SERVING ALABAMA GOVERNMENT & EDUCATION AGENCIES
THE EPROCUREMENT PLATFORM ALABAMA AGENCIES CAN TRUST TO MODERNIZE PROCUREMENT
Built for cities, counties, school districts, and universities and designed to be compliant with the Competitive Bid Law, school purchasing, and public works construction, with documentation structured to hold up under state review. Available as a cooperative purchasing contract on the Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS) with no new bid required.
Alabama agencies Cooperative purchasing options are available to allow your agency to purchase PlanetBids without a new competitive solicitation. Ask our team about options for your agency type.
TRUSTED BY AGENCIES ACROSS THE DEEP SOUTH
From the Lone Star State to the Florida Everglades, from Arkansas to Georgia, government agencies in the deep south count on PlanetBids to run compliant, transparent, modern procurement.
CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT
HOW CAP METRO ACHIEVED 100% AUTOMATION
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Eliminated all paper processes and manual work – going fully automated during the remote work transition of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic
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Additional modules and functionality implemented quickly under tight deadline without major additional training or complicated customization
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Emergency purchasing managed within the PlanetBids system, allowing the agency to quickly issue bids to purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) and support the IT division with additional computers and software
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Updated existing contracts and migrated all employees to the fully automated system at no extra cost to the agency or hit to the budget
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Improved vendor engagement for more consistent and competitive responses with automated bid notifications, a robust database, and digital bid submissions
"When the workforce transferred to offsite environments, our process needed to quickly move to 100% electronic. We examined the remaining components to question how they could be automated. Additional needs were addressed with new features and modules, as well as updating existing policies to reflect the new online procedures."
Muhammad Abdullah
Senior Director and Chief Contracting Officer, Capital Metropolitan Transit Authority
ALABAMA PROCUREMENT COMPLIANCE
BUILT FOR HOW ALABAMA AGENCIES ARE REQUIRED TO BUY
Alabama's Competitive Bid Law carries serious consequences, and procurement is under intense pressure to meet tight compliance requirements under changing thresholds. PlanetBids is engineered to produce a complete, timestamped, exportable record of your agency's processes so you can demonstrate defensible procurement, no matter the threshold or statute.
Competitive Bid Law
PlanetBids documents public notice, bid opening, and award for every solicitation subject to the state's threshold requirements, giving your agency a record that demonstrates compliance with lowest responsible and responsive bidder processes.
School Purchasing
Centralize RFP and bid postings, vendor notification, and award records for city and county boards of education, including documented exception-based awards (single-source, cooperative purchasing, and GSAs) alongside competitive awards.
Public Works Law
PlanetBids supports the bonding and bid opening documentation construction and renovation projects require above the Public Works Law's bonding trigger, keeping that record easily accessible alongside the agency's general procurement activity.
Instrumentality Documentation
PlanetBids supports the same bid law documentation standard for municipal and county instrumentalities, including water, sewer, and gas boards, to help agencies with little or no dedicated procurement staff maintain defensible records automatically.
Examiner of Public Accounts Audits
Every notice, addendum, and bid opening is timestamped and centralized so your agency can easily produce a complete procurement trail without having to dig through emails and file folders.
Federal DBE Outreach
Automated vendor logs generate good faith effort records required for ALDOT-funded transportation projects under federal DBE rules, with automatic certification acceptance and tracking directly from vendors.
COOPERATIVE PURCHASING
Cooperative Purchasing Options
Alabama law recognizes cooperative purchasing exemptions for an agency's purchases. PlanetBids is available on the Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS) with no new bid required. PlanetBids also supports cooperative purchasing documentation to demonstrate compliance for other purchases.
INDUSTRY EXPERTISE
NPI CERTIFIED
PlanetBids is certified as an Achievement in Excellence in Procurement® (AEP) eProcurement Certified platform by the National Procurement Institute, meeting critical standards for Electronic Sourcing (AEP Criteria 7b) and Electronic Evaluations and Automatic Scorecarding (7c).
ACTIVE IN ALABAMA MARKET
INDUSTRY EVENT SPONSOR
PlanetBids is a proud member of NIGP and a regular attendee and sponsor of the annual NIGP Annual Forum, as well as attending annual American Public Works Association and Government Finance Officers Association events.
THE PLATFORM
EVERYTHING YOUR PROCUREMENT TEAM NEEDS, NOTHING YOU DON'T.
PlanetBids is a modular, end-to-end procurement lifecycle platform. Start with what you need and add modules as your agency grows.
Requests & Solicitations
Create, publish, and manage IFBs, RFPs, RFQs, and RFIs from guided templates. Get live countdowns, drag-and-drop documents, and real-time status tracking.
Vendor Management
Create a centralized vendor registry with real-time Empire State Development MWBE and SDVOB certification verification. Automated outreach by commodity code generates good-faith effort documentation for State Comptroller pre-audit packages and Empire State Development utilization reports.
Compliance & Audit Trails
Every action is timestamped and logged, with automatic bid tabulation, sealed bid verification, and complete documentation trails that hold up to protests – $50B+ processed, zero valid protests.
Contract Management
Centralize awarded contracts with automated expiration alerts, amendment tracking, and insurance certificate management so you ever miss a renewal or compliance deadline.
Project Evaluation
Multi-round scoring with unlimited evaluators, consensus or individual scoring modes, and exportable matrices supports complex RFP evaluations for capital projects and bond programs.
AI with Guardrails
AI tools are built specifically for public procurement, with the compliance controls government agencies require. Get faster drafting and smarter vendor matching, within the boundaries your policies demand.
Requests & Solicitations
Create, publish, and manage IFBs, RFPs, RFQs, and RFIs from guided templates. Get live countdowns, drag-and-drop documents, and real-time status tracking.
Vendor Management
Create a centralized vendor registry with real-time Empire State Development MWBE and SDVOB certification verification. Automated outreach by commodity code generates good-faith effort documentation for State Comptroller pre-audit packages and Empire State Development utilization reports.
Compliance & Audit Trails
Every action is timestamped and logged, with automatic bid tabulation, sealed bid verification, and complete documentation trails that hold up to protests – $50B+ processed, zero valid protests.
Contract Management
Centralize awarded contracts with automated expiration alerts, amendment tracking, and insurance certificate management so you ever miss a renewal or compliance deadline.
Project Evaluation
Multi-round scoring with unlimited evaluators, consensus or individual scoring modes, and exportable matrices supports complex RFP evaluations for capital projects and bond programs.
AI with Guardrails
AI tools are built specifically for public procurement, with the compliance controls government agencies require. Get faster drafting and smarter vendor matching, within the boundaries your policies demand.
THE VENDOR ADVANTAGE
MORE QUALIFIED BIDDERS, ZERO VENDOR PHONE CALLS TO YOUR TEAM.
A deep, pre-qualified vendor network and a dedicated support team handles vendors for you, so your purchasing office can focus on procurement, not vendor phone calls.
VENDOR
NETWORK
40K+ qualified vendors ready to bid on your solicitations
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Vendors are matched to your bids by commodity code, no manual outreach lists required
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Agencies typically jump from 3-4 responses to 10-12 submittals per bid after switching to PlanetBids
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Empire State Development MWBE and SDVOB classifications are built in to meet Alabama's 30% MWBE utilization goals for state-funded projects
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Vendors can register and bid for free, removing the friction that keeps small businesses out
EXCLUSIVE
DEDICATED
VENDOR SUPPORT
We help your vendors so you don't have to
When a vendor has a question about your solicitation, how to upload documents, or how to register, they call us, not your purchasing office. Our dedicated vendor support team handles it directly so your team stays focused on procurement. For you, this means no more:
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Vendor registration help calls
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Document upload questions
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Bid submission troubleshooting
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Addenda & notification questions
Results: Fewer incomplete bids, more competitive responses, and hours back in your team's week, every single procurement cycle.
VENDOR NETWORK
40K+ qualified vendors ready to bid on your solicitations
-
Vendors are matched to your bids by commodity code, no manual outreach lists required
-
Agencies typically jump from 3-4 responses to 10-12 submittals per bid after switching to PlanetBids
-
Empire State Development MWBE and SDVOB classifications are built in to meet Alabama's 30% MWBE utilization goals for state-funded projects
-
Vendors can register and bid for free, removing the friction that keeps small businesses out
DEDICATED VENDOR SUPPORT
We help your vendors so you don't have to
When a vendor has a question about your solicitation, how to upload documents, or how to register, they call us, not your purchasing office. Our dedicated vendor support team handles it directly so your team stays focused on procurement. For you, this means no more:
-
Vendor registration help calls
-
Document upload questions
-
Bid submission troubleshooting
-
Addenda & notification questions
Results: Fewer incomplete bids, more competitive responses, and hours back in your team's week, every single procurement cycle.
WHO WE ARE
Built by procurement professionals, for procurement professionals
PlanetBids was founded specifically for the public procurement industry, and we understand the needs of procurement professionals. That origin matters, as every feature, every workflow, and every support interaction are designed to reflect how actual purchasing teams manage work under budget pressure, public scrutiny, and legal compliance requirements.
Designed for public procurement since 2000
We're not an ERP company that added a procurement module. We're not a startup that pivoted into GovTech. We're not a big conglomerate chasing a new market. We are a 25-year-old company whose entire business is built around making procurement professionals more effective.
100% US-based support staff with procurement backgrounds
Our in-house support team includes people with real public procurement backgrounds. When you call with a question about sealed bid procedures or vendor protest prevention, you're talking to someone who has managed that process themselves and understands your issues.
A solid foundation of PlanetBids agencies
550+ agencies. 1,000+ users. 99% retention. Zero valid bid protests across $50B+ in contracts processed. Our company has stayed focused on one thing for 25 years, and we have the track record to prove it.
WHAT ALABAMA PROCUREMENT TEAMS ASK US MOST
Can our Alabama agency purchase PlanetBids without going through a new bid process?
Potentially yes, cooperative purchasing options may be available that allow Alabama agencies to execute a contract without issuing a new competitive solicitation. Contact our team to discuss the procurement paths available for your specific agency, like a cooperative contract available on TIPS.
Does PlanetBids replace our bulletin board and mailed notice requirements for solicitations under §41-16-50?
PlanetBids supplements and documents the statutory notice process with a free, publicly accessible vendor portal that allows vendors to register and view all open and closed solicitations. Your legal counsel may make a determination on whether electronic posting through PlanetBids satisfies your specific notice obligations alongside any required physical posting.
Our procurement threshold just changed. Does your system enforce that automatically?
PlanetBids supports configurable thresholds and allows you to solicit bids in any way that is necessary to meet those threshold requirements. Your agency is responsible for keeping its thresholds current.
How does PlanetBids work with our school system's Title 16-13B exceptions (single-source, cooperative purchasing, GSA)?
PlanetBids supports documenting exception-based awards as well as competitive awards and also showcases potential piggyback contracts from other agencies your organization can use. Confirm the specific exception workflow your office needs.
Can our water board use PlanetBids the same way the city does?
Yes, PlanetBids is designed to streamline and simplify procurement workflows for any type of public agency. Water, sewer, and gas boards are treated as municipal/county instrumentalities under §41-16-57 and follow the same general bid-law documentation process.
Will the Examiners of Public Accounts accept electronic bid records during an audit?
While state governing bodies and legislative auditors typically accept a digital procurement file as an acceptable record of procurement documentation, PlanetBids cannot guarantee that outcome in every case. We recommend confirming documentation standards with your EPA auditor or legal counsel.
How long does implementation take?
Most agencies are up and running within a few weeks, including implementation, customization, integration, vendor migration, and training. You do not need additional staff support to implement PlanetBids. In some cases, agencies with tight deadlines for federal solicitation releases can be live in just a few days.
How much does PlanetBids cost?
PlanetBids is a SaaS subscription with no per-bid, vendor, or transaction fees. Pricing is tiered based on desired features and functionality, number of full user licenses, and number of solicitations posted annually. We do not charge vendors or the public to register and view or bid on projects.
PlanetBids does charge a one-time setup fee that covers all implementation and training.
READY TO MODERNIZE PROCUREMENT FOR YOUR ALABAMA AGENCY?
Book a 30-minute demo with a member of our dedicated public sector sales team. We'll show you the platform, walk through the TIPS contract process, and answer questions specific to your agency type.
Available on TIPS cooperative with no new RFP required
Documents every solicitation notice, Q&A, addendum, bid submission, and bid opening under whatever threshold is required
US-based in-house support with extensive procurement expertise
Pricing is tiered with options for any agency size and budget
99% client retention means our clients love us