In 2006 EM IEP recognised Derbyshire County Council's 'Source Derbyshire' website as good practice and provided funding to roll-out equivalent site for Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire. and Rutland The sites are tied up to the overarching Source East Midlands website which has been a valuable to tool for local and national businesses searching for contract opportunities.

EM IEP have recently provided further funding to refresh the site to enhance the demand from businesses in providing all the information they need to ensure authority tenders/contracts are publicised as widely as possible.

A wide range of products and services are required by local government across the East Midlands, from ingredients to make school dinners, to IT equipment, paper, building materials, vehicles and construction. Any organisation connected with local government in the East Midlands can use the free service to advertise the goods and services they wish to buy.

Businesses can sign up to receive free alerts on the area of business they are interested in. And the Source websites work both on PC's, mobile phones and has an iPhone App.

Authorities will benefit through:
- Cost reduction opportunities made through removing the need to advertise in chargeable publications
- Increased reputation gained through clear and transparent good practice
- Opportunities to increase the local £ (LM3 effect)
Addressing a number of areas in Central Governments Transparency agenda

The websites will have a number of key themes:
• Tender Alerts
• Search ability
• PQQ Corner
• Potential for wider Affiliation
• Granular
• Easy Administration
• Easily Developable
• Easy print option
• Signposting to other opportunity sites, guidance and business support
• Mobile functionality across a number of platforms (Blackberry, Ipods etc
• RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works

Each website will as now be designed around:
i) A standard template
ii) Allow some local customising for each affiliate
iii) Live Opportunities
iv) Awards
v) Sub Contract opportunities
vi) Forward Procurement Plan
vii) Contacts

Visit the Source East Midlands website and sub-regional versions at:
www.sourceeastmidlands.co.uk