www.itcon.org - Journal of Information Technology in Construction - ISSN 1874-4753
ITcon Vol. 16 (2011), Eadie, pg. 669
ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF E-PROCUREMNT IN THE PUBLIC AND
PRIVATE SECTORS OF THE UK CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
SUBMITTED: August 2010
REVISED: January 2011
PUBLISHED: May 2011 at http://www.itcon.org/2011/39
EDITOR: Turk Ž.
Robert Eadie,
School of the Built Environment, University of Ulster
email:r.eadie@ulster.ac.uk
Srinath Perera,
School of the Built & Natural Environment, Northumbria University
email: srinath.perera@northumbria.ac.uk
George Heaney,
School of the Built Environment, University of Ulster
email: sg.heaney@ulster.ac.uk
SUMMARY: Eadie et.al (2010a, 2010b) identified 20 advantages in the adoption of e-procurement within a
construction organisation. The Glover report (2008) indicated that by the end of 2010 all public sector
procurement should be electronic. The use of e-procurement within the construction industry has been
inadequately researched. Martin (2009) examined quantity surveying organisations perspectives on the use of e-
procurement across the United Kingdom. This paper seeks to address the knowledge gap that exists in the
analysis of the level of usage of e-procurement within the construction industry. It compares the findings for the
construction industry with other industries on company size and spend. Martin (2009) does not seek to
investigate the size or spend on procurement activities of those quantity surveying organisations who have
adopted e-procurement.
This paper investigates the correlations between size, procurement spend and adoption of e-procurement in
construction organisations comparing it with other industries. It concludes that the findings of Griloa and
Jardim-Goncalves (2010) and European Commission (2007) were correct in suggesting that the AEC sector has
been lagging behind other sectors in the adoption of e-procurement and provides a breakdown of the different
types of organisations who currently use e-procurement.
It further identifies the size of organisations which have implemented e-procurement within construction. On the
client and consultant side in traditional contracts, company sizes of 21-50 employees make the highest use of e-
procurement. This confirms that when analysing according to the size of organisation, construction
organisations perform in a similar way to other industries as reported in Batenburg (2007) and Gunasekarana
and Ngai (2008). However, this study indicates that very small companies may still be put off by the costs of
software (corroborates De Boer et al, 2002; Kauffman and Mohtadi, 2004).
The study proposes the types of construction organisation most likely to be utilising the benefits of e-
procurement in construction by procurement spend and size. It also indicates that the deadlines in the Glover
report (2008) relating to e-procurement in construction are unlikely to be met.
KEYWORDS: e-procurement, Use of e-procurement
REFERENCE: Eadie R, Perera S, and Heaney G (2011) Analysis of the Use of e-procurement in the Public and
Private Sectors of the UK Construction Industry, Journal of Information Technology in Construction (ITcon),
Vol.16, pg. 669 - 686, http://www.itcon.org/2011/39
COPYRIGHT: © 2011 The authors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 unported (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited.