A new service has been launched which uses open contracting data to help government buyers find suppliers across the world as they respond to the coronavirus crisis. The tool, built by open data business Spend Network, enables buyers looking for Covid-19 related goods and services to find potential suppliers who have already traded with the public sector across the world. Ian Makgill, founder of Spend Network, said his team had already been collecting the data, so was able to build the application quickly and “get it onto people’s screens … Our data could be very useful in identifying critical businesses and charities in the supply chains of hospitals and care facilities; these are organisations that government needs to protect in the next couple of months and we can definitely help with that.” Read more on Civil Service World