SERVING SOUTH DAKOTA GOVERNMENT & EDUCATION AGENCIES
THE EPROCUREMENT PLATFORM SOUTH DAKOTA AGENCIES CHOOSE TO MODERNIZE PROCUREMENT
Built for cities, counties, school districts, and rural water systems under SDCL Title 5, Chapter 18A competitive sealed bid procedures, and compliant with the documentation standards the South Dakota Department of Legislative Audit expects. Contact us to learn about cooperative purchasing options available to South Dakota agencies, like the Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS).
South Dakota 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 EMPIRE STATE
From the Dakotas and the Great Plains to the Heartland and the Great Lakes, PlanetBids helps government agencies in the Midwest and nationwide 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
SOUTH DAKOTA PROCUREMENT COMPLIANCE
BUILT FOR HOW SOUTH DAKOTA AGENCIES ARE REQUIRED TO BUY
South Dakota Codified Law Title 5, Chapter 18A sets competitive sealed bid procedures for public agencies statewide. Yet most South Dakota cities, counties, and districts only have one or two people running the entire purchasing function alongside daily payroll, elections, or budget duties. PlanetBids is engineered to help those small teams meet compliance requirements while running more efficient purchasing operations.
SDCL 5-18A-5 Competitive Sealed Bid Compliance
PlanetBids structures advertisement, bid opening, and documentation workflows to match competitive sealed bid procedures so a small staff office runs the statutory process without reconstructing from scratch each time.
SDCA 5-18A-22 Exemption Documentation
Track and document which solicitations fall under a recognized SDCL 5-18A-22 exemption so auditors review deliberate, documented decision making rather than gaps in bid records.
Department of Legislative Audit Documentation
Every solicitation posting, addendum, and bid opening is timestamped and centralized into one easily retrievable record to quickly export when answering a statutory local government audit.
DANR State Revolving Fund Compliance
Audit-ready procurement documentation built for Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund-financed water and wastewater projects protects loan eligibility when DANR requests the file.
SDDOT Federal DBE Documentation
Automated vendor outreach logs generate the good faith effort record required for federally-funded road and bridge work under SDDOT's DBE Program (49 CFR 26). Vendors submit their certification documentation directly for the agency to store and track to maintain compliance.
Rural Bidder Pool Compliance
A regional vendor network, digital solicitation posting, and an online vendor portal expand reach to a wider pool of suppliers to help thin rural bidder pools meet SDCL 5-18A competitive bid expectations, preventing delays and rebids due to lack of qualified responses.
NO NEW BID REQUIRED
Cooperative Purchasing Options
South Dakota 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 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 South Dakota'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
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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 South Dakota'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 SOUTH DAKOTA PROCUREMENT TEAMS ASK US MOST
Can our South Dakota 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 South Dakota agencies to execute a contract without issuing a new competitive solicitation. 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 including General Municipal Law 103 authorization and cooperative purchasing authority.
Does PlanetBids replace our Tyler Technologies financial system?
No. PlanetBids manages solicitation, bid intake, and vendor communication. It complements Tyler Munis and similar ERP platforms rather than replacing general ledger, budgeting, or payroll functions.
PlanetBids provides API integration with ERPs 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.
Will PlanetBids satisfy our SDVL 5-18A-5 competitive sealed bid requirements?
PlanetBids structures the solicitation advertisement, bid opening, and documentation workflow to align with SDCL 5-18A-5 procedures. Each agency's legal counsel should confirm the platform's configuration matches its specific bid policy and thresholds.
How do we document an SDCL 5-18A-22 exemption?
PlanetBids tracks which solicitations fall under a recognized exemption and retains that documentation alongside the rest of the bid file, so the decision is visible rather than an unexplained gap.
Can a one-person finance office realistically manage PlanetBids?
Absolutely. PlanetBids makes most of your day-to-day procurement work templated, automated, and repeatable. It is designed to reduce the administrative load, rather than to add a system to maintain.
How does PlanetBids help with our Department of Legislative Audit reviews?
PlanetBids centralizes bid files, timestamps, communications, and vendor notices into one easily retrievable record, which supports the documentation auditors typically request during statutory local government audits.
Does PlanetBids help with DANR state revolving fund or SDDOT federal DBE compliance?
Yes, PlanetBids centralizes the procurement record DANR requests for Clean Water and Drinking Water SRF-financed projects and generates the good faith effort outreach documentation SDDOT's federal DBE program requires on federally-funded oral and bridge work.
What if I'm worried that my rural vendors won't register and bid through an online system?
While vendor adoption does vary by region, PlanetBids' statewide and multi-state network, online vendor portal, and digital registration and bid acceptance is designed to widen the bidder pool beyond an agency's existing contractor list, which is often the practical limit in thinner rural markets.
How much does PlanetBids cost?
PlanetBids is an annual SaaS subscription pricing model with no per-bid, vendor, or transaction fees. Pricing is tiered based on your desired features and functionality, the number of full users, and the number of solicitations posted each year. Because of this, pricing varies based on agency size, bid requirements, and budget. We suggest speaking with our sales team for a tailored quote.
How quickly can we go live, and what does implementation cost?
Most 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 up the system to your needs, we are able to shorten the implementation time even more to meet urgent requirements when necessary.
READY TO MODERNIZE PROCUREMENT FOR YOUR SOUTH DAKOTA 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 SDCL 5-18A purchasing policy with no rewrite 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 agencies love us