NSW ServiceFirst secures cloudBuy for treasury, IT procurement

UK e-commerce provider cloudBuy will help the NSW Government consolidate its shared-services procurement through a six-month implementation of the company's cloud-based online marketplace.

The project, which will initially see 20 state treasury and ICT suppliers onboarded to cloudBuy's eMarketplace solution to ensure a smooth migration, will be integrated with the state's existing SAP enterprise platform to enable electronic invoicing and purchase order synchronisation.

CloudBuy did not name which state was involved in the project, but NSW ServiceFirst acting executive director Jennifer Palmer confirmed in a blog post that it was the agency that would be trialling the CloudBuy service as one of a number of initiatives – including the rollout of purchasing cards to simplify the purchase of lower-value goods and services – to streamline procurement processes.

eMarketplace presents buyers with a 'virtual shopping mall' that tailors available goods and services based on the user's role. The system also automatically identifies the best price for an item across a number of vendors, highlighting cases where another agency has achieved a better price.

Shoppers can also build a shopping card of goods and services from multiple suppliers at the same time.

CloudBuy has secured a transaction-based charging model that is expected to secure it $900,000 in revenues in the first year, eventually rising to as much as $7.2 million per year.

That model, developed in partnership with cloudBuy partner Visa, replaces conventional models based on annual license costs and is being positioned as a proof of concept for cloud-delivered procurement services.

“Traditional annual license fees are becoming increasingly unpopular with SaaS vendors and customers alike who want more flexible payment models based on actual usage and needs,” CloudBuy chairman Ronald Duncan said in a statement.

Duncan noted that the project was the company's first online marketplace in Australia, and builds on earlier contract wins for its spend analysis tools.

“As we continue to grow our global footprint,” he said, “we are in discussions with many similar potential customers who wish to explore the benefits that cloudBuy's solutions can bring.”

CloudBuy already has over 1 million users of its platform, mostly in its native UK. – David Braue