Create and manage your supplier profile

esd-suppliers is the only website (apart from your own) where you can create and manage your own profile, accessible by esd-toolkit users to ensure that material most representative of your message is prominently displayed and refreshed. Showcase your success stories, products, significant local authority customer references and white papers, to provide a focused local government-centric presence.

Reference your products to services in the esd-toolkit tree to gain focused visibility

At the heart of esd-toolkit is the nationally agreed and recognised list of Government services (the ‘LGSL’). Reference your products and services against LGSL services and receive a highly targeted audience of local authority users who will see your product when they are using the esd-toolkit. If, for example, your company manufactured recycling boxes you would tag the product as applicable to the service ‘Curbside Recycling’. The product and a link to your company profile will be shown when esd-toolkit users are navigating this part of the tree.

Raise your market presence by sharing documents with esd-toolkit

As a subscriber to esd-suppliers you are able to upload your own documents to share with esd-toolkit local authorities. These could be success stories, product information, significant local authority customer references, white papers, etc. to include in your profile; or they could be process maps, or information relevant to projects you have undertaken. Your documents help support your local government-centric presence focused where the local authorities are most likely to see it. These can be referenced against the standard lists to enable local authorities to easily find them when they search against a specific topic.

There are thousands of documents and process maps in the esd-toolkit that are shared between authorities; many of these documents are available for suppliers to access and download.

Receive training and support on esd-toolkit and esd-standards

There is a wealth of information in esd-standards, but how do you gain the knowledge to exploit it? Subscribers nominate one (or more) employees to receive training and priority support on esd-toolkit, esd-standards and schemas, direct from the developers to keep you up to speed on correct ways of using esd-toolkit and esd-standards. Similarly, if you are developing a standard esd-suppliers can help publicise your work, support its adoption and link to the QA system developed by the Local eGovernment Standards Body.

People finder

As an esd-supplier subscriber you can elect to be listed in the People Finder and make it easy for Local Authorities to contact you.

The role of standards in esd-suppliers

The Local e-Government Standards Body (LeGSB) was re-launched in November 2006 to help local government identify, establish and promote standard, which contribute to transformational government outcomes.

The scope of standards includes:

• The langauges and formats that enable computer systems to communicate, both within a single organisation, and across organisational boundaries, irrespective of the supplier.
• The methods that enable organisations to share information and collaborate on joint change programmes and therefore include protocols, formats, schemas, scripts, and methodologies.

LeGSB is publishing an online Standards Catalogue with information which allows public sector projects to review existing standards and their usage.

Working arrangements for LeGSB and esd-suppliers

• Minimise duplication of effort and maximise sharing of resources between the two organisations.
• Provide a consistent messages to local authorities and their suppliers, minimising the number of locations they need to go to for information.
• Better document standards, illustrate their use and provide the means of assessing their efficacy

LeGSB will hold the 'over-arching' role of identifying standards and helping local government assess if they should be adopted.

esd Ltd will provide an example of how to support and maintain one consistent set of standards, referenced by the LeGSB Standards Catalogue.

Peer collaboration on integration issues

There are very few opportunities for suppliers to get together in a non-competitive forum to share experiences and information about the changing market conditions and the impact upon their customers. esd-suppliers members find this opportunity enables them to share professional experiences in areas that do not expose them to lose of competitive advantage.

Standards participation at your User Events

Several subscribers have already seen a value in inviting esd-suppliers to present our aims and objectives at user conferences and workshops. The opportunity to provide a "guest speaker" at an esd-suppliers members’ event enables us to convey the importance the organisation places on their integration strategy and stimulates discussion during and after the event.