SERVING CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT & EDUCATION AGENCIES
THE EPROCUREMENT PLATFORM CALIFORNIA AGENCIES CHOOSE TO MODERNIZE PROCUREMENT
Built for cities, counties, school districts, higher education, utilities, and special districts across California, from public works and federal projects to everyday purchases with local funds. No matter your requirements and workflows, PlanetBids is designed to automate manual processes and create a complete, timestamped record of every purchase. Contact us to learn about cooperative purchasing options available to California agencies.
California 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, including the Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS) and CollegeBuys.
TRUSTED BY AGENCIES ACROSS THE GOLDEN STATE
From NorCal to SoCal, from the desert to the bay, California government agencies have relied on PlanetBids to run compliant, transparent, modern procurement for more than 25 years.
CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT
HOW SAN DIEGO FOUND EFFICIENCY, AUTOMATION
- The City is now 100% digital, with RFP and bid templates created for full automation and online operations.
- Comprehensive solicitations are created quickly with unlimited templates, AI-assisted scope creation, and an RFx Library that provides similar specifications.
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Scoring metrics provided to evaluators allow them to collaboratively score and make comments and submit evaluations directly in the system.
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Easy to use for purchasing, evaluators, and the City's vendors and suppliers, helping the City grow their vendor network and get more competitive bids.
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Vendors and the City communicate directly through the portal, ensuring addenda are received and important information is never missed.
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Customer support is provided by actual in-house procurement experts, averaging 15 minutes to respond for agency and vendor tickets.
"It's functional and it isn't overly complicated at all. It really is just as easy as it seems. We've actually been getting more and more vendors to register because they can see what opportunities the City has online versus reaching out to different departments or the purchasing team."
Vanessa Delgado
Procurement Program Manager, City of San Diego
CALIFORNIA PROCUREMENT COMPLIANCE
BUILT FOR HOW CALIFORNIA AGENCIES ARE REQUIRED TO BUY
California agencies operate under their own provisions of the Public Contract Code, with many opting into the California Uniform Public Construction Cost Accounting Act. But no matter the regulations your agency follows or the workflows you have in place, PlanetBids engineered to help you stay compliant, automate manual tasks, and create a complete, timestamped, exportable record of every solicitation and purchase.
Public Contract Code Solicitation & Award
PlanetBids centralizes the solicitation notice, bid receipt, evaluation, and lowest responsible bidder award record under whichever provisions your agency follows, giving you a defensible record of the process.
CUPCCAA Informal and Formal Bid Records
PlanetBids supports vendor prequalification through CUPCCAA for public works projects under a specified threshold, allowing your agency to bypass traditional bidding procedures for more streamlined procurement.
Qualifications-Based Selection
Evaluation records for architect, engineer, and surveyor selections are centralized and easily accessible so you can show how firms were chosen on demonstrated competence.
DIR Registration & Bid Listing
Contractor registration evidence and listed subcontractors submitted with public works bids are kept within the bid file, not scattered in other folders or email, so you can easily determine whether a contractor meets requirements and defend your decision making.
School & College District Bid Records
Keep the quotes, bids, and board award record for district purchases and public works projects in one place and easily accessible to provide a full file for board and auditor review.
Federal DBE & Procurement Method Documentation
Allow vendors to submit business certifications for internal tracking and reporting, supporting good faith effort documentation on federal aid projects as DBE goals change, with a record of formal and informal methods used on federally-funded projects.
COOPERATIVE PURCHASING
Cooperative Purchasing Options
California agencies may be able to purchase PlanetBids through an existing cooperative contract like CollegeBuys or 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).
ACTIVE IN CALIFORNIA MARKET
Statewide Conference Presence
PlanetBids attends the California Community Colleges Purchasing Conference, CAPPO, CASBO, and NAEP, as well as national events like the NIGP Forum and NPI. We're active in the California procurement community and connected to purchasing professionals across the California market.
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 California'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 California'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 CALIFORNIA PROCUREMENT TEAMS ASK US MOST
Can our California agency purchase PlanetBids without going through a new bid process?
Potentially yes. D epending on your agency type and purchasing thresholds, cooperative purchasing options may be available that allow California agencies to execute a contract without issuing a new competitive solicitation. PlanetBids is available on CollegeBuys and the Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS) as a cooperative contract, and piggyback contracts are available. 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 most ERPs. 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.
Our agency has its own bidding rules. Can PlanetBids work with them?
Yes, PlanetBids isn't designed to set your bidding rules, thresholds, or processes. Instead, it's designed to work within them, automating the manual tasks and documenting the steps for easy reporting and compliance review.
We've opted into CUPCCAA. Can PlanetBids keep our contractor list notices and bids together?
Yes, PlanetBids can allow your vendors to prequalify using CUPCCAA for automatic notification of new opportunities. The notices sent to listed contractors and the bids you receive are kept in a record to show who was notified and who responded.
Can PlanetBids keep listed subcontractors and contractor information with the bid file?
Yes. PlanetBids tracks all vendor information, including prime contractors and subcontractor registration and prequalification information, allowing you to review them against the award to ensure they can complete the work.
Our thresholds and policies change, sometimes yearly. Does PlanetBids need to be rebuilt each time?
No, PlanetBids is designed to adapt to your agency's workflows, thresholds, and requirements, not to determine them. No matter your agency's requirements or how they change, PlanetBids will continue to automate manual processes and track every step and approval for review and compliance.
We have federal aid projects, and DBE goals are constantly changing. Does PlanetBids certify DBE firms?
PlanetBids does not certify the firms themselves, but it does accept the vendors' business certifications and track them for validity, supporting your good faith effort documentation and keeping outreach with the solicitation record.
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 CALIFORNIA 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
Works inside your agency's requirements and thresholds, and adapts as state and federal requirements change
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