2 Description
This section provides the context of the building block.
Governments are involved, directly or indirectly, in the purchase of various goods and services like computers/goods for their employees or technical services for projects to be implemented for the public welfare. E-Marketplace Building Block enables the trade of products and/or services via electronic media where at least one of the transacting parties taking part in the transaction is the government (either as the consumer or the provider) and the other party(ies) can be either pre-qualified providers or consumers of such goods and services (respectively).
The government eMarketplace facilitates transparency by creating equal opportunities for all the stakeholders (providers and consumers) and thus creates an efficient market for goods and services. It helps build new relationships and thus builds trust. The consumer gains more insights into price information from different providers and is empowered to make rational decision-making. The sellers can optimize the sales/marketing costs and can improve their product range/portfolio by observing the demand in their domains thus multiply their market options even in international markets. The digital facility reduces time constraints for both parties.
This document guides the creation of an e-Marketplace digital public infrastructure by connecting a set of interacting microservices. In the context of government, the government can itself act as a provider (For example: transferring money to citizens i.e. G2P), providing healthcare services (G2P); and also can demand goods and services , and other public entities (departmental transfers i.e. G2G) and private entities (For example: purchasing computers/ building and maintaining roads/technical/advisory/other maintenance services i.e. business to government (B2G)). This infrastructure is fundamentally decentralized or federated, although all the services can exist on a single cloud. This specification does not assume any specific implementation architecture or technology. Instead, it defines the actors and the interfaces that need to be implemented by the transacting entities. The current document focuses on enabling basic functionalities such as provider/consumer registration, listing a catalog of goods and services, and initiating a cycle of activities once a user selects a service. The document has considered payments/financial transactions between any two entities as optional based on the policies of the implementing government.
There may be more functionalities required in the larger context of government procurement lifecycle that may complement the functionalities we have considered as relevant for an e-marketplace. For some country contexts, these specification might only be applicable to governments post-procurement. Such complementary functionalities may be included in future enhancements of this specification.
The eMarketplace Building Block could be useful in a variety of applications in different sectors for example:
Government purchase of goods and services (B2G)
In the Health Sector, purchase of supplies to government hospitals.
In the Civil infrastructure sector, purchase of engineering services such as the construction of dams, buildings, computers, etc.
In the transportation sector, purchase of vehicles and associated maintenance services.
Government providing goods and services (G2B)
In the Social Security sector, cash/subsidy support services of government to eligible citizens.
In the health sector, supply of nutrition and medicine to homes of patients/ pregnant mothers.
In the education sector government providing free learning materials to students.
2.1 Current scope
While there may be many such use cases, within the current scope The functional requirements to cover the services required from the eMarketplace Building Block currently have considered specific use cases like,
Business to Government (B2G)
Government to People (G2P)
These use cases have business processes with several steps, where in specific steps that involve the e-Marketplace Building Block services were studied as example implementations (such as Discovery, Ordering, Fulfillment, and Post-Fulfillment of services rendered by individual entities and users in various roles.
Currently, the following actors have been identified as "users" of the e-Marketplace Building Block:
"Provider" is who manages the Building Block's implementation settings. A Building Block admin is also responsible for the enrolment of entitles and Organizers of those entities that use the eMarketplace Building Block. The Admins interact with the list of goods and services, the cycle of purchase activities, and communication management.
"Consumer" is the one who participates in events to perform various activities. Consumers must be registered in the eMarketplace Building Block before they can be enrolled in events. Resources may apply/respond to multiple goods and services in a catalog. Hence a registered consumer should be able to offer services in parallel if they are short-listed by the Provider.
"Subscribers" are platforms who participate in events to consume various activities. Subscribers must be registered in the e-Marketplace before they can be enrolled in activities. Subscribers may be enrolled in multiple events and may be passive to provider's requests.
"Internal team member" who participates in internal activities such as technical and financial evaluation of the bids received on the consumer side; preparation of documents and coordination across business development, technical, and managerial teams on the provider side. The corresponding "internal team member" communicates with the "provider" or "consumer", respectively.
For the sake of simplicity, the B2G use cases covered in this scope assume that the providers (businesses) are already vetted and empanelled by the consumer. Additional features that may be required in a complete procurement process will be considered in future versions of this specification. For more details, visit the Future Considerations section in Chapter 10 : Other Resources.
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