Overview
The City of El Cajon is the sixth largest city in San Diego County. Nestled in a valley, approximately 18 miles east of San Diego, it is surrounded by mountains. The city’s name originated from the Spanish phrase “el cajón,” which means “the big box” or “the drawer.”
Over ten years ago, the city partnered with PlanetBids to streamline their bid process, eliminate a paper-intensive, manual processes, and implement a vendor self-registration program. Implementing three key modules: Vendor Management, Bid Management, and Insurance Certificate Management, their procurement team moved quickly to the new system and began reaping the benefits of easily tracking projects, minimization of errors, better reporting, and elimination of paper-intensive processes. Using the system for quick quotes and formal bids, the procurement team enjoys a flexible, easy-to-use system and is appreciative of the outstanding customer service offered by the PlanetBids support team.
Besides the easy transition for the procurement team, it was also a simple transition for vendors. PlanetBids was available to answer questions and provide training for the vendor community and helped with outreach to build the successful database that the city uses for its bid process.
Advantages of e-Procurement
Across the nation, local government teams are making the right decision to move forward with tools to help run their purchasing departments more efficiently and allow vendors greater access to their bid opportunities. eProcurement brings easy to use tools for purchasing teams to handle the purchasing cycle. Best of all, eProcurement systems have become more affordable and can interface with the current financial systems already used within your organization.
- Quicker processing times with automated bid tabulations
- Data sharing with other procurement teams to leverage purchasing power
- Prequalification of vendors for quicker bid times
- Up-to-date vendor database and profile maintenance
- A larger pool of vendors and increased competition
- Seamless audit trail for greater transparency and ad hoc reporting
- No printing, copying, or mailing costs
Results Using the PB System™
Up to Date Insurance Data
One of the most tedious, time-consuming tasks for any government purchasing office is to collect, track and maintain insurance information from vendors.
PlanetBids’ Insurance Certificate Management module enables risk managers, procurement, public works, and contract administrators to automate, maintain and retrieve up-to-date relevant information regarding vendors or contractors’ insurance certificates.
Using this module, the city replaced a previous manual spreadsheet system. The system now automatically tracks expiration dates, sends reminders, forwards emails to vendors and ensures that all contracted vendors have current and acceptable proof of insurance for compliance purposes.
PlanetBids’ is committed to outstanding customer service. If you ask our current customers, “What is PlanetBids greatest strength?”, the resounding answer is “over-the-top, customer service!” Whether our customers have a question, need assistance, or request training, our mission is to be responsive in a quick, informative and friendly manner. Technology is important, and so are the people who use it!
Chosen PB System™ Solutions
- Vendor Management is the core of the PB System™ suite of modules. It offers a configurable and intuitive registration process to ensure that vendor registrations are complete and unique, avoiding duplicate records. Instantly gain access to vendor records, run advanced searches on multiple sets of vendor data, perform real-time verification of provided information (i.e., certifications and licenses), 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 professionals 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.
- Insurance Certificate Management enables risk, procurement, public works, and contract administrators to automate, maintain, and retrieve up-to-date relevant information regarding vendor or contractor insurance certificates. Paired with My Insurance, agencies and vendors can conduct all insurance related tasks virtually within the PB System™.
