Renewing Hilma offers more versatile services
Hilma or the procurement notice service at hankintailmoitukset.fi will be renewed to better serve the different user groups. The new Hilma will be introduced in early 2020. Hansel is responsible for the management of the project, and participants in the reform work include the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, the Ministry of Finance, the public procurement consulting unit and several other parties.
Hilma is an electronic notice channel where procurement units announce their public procurement projects. Companies use Hilma to receive real-time information on ongoing procurement procedures and advance notices on future procurement projects. All procurement projects that exceed the national and EU threshold value, as well as procurement projects that receive public funding are announced in Hilma.
Modernisation of the website to suit the current needs will support the market and facilitate the work on public procurement. Guidelines in the reform are increased openness, a user-centred approach and continuous development. Hilma, which is at present mainly a notice channel, will take tenderers, partners and parties who seldom need the service better into account.
“We will serve the market, in particular, by offering more information on future procurement projects. We want the new Hilma to make participation in tendering easier and hope that the reform will lead to more good offers from SMEs, for example,” says Tiina Luoma, the project manager in charge of the Hilma reform.
Like the current service, the new Hilma will be offered openly and free of charge to all procurement units. The service will also include the opportunity to subscribe to notifications about procurement projects that interest you, and the completion of contract award notices will be more fluent, for example.
Aiming for a developing service
Over the course of the year, the features of the user-based service were determined in close cooperation with the future users. A team consisting of procurement experts, such as representatives of procurement units and companies, was created to support the development of Hilma. Wishes were also mapped by means of online surveys.
“The team convened several times during the year, and it assisted in creating a solid foundation for the service that is based on the wishes and views of the future users of the service. Wireframe UI models and other user experience elements were created in close cooperation,” says Timo Rantanen, development manager.
The tendering process on the implementation of Hilma was completed in late 2018. The offer with the best price-quality ratio was by Innofactor Business Solutions Oy. The agreement to be signed with Innofactor consists of the delivery, commissioning, maintenance and further development of Hilma. Hilma will be renewed on the Microsoft Azure platform, primarily using the Platform as a Service model (PaaS). The service will be developed by using agile methods. In the future, open interfaces that enable versatile utilisation of data will be added to Hilma. The open interfaces could allow introducing the data pool to the own systems of the involved organisations, for example.
“We must take EU-level development projects, such as the development of electronic procurement, the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) and the renewal of the Tenders Electronic Daily service, in the development work,” says Timo Rantanen.