BIDS
- The Smart Choice for Buyers
Outsourcing
- Today's Trend in Purchasing
In today's world of down-sizing and
belt-tightening, an attractive option for many organizations is
outsourcing the bidding process.
Buyers earn their money by developing
specifications, and evaluating suppliers and bids. Soliciting
bids is the time consuming part of the procurement process, and
it can be expensive.
BIDS™ saves you money in the
following areas:
- reduces expenditures for advertising,
printing postage, faxing, courier etc;
- lowers prices from increased bidding
activity (probably the greatest area for savings and the most
difficult to document).
- better use of purchasing staff
time.
- helps manage
the tender distribution process.
BIDS lowers
prices by:
- increasing
bidding activity which is the greatest area of savings and the
most difficult to document.
BIDS helps
you manage the tender distribution process by:
- providing
an audit trail of tender processing.
- providing
a listing of detailed vendor distribution.
- making
BIDS' library of tenders available to help buyers research,
and for tender specifications.
- providing
awards and results of previous tenders for budget estimating.
What
is BIDS?
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BIDS
is an electronic publisher that distributes tenders and tender
information to subscribers on behalf of public and corporate buyers.
BIDS
is a privately owned company with its head office in Fredericton,
New Brunswick, Canada. The corporate name is Tendering Publications
Ltd.
BIDS
was founded in the 1970s as a twice-weekly magazine listing all
tenders issued by the Province of New Brunswick. In 1996, it moved
to electronic publishing, offering tenders and tender information
via email, fax and the website (BIDS Alert™). The
magazine is still offered by fax and email.
Also in 1996,
the company began expanding its operations to other jurisdictions
by licensing independently owned and operated businesses to use
the BIDS systems. These franchises service local buyers and subscribers.
Currently there are five franchises - BIDS Nova Scotia, BIDS Newfoundland,
BIDS Alberta, BIDS Qu³bec and BIDS New Brunswick (operated by
Tendering Publications Ltd.).
How
the BIDS System Works
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BIDS distributes
tenders and tender information, and registers vendors for a variety
of buyers including private corporations, municipalities, hospitals,
educational institutions, and provincial governments. BIDS provides
this service at no cost to the buyer.
The principal
service offered to subscribers is BIDS Alert, which is
a "push" service. It is unique in that customers do not have to
browse, order tenders, or pay extra when a tender is of interest
to them. The result is that more vendors respond to your tenders.
More bidders, lower prices. BIDS is also unique in its range of
delivery options. The customer may choose to receive tenders by
email or fax
Services
to Buyers (Back
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Tender
notice and distribution
Notices and
tenders can be distributed three ways:
- Open
tenders. Most tenders in the system are open. They are automatically
distributed to all vendors who have requested tenders in that
category.
- Directed
Tenders.
If a buyer has a list of vendors that must receive a particular
tender, BIDS will distribute the tender to those vendors (regard-
less of whether or not they are BIDS subscribers). There maybe
a modest charge for tenders sent to non-subscribers.
- Open/Directed.
These tenders are distributed through the full system, but are
additionally sent to non-subscribers specified by the buyer.
Addenda
- BIDS tracks who receives all tenders. Any addenda are automatically
sent through the system to all recipients.
Tender
results - For buyers who wish this information distributed,
BIDS will publish award notices.
Distribution
reporting - BIDS can provide detailed reports documenting
to whom your tenders and addenda were sent, how they were sent,
and who ordered attachments.
Vendor
Registration (Back
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Some buyers
require a database of current buyers. We will take your database
and contact, at our expense, each vendor to notify them of the
changes in procedure. We will invite them to register with BIDS
as your vendor (registration information is custom tailored to
your requirements). This serves to update the buyer's database
which often contains old information.
Buying organizations
opting for this service receive an initial updated listing of
registered vendors on CD-ROM with software to enable you to access
and manipulate your vendors list. To ensure your list of vendors
is up-to-date you will receive (generally on a weekly basis) electronic
up-dates that are automatically incorporated into your master
listing. We will notify all of our existing subscribers of the
opportunity to register with you. This provides you instant access
to valuable new vendors.
Procurement
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TIPS™
is BIDS' proprietary procurement management software. It organizes
your vendor database, and follows the cycle from requisition to
tender to purchase order. It also places your tender data in a
format that is easily transferred to the BIDS system.
BIDS
is AIT Compliant
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For those Canadian MASH organizations
(municipalities, municipal organizations, school boards and publicly-funded
academic, health and social service entities) subject to the Agreement
on Internal Trade; BIDS is a "designated electronic tendering
system" that allows you to comply with the "open procurement"
provisions of the Agreement.
Getting
Started
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BIDS
receives tenders a number of ways from different buyers. If you
have a full purchasing management system, we can take an electronic
feed. If you generate tenders in a word processor, we will give
you a simple form that you can put your data into. Getting your
data into the BIDS system is easy, and we are flexible in adapting
to the needs of each buying organization.
Call BIDS today at 1-800-397-0393
PDF Version
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An
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by clicking the link below.
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