I would like to express some dissatisfaction on the transition from the Procurement Opportunity Board (POB) to the Open Bidding Service (OBS).
First of all, I have absolutely no problem with your thrust to make the bidding process as open as possible through such measures. In fact, I whole-heartedly support such actions towards paperless delivery system. However, the implementation of this change has caused a quantum-leap cost increase for my small business, so I thought I should let you know.
The POB through Bell Canada's iNet 2000 service was costing me about $5 CAD per month since I am a very occasional user and was checking only the "Science" section for Research and Development contracts once or twice a month. The OBS now costs me $246.10 CAD per year plus online connect charges. When I complained about this to the hotline, the explanation I got was that iNet 2000 also had an initiation cost. Yes, but it was a one-time cost, not a yearly cost. Also, another explanation was that the connect charge for the OBS is less than that for the POB. Well, I was using the POB only after 18:00 when lower non-prime iNet 2000 charges applied. The OBS has no such provision for off-peak hours.
What's more, I was able to pay for the POB through Bell Canada electronically, using TeleScotia bill payment option which is free of charge. The OBS accepts only manual cheques, not even credit cards, costing me the bank service charge plus postage!
The bids are over $25 000 CAD and receiving 1 contract may be enough to justify such a heavy burden for the OBS, but I understand that Supply and Services Canada has a plan to lower the threshold to $10 000 CAD soon. My company specialises in a very small field of Science and Technology, so it may take many years before I obtain the first contract.
In addition, despite the fact that I clearly indicated on the OBS application form that I wish to have software for the Macintosh computer, I received a diskette for the IBM-PC which is useless to me. The OBS hotline later told me that there is no diskette for the Macintosh and I have to purchase some other software from somewhere else myself!
With such a steep cost increase, I had expected the OBS to improve the communication speed over the POB, but it remains the same as before at 2400-baud, so my 9600-baud modem is under-utilised. I hope the Supply and Services Canada would adopt the ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) at 64K baud rate and require the OBS to offer it as soon as Bell Canada starts delivering it.
I sincerely hope that you consider my complaints so that small businesses would not be in a position to be overly penalized in such a privatisation of government services.
