SERVING ALASKA GOVERNMENT & EDUCATION AGENCIES
THE EPROCUREMENT PLATFORM ALASKA AGENCIES CHOOSE TO MODERNIZE PROCUREMENT
Built for small city clerk's offices and large unified municipalities, for competitive sealed bids and documented exceptions, for local funds and federal aid projects. PlanetBids is designed to adapt to the way you work and the regulations you follow, keeping a complete, timestamped record of every solicitation, justification, approval, and award. Contact us to learn about cooperative purchasing options available to Alaska agencies.
Alaska agenciesCooperative 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 UNITED STATES
From the Aleutians of Alaska and the islands of Hawaii to the Greater Midwest and the Eastern Seaboard, government agencies nationwide count on PlanetBids to run compliant, transparent, modern procurement.
CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT
HOW JEFFERSON COUNTY TRANSFORMED
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Eliminated stacks of paper and manual spreadsheet tracking – replaced with a centralized digital system that gives staff real-time visibility into every bid and contract in the pipeline
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Completed the County's first fully paperless procurement project in December 2025, just months after go-live – including electronic bid submission, scoring, and award
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Vendors now self-register and receive automatic notifications for new opportunities, eliminating missed outreach from manual email lists and spreadsheets
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Solicitation templates cut time from request to release – no more switching between programs or rebuilding documents from scratch for each purchase
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18 months in, there is full team buy-in, including a 26-year veteran who now "loves working with PlanetBids"
"I tell my team all the time that when they go home, they shouldn't be taking all the stress of work with them. You shouldn't have to be overwhelmed Monday through Friday with how much work you have and then go home and be stressed because all you see in your mind are all these stacks of paper."
Mike Bagley
Purchasing Director, Jefferson County
ALASKA PROCUREMENT COMPLIANCE
BUILT FOR HOW ALASKA AGENCIES ARE REQUIRED TO BUY
Alaska's local procurement rules live in each municipality's code, with differing thresholds, exceptions, and approvals for each agency. No matter your processes, requirements, and thresholds, PlanetBids is engineered to automate manual tasks and produce a complete, timestamped, exportable record of each solicitation.
Municipal Code Solicitation & Award
PlanetBids centralizes the solicitation, bid receipt, evaluation, and award record under whichever code your municipality operates, giving your agency a defensible record of the process you followed.
Competitive Sealed Bids
Track and manage the solicitation notice, bid receipt, opening and award for competitive sealed bids together with timestamps, supporting the record for supplies, services, and construction.
Exception & Sole Source Justification
Keep the written justification for sole source, emergency, and limited competition purchases with the purchase record, so the agency can show its reasoning. Whether the exception applies stays the municipality's determination.
Cooperative & Piggyback Purchases
If you purchase through another agency's contract or an available cooperative contract, PlanetBids keeps a record of the contract, the justification for using it, and the process followed, according to your agency's requirements.
Assembly & Council Approvals
Keep the approval record with the procurement file where a code requires approval before an action goes forward, in one place for auditors and clerks.
Federal DBE & Procurement Method Documentation
Accept and track business certification and insurance certificate documentation and demonstrate good faith effort for required projects, keeping a record of the formal and informal methods used on federally-funded purchases.
COOPERATIVE PURCHASING
Cooperative Purchasing Options
Alaska agencies may be able to purchase PlanetBids through an existing cooperative contract like the Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS), eliminating the need for a new competitive solicitation. Ask your PlanetBids rep about available cooperative vehicles for your agency type.
PROCUREMENT 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).
EVENT PRESENCE
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 event.
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 Alaska'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 Alaska'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 ALASKA PROCUREMENT TEAMS ASK US MOST
Can our Alaska agency purchase PlanetBids without going through a new bid process?
Potentially yes. Depending on your agency type and purchasing thresholds, cooperative purchasing options may be available that allow Alaska agencies to execute a contract without issuing a new competitive solicitation. PlanetBids is available on the Interlocal Purchasing System as a cooperative contract. Contact our team to discuss the procurement paths available for your specific agency.
If a direct procurement path is preferred, our team can provide pre-approved legal resolution language addressing common counsel concerns.
Does PlanetBids integrate with our ERP?
Yes, PlanetBids provides API integration with ERP and financial platforms. The integration passes awarded contract data, vendor information, and purchase requisitions between systems, eliminating duplicate entry while maintaining your ERP as the financial system of record.
PlanetBids handles the vendor-facing competitive bidding process, vendor management, bid solicitation, evaluation, and award, then pushes clean contract and vendor data into your ERP for encumbrance and payment processing. Most clients keep their ERP for accounting while using PlanetBids for the public procurement workflow.
Can PlanetBids keep the written justification for sole source and emergency purchases with the purchase record?
Yes, the justification is kept in the same record as the purchase, so your team can defend its decision making. Whether an exception applies stays as your municipality's determination.
Our municipality has its own procurement code and thresholds. Can PlanetBids work within them?
Yes. PlanetBids is designed to be flexible and customizable to your municipality's own code, so your team runs the process it already follows and the record reflects it, whether you're a small city or a large unified municipality.
We sometimes buy off another government's contract. Can PlanetBids manage that documentation?
Yes, PlanetBids tracks cooperative and piggyback contracts alongside traditional formal and informal procurements, including the contract used and the justification for using it.
Some of our procurements need assembly or council approval first. Can PlanetBids keep that with the file?
Yes, the approval record is kept with the procurement file, in one place for easy access by your clerk and auditors. Approval itself stays with your governing body.
We have a federal aid project with DBE requirements. Does PlanetBids certify DBE firms?
PlanetBids does not directly certify vendors as DBE suppliers, but the system can accept, track, and manage business certification documentation to ensure you have the right paperwork on file to demonstrate a good faith effort towards outreach and compliance. DBE certification is still handled by the Alaska Unified Certification Program.
How long does implementation take?
Most agencies are up and running within a few weeks, including implementation, training, customization, integration, and vendor migration. No additional dedicated IT support is typically required. In special cases, agencies on tight deadlines for federal projects or new bid releases can go live in as little as a few days.
PlanetBids does charge a one-time setup fee that covers all implementation and training. There are no per-bid, vendor, or transaction fees.
How much does PlanetBids cost?
PlanetBids is a SaaS subscription-based pricing model, with tiers based on your agencies desired features and functionality, as well as number of bids posted per year and number of full user licenses required. There are no per-bid, vendor, or transaction fees. Due to the tailored nature of our pricing, we recommend speaking with our sales team for a custom quote.
READY TO MODERNIZE PROCUREMENT FOR YOUR ALASKA 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
Designed to work within your municipality's code and sacle fit to your agency's processes
US-based in-house support with extensive procurement expertise
Pricing is tiered, with options for any agency size and budget
99% client retention means clients love us