Brisk business transacted online at
ePerolehan Customer Day in Putrajaya.

Putrajaya, Oct 28, 2003,

If transactions created at the ePerolehan Customer Day at the Ministry of Finance is any indication, then the world’s first successfully implemented e-procurement system is going to be a huge success sooner than expected.

Since yesterday’s biggest single online purchase order in the history of ePerolehan, an order from the Home Ministry worth RM2.3 million, online transactions at the venue has grown to more than 50 transactions worth over RM3.2 million as at noon today.

According to the company appointed by the government to implement and manage ePerolehan, Commerce Dot Com Sdn Bhd (CDC), this is just the beginning of more good things to come.

CDC Executive Director, Datuk Azizan Ayob said that, CDC, together with the Ministry of Finance, is working very hard to achieve full application of the e-procurement system, and that it will soon cover a comprehensive list of clients in the public sector.

“Once suppliers and government ministries become more familiar with the simplicity of the operating procedure and experience the benefits of ePerolehan, we expect heavier traffic of transactions online through the system.”

Meanwhile, CDC Chief Operating Officer, Jasim Puthucheary, announced that due to the overwhelming response in the last 2 days, the event is extended to 31^st October. He also said that the increase in the number of transaction seen over the last few months has been due to strong government policies on the usage of ePerolehan. According to Treasury Circular No 5, 2003, the government will only procure with suppliers who are registered with ePerolehan.

“Since the circular was issued on 13 August, 2003 we have seen a surge in the rate of supplier enablement. To date, 7161 suppliers have been enabled with approximately 70,000 catalogue items in the ePerolehan electronic catalogue. We also estimate 20,000 suppliers to enable themselves by year-end. Our ePerolehan Customer Day event is part of CDC’s effort to achieve that target.”

AVP Reza Ali mentioned that next year’s transaction volume is expected to increase massively due to system usage early in the year as PTJs are procuring with their recently released budgets.

There has also been a huge increase in government transactions through ePerolehan as a result of the circular. With more enabled suppliers we can expect an even bigger increase in government transactions through the system.

Since its launch yesterday morning, by the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, ePerolehan Customer Day has been visited by more than 600 government suppliers and businessmen who were able to witness firsthand the profit-making benefits of the electronic procurement system.

The event, known as Hari Pelanggan ePerolehan dan eSPKB 2003, was organized by the Finance Ministry and CDC.

ePerolehan, the electronic procurement system developed under the Multimedia  Super Corridor (MSC) e-government flagship application project, has not only helped government suppliers run their business in a more effective and efficient manner but has also increased their sales and reduced their operating costs. Some suppliers are enjoying more than 40% increase in sales, some even more than 100%.

The ePerolehan Consumer Day event also gave the opportunity for government representatives and suppliers to iron out teething problems, in its implementation.

During a forum yesterday, suppliers expressed enthusiastic support for the electronic procurement system, and hoped that government procuring centres, or PTJs (Pusat TanggungJawab) would adopt the platform faster.

Government suppliers who have not signed up for ePerolehan or who are new to the system should take the opportunity to participate in the Customer Day event.

More than anything else, the Customer Day will help promote ePerolehan as the world’s first successfully implemented electronic procurement system.   More information on the ePerolehan Consumer Day is available on www.eperolehan.com.my