Oracle beefs up Blair's back-end

The marketplace will be a key part of Blair's Modernising Government plans. It will offer joint sales, technology and service provision for all public sector suppliers, and it's hoped, will help reduce the government's annual £14bn procurement bill by at least £1bn.

Joanne Stuart, applications solution manager at Oracle, said the B2B marketplace is essential as government increasingly faces the same problems as businesses in needing to reduce procurement costs and speed up purchasing.

She told silicon.com: "The system will give government better control over purchasing, better information for negotiating with suppliers and help them be more efficient."

Oracle will provide the Exchange software and internet procurement applications, while J2C will host the service.