Digital Transformation of Public Procurement

Public procurement is a significant economic factor in Austria with over EUR 70 billion in contracts awarded by public bodies annually. However, the government’s digital and data strategies do not address public procurement. The absence of a national strategy for the digital transformation of public procurement risks the fragmentation of eProcurement efforts across different sectors and public bodies. This can lead to inconsistent approaches, lack of interoperability between systems, reduced ability to use integrated data, and a more complex environment for businesses.

Digital transformation goes beyond simply moving to electronic tools; it rethinks various pre-award and post-award phases. Implementing a digital transformation is anticipated to bring significant benefits for the public and private sectors, including streamlining and integrating procurement processes and fostering greater transparency and efficiency. Furthermore, digital transformation can help public procurement authorities leverage AI technologies in an effective and safe way by putting in place a digital-ready policy-making mindset, re-designing business processes and services, enhancing interoperability and data governance, and ensuring higher levels of cybersecurity.

Digital transformation would align Austria with national and European strategic objectives, such as the Digital Single Market, and better position it to participate in European initiatives such as the Public Procurement Data Space.

The project will result in the following outputs: 

• A stocktaking report on the current state of play of digital public procurement in Austria, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks

• A technical feasibility study for the digital transformation, simplification and integration of the Austrian public procurement landscape

• A delivery strategy proposal for the digital transformation of public procurement in Austria