This tool has been developed under the SPARCS project and in collaboration with Espoo (Finland),
Leipzig (Germany), Maia (Portugal), Kladno (Czech Republic), Kifissia (Greece), and Reykjavik
(Iceland).
If you are a city that is looking to procure innovation, BABLE’s Market Consultation Tool allows
you to consult the market in a quick and easy way. Publishing a market consultation on BABLE will
automatically inform hundreds of relevant and innovative Smart City companies in our community of
your intention of procurement, resulting in higher response rates.
Publishing market consultations can help cities in two ways:
- It better prepares cities for the tender process. By engaging with the market, cities can assess the
possibilities of suppliers to deliver the solution they are looking for and evaluate how feasible
their needs are.
- By inviting interested suppliers to be involved early on, their capabilities to respond with
high-quality applications improve.
The use of the Market Consultation tool allows cities to expand their reach greatly beyond that
of their official tendering portal. BABLE’s tool does not replace any official tendering process but
rather exists as complement that will increase the amount of suppliers that respond on the cities’
tendering portal.
Get started
with the
Market Consultation Invitation
Do you already know what type of innovation you would like to procure?
Select the corresponding Solution area and we will directly present you with an
automatically generated list of tech providers from all over Europe that specialise
in that area.
After that we offer you the possibility to reach out to all of them (and
others) by creating a Market Consultation invitation on BABLE.
See Overview Of Providers
Create Invitation
Receive Feedback From Providers
Not sure which Solution area to pick?
Solution areas on BABLE have been defined after analysing many use cases and
Smart City solutions on the market. You can read more about each one of them
here.
BABLE Guide to Market Consultation
Learn more about Market Consultation, its benefits and limitations
What is a Preliminary Market Consultation?
Preliminary Market Consultations are a way to engage with the market in the
early stages of procurement with the goal of improving the procurement process. They
can involve extensive dialogue with suppliers or be as simple as a prior information
notice about your procurement intentions.
How can I do one myself?
There are many methods to engage the market in a preliminary consultation.
The correct approach should be based on an evaluation of a number of factors
including the complexity of the solution looking to be procured, your own team’s
knowledge level thereof, the market complexity and maturity, the goals of the
procurement procedure such as policy or innovation objectives, and the expected
value of the contract. Generally, more complex or innovative procurement procedures
would lend themselves to more extensive consultations.
Challenges and benefits of cross-border consultation
Challenges:
- Geographical differences, such as language
- Likely a new procedure
- More complex response
- Greater time investment
Benefits:
- Take advantage of the whole European Market (encouraged by Procurement Directive)
- Receive more inputs, from more diverse sources
- Exposure to more perspectives is especially valuable when implementing innovation
- Create more competition and thus better-quality bids
Converting outcomes of consultation to effective procurement
Carefully review all inputs received during the consultation and incorporate
the results in the tender-writing process. Is the budget appropriate? Are the
specifications feasible and do they make sense? Will there be enough interest from
the market to justify going to tender?
Get inspired by real use cases
Are you not sure yet of which kind of innovation your city needs, or would
just like to explore what is possible? Search through our use cases to get inspired
by BABLE's extensive database of smart city projects that is relevant to
you.