GALLOP: Guided Academic Learning to Legislation on Purchasing

Within the European Union one of the main single market priorities has been the reform of public procurement. Purchasing has traditionally been in the clerical domain but is fast becoming a strategic priority for business success. With the push for reform came the introduction of European Procurement Directives which operate in the fields of public supplies, works, services, utilities and compliance. Each member state is required to implement these into their own legislation.Since the legislation is complex and detailed it makes it a prime candidate for some form of decision support system. Staff at the University of Ulster have developed an innovative PC based system known as GALLOP - Guided Academic Learning to Legislation On Purchasing. The key objective was to design a system which would eliminate the need to wade through masses of legislation and would provide a comprehensive means of working through stages involved in a typical high value purchase. It was essential that students with limited computer experience would find it easy to learn and 'user friendly'. These needs are reflected in the overall design of the system and its content.This paper examines an application of Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) within the particular field of public procurement law. The issues discussed are the need for compliance with the public procurement legislation and the contribution of IT to business/legal education. The implementation and application of the GALLOP system is outlined and future developments examined.