The Small Business Bureau



The Small Business Bureau, is a semi-autonomous agency established under the Ministry of Business, based on the Small Business Act of 2004.



The Small Business Bureau office was established in 2010, and became operational in 2013 with funding from the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF), for the ‘Micro and Small Enterprise Development (MSED Programme). The MSED Programme was implemented from 2013 to 2018, and facilitated access to finance and business development services for small businesses.



Industry



Government / Business Development



Platform



Web Server Application



Languages & Technologies



PHP, MySQL, HTML5, CSS, jQuery, Google APIs



Architecture



MVC (Model View Controller)

MVVM (Model View View-Model)



Objectives



Gain a centralized view of Government invitations for bids and tenders through a information management system, for the storage, organization and retrieval of Tenders and Invitations for Bids.


Host all client information and documentation, ensuring they are up to date and relevant for opportunities.


Facilitate a feedback system to gather data on awardee performance.


Track government spending to ensure 20% or above and monitor the allocation of contracts which are awarded to micro and small businesses.



The Approach



Multi stakeholder engagement and journey mapping was accomplished as the team took a function oriented approach to understanding the various steps in the current Tender and Request for Bids processes. With a spiral method we were able to prototype and test to detect early areas of risk and evolving user requirements.


The iterative nature of this approach greatly assisted with the UI and UX development and overall client and user satisfaction



The Results



A cloud-based solution where approved and registered micro and small business clients of the Small Business Bureau can gain access to a bid library containing information on the procurement of good, services and works listed by the various Government Ministries of Guyana.


A portal where Government Ministries and various departments within the Ministries could access a database of eligible micro and businesses from whom to procure goods, services and works.


We transformed manual processes by making creating request for bids and tenders, publishing, and content delivery easier and faster. We also raised the visibility of these opportunities, by creating notification emails to eligible bidders.



Key Features



Self Management





  • Clients of the Small Business Bureau could populate their account in the portal through a unique log in.
  • The various Ministries within the Government would access their main and sub accounts, with varying administrative levels to perform functions such as adding, editing, deleting users and tenders or information for bids as well as awarding contracts.


Integration Management





Bringing together the Small Business Bureau’s current client management software and sub systems, to create a single unified system, securely accessible by various entities.



Data & Reporting





The Power of Data cannot be understated. The reports generated will

  • Track spending in individual Government Ministries
  • Show trends in procurement
  • Provide feedback on success and failure rates of bidder performance


Shifting the culture



We totally expected a resistance to the learning curve, the new digitization of processes brings a higher level of accountability and expectations of greater efficiency. In an effort to lead the transition, the team at Sites Builders and EMTEC worked along with the Small Business Bureau to hold several sensitization and demonstration sessions. Answering questions and gaining insights from valuable feed back to improve the portal. Some key features which were added with the deeper understanding gained were:

  • Notifications of non-award of bid or tender
  • Description of services rendered to complement the rating system


80 Duncan Street, Newtown, Kitty
Georgetown, Guyana





Sites Builders , a brand of emtec &
Gurchuran Investments Inc.