All agencies have a manual for procurement that outlines policies and procedures.
But then there’s the reality of how the process works, as procurement offices juggle multiple requests and handle emergencies while trying to meet deadlines! Within that daily work life, there can be “pinch points” that cause miscommunications, delays or frustration among your team, customer departments, and suppliers.
Tracking insurance renewals or minority participation on bids manually or using a spreadsheet system could be a pinch point. Same with handling the Question and Answer period of a bid process through email exchanges. For a bid that receives a lot of interest, it can be difficult to ensure that all emailed questions are answered and all interested suppliers receive the same responses at the same time.
But eProcurement solutions can help agencies avoid pinch points.
Increase Supplier Participation, Diversity, and Inclusion
Teams who move to automation see their vendor pool increase significantly with an eProcurement system.
After moving their procurement online, the City of Corona experienced increased participation by the vendor community, particularly with a rise in the number of local vendors who previously thought they couldn’t compete for government contracts. Taking the process online made it easy for vendors to register and quickly obtain information on upcoming opportunities, opening the door for many more local small businesses.
"PlanetBids' PB System™ Project Summary tool is used by our procurement team to communicate how many vendors are notified, how many of those downloaded the RFP, and the ultimate number of proposals received. Our City Council values this tool as they want to reach out to as many vendors/contractors as the city can."
– Andy Ortiz, former Purchasing Specialist for the City of Corona
PlanetBids’ Business Certification and Prequalification module allows any organization to manage its certification programs.
Bid Management: Speeding is Allowed
Moving bid processes online can shorten timelines and provide faster turnaround times in a very long government process. Take the City of Anaheim’s Purchasing team, for example. From the time a bid is initially posted, vendors are electronically tracked when they download documents, acknowledge addenda, submit questions, and propose bids by the deadline. Every action is documented.
In the event of a protest or concern, the purchasing team has a transparent record of the entire online process to review and assist in making any decisions. This process also helps them minimize a “no-bid” scenario, as they can investigate further if no vendors are bidding or submitting accurate bids.
From advertising and outreach to final evaluation and award, having an online procurement system conduct automatic real-time checks on certifications, submission of insurance, and automatic communication for reference checks is a huge time saver. PlanetBids clients on average have seen a 50% reduction in time through the entire bid process.
Maintain the Integrity of the Process
During any procurement process, things can come up, and an online procurement system that tracks all activities is essential.
When a supplier registers, downloads a bid or any addendums, and submits their final proposal, an automated system timestamps each action. For those proposals that require data entry or math computations, the system can quickly review for incomplete fields or math errors.
If any questions arise, or a protest is received, this reporting helps immensely in the review process.
To understand how online software can help you tackle your procurement pinch points, chat with our procurement experts today.
SHARE
