Sabinet Online's SA Tenders product originated in 1996 when the company started publishing the Government Tender Bulletin electronically.
The product soon expanded into a fully-fledged full-text database of tenders, with the addition of private South African tenders as well as African and European tenders, and the inclusion of news about tenders and tender activities in SA. Future plans entail the continual expansion of the database content and tender sources as well as the development of a Web portal for the SA Tenders - offering more value to subscribers who use the service extensively.
Judy Mangold, from the Library and Information Centre at KPMG, reflects on their usage of SA Tenders: "KPMG is an international practice that offers auditing, consulting, taxation and business advisory services to industry and government in many diverse fields.
"Our client list includes mining giants, financial institutions, pharmaceutical manufacturers, telecommunication service providers, construction companies, public utilities, transporters, e-commerce enablers - in fact representatives of almost every industry you can think of.
"Because KPMG's specialists are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to tender for a wide range of services, they need to monitor the press for invitations to tender. This had become an arduous task until, earlier this year, we discovered Sabinet Online's Tender Service.
"SA Tenders covers far more source publications than we can ever hope to subscribe to.
"Also, the fact that it's accessible on the Internet means that the monitoring can be decentralised, with each department running its own regular searches for tenders within its field of expertise, using appropriate keywords.
"Internet access means that information about tenders is found quickly and efficiently by the people who need it - no time is wasted while pieces of paper travel by snail mail, or lie unattended in in-trays.
"The user can call up yesterday's, or last week's, or this month's tenders, or search according to the closing date.
"The firm's Library and Information Centre ensures awareness of the service, manages the distribution of usernames and passwords and shows users how it works. Departments that use the service most efficiently have designated a specific person in the department to run regular searches so as to avoid duplication of effort.
"At KPMG we are ever alert for electronic products to replace paper-based information distribution methods and we find SA Tenders to be a useful tool in our constant search for opportunities to provide service."
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