Bid Library - How can it help my organization?

What is a bid library?

A bid library is exactly what it sounds like – a library housing solicitations, addenda, and awards for others to “borrow”. Bid libraries provide purchasing professionals valuable information on what peers have solicited for in the past. They allow public procurement organizations to share resources, saving them time from having to come up with specifications and primary research on a new solicitation. Many purchasing associations such as the Institute for Public Procurement (NIGP) host bid libraries, as do many e-procurement providers such as BidNet Direct. BidNet Direct’s bid library is home to nearly 200,000 closed and awarded bids posted by participating government entities and hundreds of thousands of additional solicitations and documents within the BidNet National Bid Library. As a public procurement professional, what are the benefits to accessing and utilizing a bid library?

Saving time and gaining insight from past solicitations

Being able to access the type of information stored within a bid library allows agencies to view similar solicitations to any upcoming bids they may have, and the previously published solicitation can act as a template when creating a new bid or RFP. Using this template allows agencies to have the bones of a solicitation, but with the flexibility of being able to tweak the specifics of the solicitation to meet their own exact needs. This can be a huge time-saver for professionals whose primary responsibility doesn’t lie solely in purchasing, such as Kirk Magnussen. Magnussen, the Director of Information Systems for Grand County, Colorado, handles purchasing for the County and realizes how much BidNet’s bid library saves him time. "Being able to use the other [agencies] postings has been great,” he said of the bid library. He continues, “It’s very nice for me to go out on BidNet [Direct] and look at what other people have done. Do a keyword search, and look at some of their bid postings and RFP postings. It's been a great learning tool. It helps when you don't have to recreate the wheel."

Piggy backing a solicitation

However, providing a template for upcoming solicitations isn’t the only benefit that a bid library provides. Being able to see who posted a given solicitation allows agencies to communicate with one another. Agencies can reach out to one another when they see similar postings and ask questions such as what kinds of responses they can expect, what they would have done differently, etc. This can be a great resource, because it can also be taken one step further. Buyers can contact other local government organizations and use their awards to piggy back onto for their own purchases. BidNet Direct’s bid library makes finding piggy-backable bids easy, allowing agencies to search through solicitations for only those that have piggy-backable language. However, just because a solicitation isn’t flagged for piggy-backing, there are still instances in which it can be done. For instance, a purchasing organization may find a solicitation from another local government similar to the goods or services they require, and could contact the buyer that posted the original solicitation to request permission to piggy-back off of the award. This usually works best if both government agencies are located within a proximity to one-another, have an existing relationship, or similar purchasing policies.

BidNet Direct’ bid library provides local government agencies with a shared resource center that they previously wouldn’t have had access to. With the ability to view solicitations from other government agencies locally as well as nationwide, agencies have the option to create a template from past solicitations, ask advice of other purchasing departments, or even piggy-back off of other local bid awards. 

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