Overview
Bay Area Clean Water Agencies, also known as BACWA, is a joint powers agency formed under the California Government Code by the five largest wastewater treatment agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Members include those municipalities and special districts that provide sanitary sewer services to more than 7.1 million people. In 2019, BACWA also assumed coordination of the Bay Area Chemical Consortium (BACC).
BACWA’s overarching goal is to work with members, state and federal regulatory agencies, and non-governmental organizations to improve and enhance the San Francisco Bay environment.
Challenges
Jennifer Dyment, BACWA's Assistant Executive Director, had just started her role during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dyment faced an existing procurement process that was manual and paper-intensive. Her first bid at BACWA was for chemicals to serve 60 water and sewer agencies across the region. Dyment knew that a manual bid process could not be sustained, particularly for this complicated bid serving the agencies needs of each of the participating agencies. This complex bid included managing 13 unique chemicals to support each agency’s water and/or sewer treatment process.
Initially, the idea was to use email notifications and a virtual bid opening. However, “due to the size and complicated nature of the proposals,” Dyment stated, “that approach would have eventually become a nightmare, with extensive spreadsheets to track all the moving parts. The pricing component alone would be extremely difficult. Our traditional process was to use spreadsheets where the vendors often entered handwritten figures. Our team would then have to interpret handwritten numbers or double-check the math.”
Results Using the PB Systems™
BACWA consulted with another chemical consortium and several buyers at BACC agencies and decided to move to an eProcurement solution. After reviewing several demos, BACWA selected the PB SystemTM. Implementation took place in just two weeks. Once a bid was issued, registered vendors could download the bid documents, ask questions, receive addendums, and submit their final proposals, all within the PB SystemTM. No paper changed hands during this entirely digital experience. At the close of bidding, the time stamp feature in PB SystemTM allows the agency to clearly draw the line on bids received by the deadline in highly competitive opportunities.
100% Automation
“The process went amazingly well, as we were both learning the new system ourselves while managing a very complicated project,” Dyment says. The best part? No bid protests were received during the entire bid process, including final contract awards. “Having the system manage the process, document each step with time/date validation, and efficiently communicate with all interested parties at once made this project a huge success,” she added. When asked if they would go back to the former way of doing business in the future, Dyment stated, “Using automation for our procurement processes will be the new standard for future projects.”
Chosen PB Systems™ Solutions
- Vendor Management is the core of the PB System™ modular suite. It offers a configurable registration process to ensure vendor registrations are complete and unique. Instantly gain access to vendor records, run advanced searches on multiple sets of vendor data, perform real-time verification of provided information (ie. certifications and licenses) against third party databases, generate comprehensive reports with visual charts, and broadcast messages to selected vendors.
- Bid Management is the most complete web-based system on the market today. Procurement agents can quickly manage the process of issuing, monitoring, conducting evaluations, and awarding formal and informal bids. More importantly, the PB System™ can handle construction and public works projects, a feature unique to the eProcurement industry. Vendors can interactively search, view, and respond to bid opportunities securely over the Internet.
