SERVING ILLINOIS GOVERNMENT & EDUCATION AGENCIES
THE EPROCUREMENT PLATFORM ILLINOIS AGENCIES CHOOSE TO MODERNIZE PROCUREMENT
Built for municipalities, counties, schools, parks and recreation, and special districts, and compliant with 30 Municipal Law 103. Contact us to learn ILCS 500 and 50 ILCS 20. Cooperative purchasing options are available to Illinois agencies through The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS).
Illinois 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 MIDWEST
From the Great Lakes to the Windy City to the Great Plains, PlanetBids helps public agencies in Illinois and the greater Midwest streamline and modernize 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
ILLINOIS PROCUREMENT COMPLIANCE
BUILT FOR HOW ILLINOIS AGENCIES ARE REQUIRED TO BUY
The Illinois Procurement Code and Local Government Purchasing Act govern competitive sealed bidding, responsible bidder determinations, and public notice for Illinois municipalities, counties, and special districts. PlanetBids is engineered for this compliance, including Illinois Auditor General audit scrutiny, heavy FOIA request volume, prevailing wage compliance, Business Enterprise Program vendor diversity goals, and Rebuild Illinois and federal IIJA pass-through funding conditions.
BEP, DBE, & MBE Vendor Tracking
Business certification tracking helps agencies meet Illinois Department of Central Management Services' Business Enterprise Program requirements, with goal tracking that scales for any County's disadvantaged business thresholds.
30 ILCS 500 & 50 ILCS 20 Competitive Bidding Compliance
Automated statutory public notice, competitive sealed bidding documentation, and responsible bidder determinations are built to satisfy Illinois Procurement Code and Local Government Purchasing Act requirements.
Intergovernmental Cooperation Ready
Streamlined workflows for documenting cooperative and intergovernmental purchasing authority under Article VII Section 10 of the Illinois Constitution.
Auditor General & FOIA-Ready Documentation
Time-stamped, audit-ready procurement records are already built for Auditor General review, with centralized record keeping that cuts FOIA response time to a few clicks.
Fire & Special District Support
Simplified workflows help Illinois' 900+ fire protection districts and other special districts procure goods and services with limited staff while operating under 50 ILCS 20 with volunteer board oversight.
Rebuild Illinois, IIJA, & EPA WIFIA Compliance
Agencies can run project-specific procurement segregation to meet all requirements for capital pass-through and federal water infrastructure grant reporting.
NO NEW BID REQUIRED
Intergovernmental Cooperation Available
Illinois agencies can purchase PlanetBids by documenting intergovernmental cooperation authority under Article VII Section 10 of the Illinois Constitution, without running a new bid process.
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).
INDUSTRY 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 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 Illinois'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 Illinois'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 ILLINOIS PROCUREMENT TEAMS ASK US MOST
Can our Illinois agency purchase PlanetBids without going through a new bid process?
In many cases, yes. Illinois Article VII Section 10 constitutional authority allows agencies to document intergovernmental cooperation for procurement without a new competitive solicitation. Talk to your account team about the specific path available for your agency type.
If a direct procurement path is preferred, our team can provide pre-approved legal resolution language addressing common counsel concerns.
Does PlanetBids integrate with ERPs and finance platforms?
Yes, PlanetBids provides API integration with most commonly used ERPs and financial software. 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.
Does PlanetBids ensure compliance with Illinois Procurement Code (30 ILCS 500) public notice requirements?
PlanetBids allows you to instantly post open bid opportunities to a publicly available vendor portal posted to your agency's website, generates statutorily formatted publication notices, and maintains timestamped documentation of every public posting for Illinois General Auditor review.
Does PlanetBids track Business Enterprise Program certification and generate diversity reports?
Yes, PlanetBids verifies BEP certifications status against the Illinois DCMS database, tracks DBE/MBE participation goals, and generates board-ready diversity utilization reports.
We're a fire protection district or other small special district with a volunteer board. Is PlanetBids right for us?
Absolutely, PlanetBids is built for exactly these situations. Unlimited solicitation templates, AI-powered scope writing, automated vendor notifications, digital bid submission, and online bid tabulation simplify workflows, meaning a district can meet strict compliance requirements without a dedicated procurement specialist. And PlanetBids support fields vendor questions about the system your board would otherwise handle directly.
How long does implementation take?
Most Illinois agencies are up and running within just a few weeks, including data migration and integration where applicable. Because most customization is done by your team by setting the system to your needs, we are able to shorten the implementation timeline significantly to meet urgent requirements when necessary.
What does implementation cost, and how is PlanetBids priced?
PlanetBids features an annual SaaS subscription pricing with no per-bid, vendor, or transaction fees. Pricing is tier-based depending on the features desired and the number of full users, and so pricing varies based on agency size, bid requirements, and budget. We recommend speaking with our sales team for a tailored quote, but our system can run as low as $3,500 annually for small agencies with one full user license.
We do charge a one-time setup fee for implementation and training that will include any setup requirements you have. We do not charge extra for additional templates, vendor transfers, or other setup requests. And portal registration, project download, and bid submission is always free for your vendors and the public.
READY TO MODERNIZE PROCUREMENT FOR YOUR ILLINOIS 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 intergovernmental cooperation authority, with no new RFP required
30 ILCS 500 compliance and audit-ready documentation built in
US-based support with procurement expertise
Pricing is tier-based, with options for any agency size and budget
99% client retention means our agencies love us