Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen,
…you can see that…
buyandsell.gc.ca is on some screens
…and www.achatsetventes.gc.ca is on the other screens.
Since the creation of the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises, we have listened to the barriers and challenges that Canadian businesses have been facing when trying to do business with the Government of Canada.
Canadian businesses have reported two big challenges. When they are looking to do business with the Government of Canada, they must first master the jargon and understand the federal procurement process.
Before buyandsell.gc.ca, Canadian businesses had to navigate a variety of websites in an attempt to educate themselves about government procurement or to find information about what the government buys.
Canadian businesses expect the government to provide simple, effective, efficient access to services. New technologies such as mobile devices and important initiatives such as open government and open data have raised Canadians' expectations further.
Did you know that Government of Canada procurement represents a market of several billion dollars?
Did you know that the Government of Canada procurement represents a multi-billion dollar marketplace? So how is OSME helping Canadian small and medium-sized businesses to do business with the Government of Canada? OSME developed a single starting point: buyandsell.gc.ca is the government procurement website.
The address of the Government of Canada procurement website is www.buyandsell.gc.ca.
Buyandsell.gc.ca makes the experience of Canadian businesses trying to find out more about doing business with the government simple, fast, and efficient. GWGSC developed buyandsell.gc.ca
—www.achatsetventes.gc.ca in French—
by consulting with hundreds of Canadian businesses and government representatives across Canada. As we continue to listen to Canadian businesses, the site will evolve as a user-friendly, intuitive, and useful suite of services, leveraging the power of the Internet to help Canadian businesses do business with us.
Have we been successful? Since its launch in September 2010, buyandsell.gc.ca has served 230,000 visitors who have viewed over 840,000 pages.
Linda Oliver, the vice-president of the Information Technology Association of Canada, was among the major industry players supporting buyandsell and she said:
The facilitation of fair and easy procurement is a major priority for ITAC. We see great value in a website that could contribute to this end by providing both government and industry procurement professionals with the resources they need to buy and supply as efficiently as possible.
Let me give you an example. Let me introduce you to George. George is a cabinetmaker who owns a small construction business. George is looking to expand his construction business by exploring opportunities with the Government of Canada.
George would like to know where to start to sell his services and wood products to the Canadian government.
He would like to know where to begin his search for federal government opportunities to sell his services and wood products. After contacting the Office of Small and Medium Enterprise, he was directed to buyandsell.gc.ca.
From the www.buyandsell.gc.ca home page, he is directed to the section for businesses.
What are the steps to sell to the government?
George reads the various steps. The first is "understanding the process"; the second is "register your business"; the third is "promote yourself"; the fourth is "search for opportunities"; and the fifth is "bid on opportunities".
George clicks on the first link, step one, “Understanding the Process”. He scrolls down and finds out that for a small business, construction opportunities below $100,000 are facilitated through a web service called “Select”. That was simple. Prior to buyandsell.gc.ca, it was complex. This sort of information was buried below many mouse clicks and hidden behind terms not widely known or understood outside of government.
From wondering about how to do business, to registering, to selling, George will find it all on buyandsell.gc.ca.
Continuing on his first experience, he registers his company to get a procurement business number. Then, still on the site, he will see how to promote his business across government. He will find opportunities to bid on.
If George wants more information, the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises offers free seminars to help Canadian businesses interested in doing business with the federal government.
Across the country, six regional offices of the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises will help new businesses to understand the procurement process with seminars on registering, finding contracts, conducting market research, and more. With a greater knowledge of how to navigate the procurement process, George can begin bidding on opportunities to expand his business.
Buyandsell.gc.ca is the result of collaboration with Canadian businesses and government procurement professionals.
The www.buyandsell.gc.ca website guides new and experienced users through the various steps required to do business with the federal government.
Because it's easy to use and provides users with web-based services they need to do business with us, buyandsell.gc.ca revolutionizes the way SMEs do business with the Government of Canada.
With buyandsell.gc.ca, businesses can now focus more on doing business and less on finding out or figuring out how to do business.
Thank you for your time.