Development of the Firesouls platform - an online, closed bid Social Value auction

Firesouls旨在为所有英国政府组织提供一个软件即服务(SaaS)拍卖平台，为当地社区创造新的资源。它通过将社会价值法案应用于政府采购来实现这一目标。根据法律，政府供应商可以有义务在采购过程中创造额外的社区利益。Firesouls平台提供了一种方法，既可以最大化社区的利益，同时又可以保持供应商合同的有效性。目前，社会价值法案的接受率和应用一直很低。例如，只有15%的地方议会制定了一种方法。那些以合同为基础进行评估以产生社区利益的人，这是劳动密集型的、昂贵的和低效的。Firesouls平台提供了一个在线、自动化的拍卖平台，既减轻了政府采购团队的痛苦，又允许市场力量--通过匹配“社会价值买家和卖家”--确定从政府合同中获得适当数量的社区利益。在公共开支大幅削减和对当地公共服务的需求不断增长的时期，Firesouls提供了一种方法，每年为当地社区创造新的资源。我们还允许供应商专注于交付合同--我们要求供应商将资源提供给当地社区以创造社会价值，而不是供应商自己去做。我们的论点是，供应商应该提供政府服务，当地社区组织应该提供社会价值--他们只是需要资源来做到这一点。

Firesouls aims to provide all UK government organisations with a software-as-a-service(SaaS) auction platform that generates new resources for local communities.It does this by applying the Social Value Act to government procurement. Under law,government suppliers can be obliged to create extra community benefits as part of theprocurement process. The Firesouls platform provides a means of both maximising thebenefits for communities while at the same time keeping the supplier contract viable.Currently, take up and application of the Social Value Act has been low. For example, only15% of local councils have developed an approach. Those that have tend to evaluate on acontract by contract basis to generate community benefits This is labour intensive, costly andinefficient. The Firesouls platform offers an online, automated auction platform that bothtakes the pain away from government procurement teams, and allows market forces - throughmatching 'Social Value buyers and sellers' - to determine the proper amount of communitybenefit to be drawn from government contracts.At a time of severe public spending cuts and growing demand for local public services,Firesouls offers a way to generate new resources for local communities, year on year. We alsoallow suppliers to focus on delivering the contract - we ask suppliers to give the resources tolocal communities to create Social Value, rather than the suppliers doing it themselves. Ourargument is that suppliers should supply government services, local community organisationsshould deliver Social Value - they just need the resources to do it.