Automatic quality control for bidding processes: Save time, money and procurement staff sanity

How many non-compliant bids have you rejected in the past year? How many valuable staff hours and resources were needed to review these bids, just to reject them in the end?

Backstory

Tired of receiving non-compliant bids, which costs both buyers and vendors time and money, the Town of Newmarket decided to introduce what public procurement officials had been talking about for years – a fully electronic bidding system.

Newmarket was one of the first municipalities in Canada to offer an end-to-end eProcurement process with bids&tenders, an online system made for procurement professionals by procurement professionals.

Potential issues were identified and addressed through Newmarket’s review of e-bidding case law and by conducting extensive mock bidding exercises with Surety Association of Canada, Defense Construction Canada, Newmarket Chamber of Commerce (and the vendor community) and Mobile Bonds and Xenex Enterprises Inc. After 18 months of researching and consulting with partners and public procurement officers in Canada and the United States, Newmarket was ready to seamlessly introduce an e-bidding system that would completely transform its procurement process.

Why make a change? 

Helping Newmarket achieve its goals, bids&tenders has a built-in quality control function to ensure pricing or other mandatory information is included before the bid can be submitted. If there’s missing mandatory information, a bidder can’t submit their bid until the information is entered or uploaded.

The introduction to e-bidding has also resulted in more bids being received, providing Newmarket better value when awarding contracts.  

Small changes, big results

For a seamless transition to the bids&tenders system, the Town of Newmarket started with a solid foundation by making necessary changes to its by-law and policies, including:

• • Adopting a new Procurement By-law with new E-Bidding Irregularity Schedules
  • Creating new electronic bid templates
  • Creating new electronic standardized instructions for bidders
  • Creating a bidding system Terms of Service Agreement
  • Eliminating hard copy submission alternatives
  • Creating new bid checklists
  • Purchasing cyber insurance

Since its launch in September 2014, Newmarket’s e-bidding system has successfully closed more than 170 e-bids, with not a single hardcopy bid issued. Not to mention, close to 100 per cent compliant bids, with only the occasional error beyond the control of the system or the buyer, such as an incorrect attachment being uploaded by the bidder.

Then & now

Solving issues before they come up

Armed with real-life feedback from their mock bidding exercises, the Town of Newmarket addressed some vital issues in order to make sure their e-bidding process was simple, efficient and best of all, designed to serve both their procurement staff and bidders.

Since launching bids&tenders, Newmarket has seen a growth in the number of digital bonds received compared to scanned PDFs as both surety providers and bidders understand the benefits of digital bonding for all parties, such as not having to rely on couriers to deliver bonds and the ability for owner’s to authenticate bonds at closing.

Enhancements to come

The bids&tenders system Newmarket uses is evolving at a phenomenal rate thanks to feedback gathered through the unique bids&tenders user group. That’s right – we want users to tell us what they think! The user group is a valuable ongoing collaboration with municipalities like the Town of Newmarket. Enhancements to the bids&tenders system as a result of these discussions include:

• Electronic evaluations of Request for Proposals (RFPs)
• Electronic tracking of vendor performance
• Custom online bid templates
• Workload by buyer reports