
IT procurement cooperation 
between the European Union 
Institutions, Agencies and 
other bodies (EUIs) one step 
further, through its ongoing 

e-procurement project. This project aims to a paperless 
procurement cycle that would simplify manual interactions, 
save time and reduce payment delays, and would 
encourage businesses from all over Europe 
to participate in public tenders issued by the Commission 
and other EUIs.’

2

Mr Francisco García Morán
Director-General for IT
European Commission

Benefits of e-procurement

Process benefits:

(cid:1)  Generates cost savings on data encoding

(cid:1)  Enhances data quality

(cid:1)  Allows meeting tighter timelines

(cid:1)  Reduces payment deadlines, therefore minimising 

delay interest

(cid:1)  Ensures transparency for the suppliers

Organisational benefits:

(cid:1)  Improves the image 
of the organisation

(cid:1)  Automation helps providing 
efficient and high-quality 
services

(cid:1)  Attracts better offers 
due to faster invoice/ 
payment processing

‘Europe needs better 
administrative cooperation 
to develop and deploy 
cross-border public online 
services. This includes the 
implementation of seamless 
e-procurement.’
Source: European Digital Agenda 

3

(cid:1)  Uses a paperless process that is environment friendly

 – What is it?

 is a service-oriented platform developed by DIGIT. 
It exchanges post-award documents by using web services 
or over the PEPPOL network through its built-in gateway. 
PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement Online — 

http://www.peppol.eu) is a large-scale pilot funded by the 
Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) 
focusing on cross-border e-procurement. 

 also implements the emerging e-procurement 

standards. 

Who uses 

?

 is the solution used by the European Commission, the 

European Union Agencies and Institutions, and their suppliers.

What about Open 

?

 is the open-source version of the platform 

Open 
targeted at the Member States, offering the same 
 .
functionality as 

4

 – Main features

(cid:1)  Can interconnect multiple suppliers with multiple back-
office systems, while guaranteeing the authenticity of 
origin, integrity and readability of all transferred documents

(cid:1)  Provides a built-in gateway to the PEPPOL network

(cid:1)  Complies with the following: CEN/BII profiles, 

e-invoicing directive, standard identifiers and code lists,  
WS-Interoperability guidelines

(cid:1)  Is capable of processing unlimited attachments 

per invoice (XLS, PDF, DOC)

(cid:1)  Does not require a change of confi guration for contracting 

 is able to route 
authorities using the system: 
documents from multiple suppliers to the appropriate 
back offi  ce on the contracting authority’s side.

 – How does 

it work?

 integration with several back offi  ces 

The following high-level diagram shows an example 
of 
of a contracting authority, using the PEPPOL network 
to exchange messages with suppliers.

Back office

5

Back office

Supplier(s)

Back office

 
 – 
e-invoicing scenario

The following steps take place when a contracting authority 
and its suppliers use the e-invoicing web service provided 
by 

.

Step 4: 

 routes the

invoice to the 
appropriate back offi  ce 
at the contracting 
authority

4

Step 3: 

pre-
processes 
the invoice

3

Step 2: 
The supplier 
system 
conveys 
the invoice 
to 
(via the 
PEPPOL 
network)

2

Step 1: 
The supplier 
encodes 
the invoice 
manually 
in its own 
system, 
according to 
the supplier 
workfl ow

1

Supplier(s)

6

Back office

5

Back office

Step 5: 
Invoice is 
handled 
using the 
back offi  ce 
workfl ow 
and then the 
back offi  ce 
sends a 
response to  

Back office

6

Step 6: 
The supplier 
receives an 
application 
response

 
 – Why use it?

Has been deployed 
and is being used by the  
European Commission

‘Stimulate trans-border 
e-commerce by the promotion, 
and government adoption, of 
interoperable e-procurement, 
e-invoicing and e-payment 
systems based on open and 
flexible technologies.’
Source: Granada Ministerial Declaration, 
19 April 2010

7

Enables reusability 
of a solution that 
has already been 
implemented at the 
European Commission

Is worth three years 
of analysis, development 
and testing

Is a free-to-use 
open-source 
platform

Allows sharing of 
practical experience and 
lessons learned

Assistance is 
provided to Member 
States, Agencies and 
European Institutions

 – 

Implementation benefits

(cid:1)  Reusable B2G electronic documents exchange system 

(cid:1) 

 uses standards for enabling pan-European 
interoperability and thus more suppliers are ready to 
invest in connecting to the platform

(cid:1)  Buyers can adopt a gradual approach for implementing 

e-procurement

‘Embed innovation and cost-effectiveness 
into e-government through the 
systematic promotion of open standards 
and interoperable systems, development 
of EU-wide e-authentication schemes and 
proactive development of e-invoicing, 
e-procurement (and pre-commercial 
procurement).’

Source: Granada Ministerial Declaration, 19 April 2010

8

(cid:1)  

 provides 
connectivity to the 
PEPPOL network  
via a built-in and 
turnkey PEPPOL 
gateway

(cid:1) Every supplier 
connected to  
the PEPPOL network  
is automatically  
connected  
.
to 

 – 
What’s next?

(cid:1)  A DIGIT supplier portal 
developed for SMEs will 
provide a graphical user 
interface to some 
services.

(cid:1)  Analysing the pre-awarding 

processes

(cid:1)  Support of electronic 

signature

(cid:1)  Support of the UN/CEFACT 

standards

‘We will ensure that open 
specifications are promoted in 
our national interoperability 
frameworks in order to lower 
barriers to the market.’ 
Source: Ministerial Declaration 
on e-government, 18 November 2009

9

Are you interested in 
?

(cid:1)  Contact our dedicated 

 team by e-mail at

DIGIT-EPRIOR-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu 

Are you interested in 

?

(cid:1)  Participate:

•  Register at the project website and participate  

in the OSOR community. We look forward to having  
you on board. 

•  Join the 

 community in order to learn 

more about the project, contribute your feedback  
and participate in the making of this platform through 
http://www.osor.eu/projects/openeprior

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(cid:1)  Learn: 

•  Download the latest version of 

on the OSOR website from  
http://forge.osor.eu/frs/?group_id=188 

•  Read documentation about 

a guide on how to get 
understand the software architecture through  
http://forge.osor.eu/docman/?group_id=188 

, including 
 running and to 

  
(cid:1)  Contact our dedicated 

 team:

•  By e-mail at DIGIT-EPRIOR-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu

•  In the forum at  

http://forge.osor.eu/forum/?group_id=188

Related links

•  PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement Online): 

http://www.peppol.eu/

•  E-procurement page of  
the Directorate-General  
for the Internal Market  
and Services:  
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_
market/publicprocurement/ 
e-procurement_en.htm

•   

 case (e-invoicing 

and e-ordering):  
http://www.epractice.eu/cases/
ePRIOR

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More information on the European Union is available on the Internet 
(http://europa.eu).

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Luxembourg: Publications Offi  ce of the European Union, 2010
© European Union, 2010

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doi:10.2799/13183
ISBN 978-92-79-16676-1