Webinar Recap: Horry County's Easy Transition to Electronic Bid Submission

BidNet Direct provides an intuitive e-procurement solution that help government agencies accomplish  an easy transition to electronic bid submission. The procurement team at Horry County, South Carolina teamed up with BidNet Direct in a recent webinar to discuss the benefits of electronic bid submission and other digital sourcing capabilities. Jessica Williams, Procurement Manager of Horry County, shared some of the County’s experiences with a digital procurement solution.

A recap of the webinar, including the no cost platform features, such as Electronic Bid Submission and Online Q&A, are outlined below.

Electronic Bid Submission

Prior to using electronic bid submission (EBS), Horry County had issues receiving bid responses by mail. “We had an issue where a vendor had put their submittal in the mail in a FedEx box.” Williams shared during the recent webinar. “Their submission didn’t make it to me. There were a ton of issues resulted from that.”

With EBS, buyers have flexibility to accept bids online with BidNet Direct’s secure cloud-based platform. This reduces delayed or lost bids when receiving responses by mail, saves paper and saves the vendor community both time and money.

In the context of the current pandemic and to promote social distancing, accepting bids online helps the Horry County procurement team and its vendors to be safe. “For about a month, [our offices] were closed,” Williams explained, “The public did not come into our building. If it wasn’t for the EBS process already being setup, we would have to put off a ton of projects to protect our staff.”

“Electronic bid submission has saved staff time for my agency, and I can’t be thankful enough that we had it. Especially during COVID, it allowed our staff to stay safe.” Williams added.

Audit & Tracking of Bid Submissions

Bid responses being submitted on time is a must. With EBS, every response submitted is date and timestamped when accepting bids through BidNet Direct. In addition, once the solicitation closes, vendors are unable to submit a response. Jessica Williams explained that Horry County experienced a recent vendor disputing that they have submitted the bid on time, when in fact the platform showed their activity as late. “We were able to prove that and that’s because [we] were able to pull the [date and timestamp] information for that specific vendor.” By accepting bids electronically, Horry County will continue to have properly audited information, not just on responses but also insight into vendors downloading of documents and addendum information for each bid.

Online Q&A

Publishing through the platform allows Horry County to accept questions electronically and publish answers automatically to vendors. Keeping all questions in one place instead of within an email inbox allows the county to have full access and tracking of all questions from vendors regarding a solicitation. In addition, the flexibility to automatically press a button and the online questions & answers are distributed as an addendum saves time and is completely transparent. “It really makes the Q&A function so much easier and it’s controlled in one spot for each project which is huge time savings.” Williams said.

Vendor Search and Courtesy Email

BidNet Direct has a vast number of registered vendors that receive automated notifications. In addition to the existing vendor list, Horry County can invite vendors to submit bids that are not yet registered by utilizing the Courtesy Email feature when publishing a new solicitation. “Now, BidNet notifies them for us and we still have that ability to type in vendor emails for folks who are not already set up,” Williams added when discussing the added layer of automation.

Vendor Tracking & Profile Information

Horry County can check each bidder’s activities per solicitation via a report or by clicking on a vendor’s online profile. Information such as Downloaded Documents, Signed Acknowledgments, and if bid is submitted, it is readily available to view online or export into an excel report. This functionality gives Horry County the information to decide if there is a need for the deadline to be extended with an estimate on how many vendors are going to bid. “If I take a look and if we’re getting close to bid date or it is the bid date… and I see we have no submissions on something that we normally would have submissions,  That might help me make the decision to extend the due date. So, to have the information in front of you really is huge,” Williams explained.

Simplified Vendor Services

The customer service phone number and email are readily available for vendors who require assistance registering, finding solicitations, downloading documents and bidding. BidNet Direct’s vendor registration is a guided step-by-step process that most vendors find very simple and do not need help with completing. Horry County’s team saves time to work on critical purchasing process by handing off the bulk of the customer service-related calls to BidNet Direct.  “If I knew a vendor needed help setting up their account or submitting a bid, BidNet Direct was right there to help them.” Williams exclaimed.

Dedicated Support Team

In addition to a vendor support team, the BidNet Direct dedicated buyer’s support team is always there to help buying organizations, like Horry County, with their needs, even outside normal business hours. The Buyer Support team prides itself on being available to our agencies outside typical work hours, with hours of 8am – 8pm ET Monday thru Friday. “The customer service team at BidNet has had our backs on everything.” Williams added, “You’re not just going through a system or waiting or have to leave a message. And they would walk me through whatever I was confused about.”

Whether it be by phone or email, the buyer support team will always promptly respond to any concerns and messages.

Our sincere thanks to Jessica Williams of Horry County for participating in this helpful webinar for local government agencies looking for a sourcing solution.

Public buying organizations, like Horry County, benefit by using an automated procurement system. BidNet Direct’s e-procurement suite can also provide your organization robust tools such as Electronic Bid Submission, Online Q&A, and Vendor Tracking.

Find out how BidNet Direct can help your government organization today!