Electronic Procurement Solution (EPS)

The Electronic Procurement Solution (EPS) is Public Services and Procurement Canada's modern, cloud-based, Government of Canada-wide procure-to-order solution. It manages the procurement of goods, services and construction, and PSPC describes it as the default system for that work in its 2024-25 departmental results reporting.

EPS is a Canadian federal procurement-modernization initiative led by PSPC. It is not a NATO procurement term. It gives federal buyers online tools for sourcing, contract lifecycle management, supplier relationship management, spend analysis and electronic purchasing, and it gives suppliers a simpler way to find and respond to opportunities.

What the EPS platform includes

EPS is a commercial software-as-a-service environment built from several products. PSPC's briefing materials for the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (November 2023 and May 2024) identify these components:

• SAP Ariba for core procurement and e-sourcing functions.
• SAP Fieldglass for external-resource management.
• ServiceNow for help-desk functionality.
• CanadaBuys as the supplier-facing portal and single window for procurement opportunities.

The privacy impact assessment summary for EPS lists the business functions covered: e-sourcing, contract lifecycle management, supplier relationship management, spend analysis and e-purchasing through catalogues.

How EPS connects to CanadaBuys

CanadaBuys is the public-facing access point of the solution. According to the Canadian Digital Service research summary on electronic procurement, suppliers use it to learn about federal procurement, find opportunities open for competitive bidding and interact with the Government of Canada.

PSPC describes CanadaBuys as a single window. Suppliers can view opportunities from federal, provincial, territorial and municipal entities, as well as certain broader-public-sector organizations such as schools and hospitals. EPS is also tied to the replacement of legacy federal procurement tools, including the move from Buyandsell.gc.ca to CanadaBuys. PSPC's Question Period note presents the change as a way to make procurement more accessible and less administratively burdensome for suppliers, including small and medium-sized enterprises.

Implementation and delivery

PSPC completed the first implementation phase of EPS on June 30, 2023, as stated in the committee briefing materials linked above. PSPC awarded a contract to Infosys Public Services to implement and manage the solution. The contract was initially for five years, with options for up to seven additional years, according to the EPS privacy impact assessment summary.

PSPC operates EPS on behalf of federal departments and agencies. These organizations use it to buy the goods and services they need to deliver government programs, as outlined in the 2021-22 Main Estimates briefing.

What EPS means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

For a supplier, EPS is the system behind the way federal opportunities are published and managed. CanadaBuys is the place to find tenders and see opportunities from other levels of government and public-sector bodies in one location. Bid teams should read each CanadaBuys notice or solicitation closely and follow its registration, submission and electronic-response instructions. Those instructions govern how to respond to that specific opportunity.