HIRTA announced today that it has joined the Iowa Purchasing Group. Bidnet Direct’s Iowa Purchasing Group helps local governments, such as HIRTA, post, distribute and manage RFPs, quotes, addendums, and awards online. The Iowa Purchasing Group provides notification to registered vendors of new bids related to their industry, any addenda, and award information from 2 participating agencies across Iowa. All potential HIRTA vendors are encouraged to register online with www.bidnetdirect.com/iowa/hirta to access upcoming solicitations.
HIRTA joined the Iowa Purchasing Group in July 2022. There was a need for HIRTA to automate the purchasing process to save time, increase competition and achieve cost savings over the traditional paper-based bid process. The Iowa Purchasing Group streamlines the creation and issuance of bid requests, supplier response submission, and the awarding of bids. By utilizing the Iowa Purchasing Group, the HIRTA can also utilize robust tools such as Online Q&A, Bid Tabulation, and Electronic Bid Submission feature. With the Iowa Purchasing Group providing a single, online location for managing sourcing information and activities, local Iowa government agencies minimize costs and time delays associated with the procurement process.
HIRTA now has access to an extensive vendor pool and utilizes automatic bid notifications to registered vendors, thereby enhancing competition without increasing distribution costs. In addition to the existing vendors on the Iowa Purchasing Group, all vendors looking to do business with local government agencies can register online: https://www.bidnetdirect.com/Iowa. HIRTA invites all current vendors not registered on the Iowa Purchasing Group to do so today.
“We look forward to being able to improve our efficiency by using the Iowa Purchasing Group’s features such as electronic bid submission and automatic bid notifications,” stated Brooke Ramsey, Business Development Manager of HIRTA when asked why they joined Iowa Purchasing Group. “In addition to our time savings, our valued vendors can now access not only our open bids but those from other municipalities, counties, and school districts throughout Iowa. We invite all of our current vendors to register.”
Vendor benefits include:
• Access bids, related documents, addendum, and award information
• Receive targeted bids
• Receive bid deadline reminders
• Notification of term contract expiration
• Access a single point of entry for all participating agency bids
• Contact a dedicated vendor support team
Vendors may register on the Iowa Purchasing Group: https://www.bidnetdirect.com/Iowa. Vendors may also contact Bidnet Direct’s vendor support team at 800-835-4603 option 2 with any questions regarding registration or the bidding system.
Other local Iowa government agencies looking to switch from a manual bid process, please contact Iowa Purchasing Group for a demonstration of the no-cost sourcing solution.
About HIRTA:
In 1981, the Heart of Iowa Regional Transit Agency (HIRTA) was formed under a 28E agreement with the 7 counties in central Iowa.
Region 11, better known as HIRTA, was established to provide public transit services in the counties of Boone, Dallas, Jasper, Madison, Marion, Story, and Warren. At that time, HIRTA was set up to contract all transit services to other agencies and only had 2 employees.
In 2011, things began to change and HIRTA started providing transit service in-house in Jasper County. Over the next several years, HIRTA began operating services directly in more counties within the region.
