Facilitating Change: How ReWa Helped Vendors Embrace Digital Procurement

Overview

Renewable Water Resources, also known as ReWa, today purifies approximately 40 million gallons of wastewater from homes, businesses, and industries daily in its mission in 1925 to replenish the lakes, streams, and rivers of upstate South Carolina. With more than 350 miles of pipe and nine water resource recovery facilities, ReWa partners with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources to keep oyster beds alive by serving as a community partner and an industry leader in safeguarding the water environment for future generations.

Stephanie Selman, ReWa’s Sr. Purchasing Agent, works in a 3-person department serving the organization’s procurement needs. In 2019, research was conducted on the available platforms to begin automating their procurement processes. Until then, all bids and contract opportunities were listed on the agency’s website, and notifications, proposals, and correspondence were mostly conducted by paper or email exchanges.

After evaluating and viewing real-time demos from several eProcurement companies, ReWa selected PlanetBids for its user-friendly screens and ability to support the primary functions of the process online. In addition to system performance, Selman notes that customer service was a high priority.

Challenge

An initial concern was how the vendor community would receive automation. “The move from a paper process to an online submittal was a bit daunting for smaller mom-and-pop companies,” says Stephanie Selman, ReWa’s Sr. Purchasing Agent. “We spent time assisting them with registration and better understanding of the system.”

On the other side of the purchasing table, it was important for customer departments to embrace the new system and procedures. To assist in that effort, meetings were held with internal teams, and PlanetBids provided demos to answer questions and provide more indepth training.

Results

When Covid-19 forced the closure of offices, Selman and her team were sent home to work. The transition was relatively seamless since ReWa teams had already automated the bid and RFP processes. As the pandemic forced changes in district teams’ operations, procurement could continue supporting the operation.

Unique to ReWa is that construction bids are also conducted on the system. In the past, ReWa’s construction solicitations were 1,000 to 2,000 pages, and bidders submitted large paper bundles as responses. Selman notes, “That’s a lot of paper being used by both parties!” An eProcurement system eliminated paper costs and travel to the ReWa offices to submit proposals.

Selman shares, “The bid opening is now done online with the push of a button. We no longer set up a room for bidders, wait for them to arrive, handstamp the proposals, and then conduct the in-person bid opening. This saves time and fuel costs for the contractors as well.”

Another benefit of automation: All information related to a bid is stored and tracked in one place, and there is a central portal for questions, which can be answered directly or through an addendum process. Selman says, “In the past, with the hundreds of emails received each week, this became difficult to manually track to ensure every request was addressed. With any issue, such as when a bidder does not submit by the deadline, research can be conducted within the system to determine exactly when a bidder logged in and submitted their bid. It is tremendously helpful to have every part of the process tracked, where hard facts can help defend a decision.”

When asked what advice she would offer for other teams who might be seeking to automate, Selman underscores the importance of contracting with a company that can quickly respond to questions or requests for help. “Customer service became a very important benefit for us. Some eProcurement systems might outsource or minimize this in their offering, but it’s an important reason for our success. PlanetBids has tremendous customer support and has been there from the beginning for user adoption through ongoing support as issues might arise.”

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.
• Business Certification/Business Forms allows an organization to manage the collection of business documents (W9), manage its certification programs such as Small Business, Minority, or Diversity Enterprises, as well as Contractor Prequalification(s). Agencies can manage, maintain, and retrieve up-to-date vendor forms, certifications and prequalification information, and registered vendors can view certified/prequalified vendors for potential subcontracting opportunities.