Confused by the procurement systems? Finding your way through the Swedish procurement jungle

There's a lot about procurement that can feel difficult, for suppliers and buyers alike. Samuel Repfennig is a product owner responsible for data collection at Tendium. In this post he explains the different sources where procurement data is available, what sets them apart, and what they have in common.

First off – what is a procurement system?

When a buyer creates a procurement, it's typically done in a so-called procurement system, by filling in a form with information to generate a procurement notice and uploading the procurement documents.

There are three major procurement systems in Sweden today: KommersAnnons, e-Avrop, and TendSign. Beyond these there are also a number of much smaller procurement tools. A supplier can log in to register interest, download the procurement documents, ask questions, and finally submit a tender within the procurement system.

These major procurement systems can be described as primary sources – it's here that the original data used by various monitoring services first becomes available.

Aggregating sources

Beyond primary sources, there are other sources that pull information from these and aggregate it for different purposes: partly to provide monitoring services, and partly to fulfil legal requirements on storing information.

Fulfilling statutory data-retention requirements

There is a law and a regulation on procurement statistics. The Procurement Agency (UHM) is responsible for procurement statistics, and the Competition Authority (KKV) is responsible for registering and approving notice databases. Notice databases must make it possible to identify procurements, state which law the procurement is conducted under, provide the information free of charge, and be digital.

Registered notice databases in KKV's register include, among others: e-Avrop (run by e-Avrop AB), KommersAnnons.se (Primona AB), Mercell Notice Database (Mercell Commerce AB), Konstpool (Konstpool AB), CTM (Mercell CTM AB), and Clira Notice Database (AreaChica AB).

Registered notice databases

Konstpool is used, among other things, to advertise procurements for art and culture. CTM was previously known as EU Supply and is essentially no longer used in Sweden. Clira, among other things, publishes its own notices for direct awards. e-Avrop functions as both a procurement tool and a registered notice database.

Supplier portals

KommersAnnons hosts several supplier portals – for example, the City of Stockholm, the Police Authority, and the Swedish Transport Administration all have their own portals where they publish their procurements. Data from all of KommersAnnons' supplier portals is compiled into their registered notice database. Mercell Opic serves as the registered notice database for procurements published via the Mercell Tendsign procurement tool.

Procurements above the threshold

Beyond this there's Tenders Electronic Daily (TED), where all notices for procurements above the European threshold are aggregated. It's a statutory requirement to send notices for these procurements to TED.

Monitoring services

There are also aggregating sources that gather data for commercial purposes – and that's where Tendium comes in. We provide a monitoring service and aggregate information from every source where procurements are published in Sweden. The purpose of a procurement monitoring service is therefore different from the purpose of a procurement tool or a registered notice database.

Having a monitoring service and a procurement tool under the same corporate group can be confusing

e-Avrop, KommersAnnons, and TendSign are owned by companies that also have monitoring tools, but these are separate from the procurement systems. It gets extra confusing when a monitoring tool also serves as a registered notice database, as is the case with Mercell Opic.

Do I need a monitoring service from the same company that provides the procurement system?

No! A procurement system and a monitoring service are two separate things. Procurement data is public information and can be retrieved by anyone. The information is also available through other monitoring services – choose the one that best suits your needs.

What kind of notices get published?

All procurements carried out under LOU, LUF, LUFS, or LUK are published in a notice database. A contracting authority is legally required to publish notices, both above and below the European threshold. You can find every published procurement with a value above the direct-award threshold in Tendium's monitoring service.

Where do I find direct awards?

One exception to the statutory requirement to publish procurements is direct awards – the direct-award threshold currently stands at SEK 700,000. If a procurement's value is estimated to be below that threshold, there's no specific requirement to publish a notice, but in practice many direct awards are advertised anyway, since authorities often have internal guidelines to publish notices for direct awards above a certain level.

There are some channels specifically for direct awards, such as our partner Clira. Municipalities and authorities sometimes publish their direct awards on their own websites. You can also find all publicly published direct awards through Tendium.