Month: May 2021

If the public sector isn’t a target market for your IT or software company, now’s the time to reconsider. 

Public sector opportunities are about to multiply with recent news of federal funding designed to provide further pandemic relief for states and localities, particularly to support digitization.

If reading this activates your fear of missing out (FOMO), don’t fret! In this post, we break down where stimulus money is being funneled so you can identify untapped areas of opportunity. We also share some examples of recent IT-related bid postings from Bonfire clients to help you get a sense of the high-potential public sector opportunities you could be capitalizing on.

Digitization incentives skyrocket

The Biden government recently signed a $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan to deliver help to the public sector at the state, local, and tribal levels. Much of the funding reflects the new administration’s interest in public sector tech advancement and commitment to “making government IT great again.”

At a time when public agencies are expected to do more with less budget and fewer personnel, finding opportunities to save money and drive value through modernized processes – especially reducing reliance on paper and email – presents a big challenge that IT and software vendors are well-positioned to solve.

Here’s where IT companies should be paying attention, according to the GovTech Market Watch on Stimulus.

Broadband

$350 billion in fiscal relief will go to states, localities, and tribal governments to support a variety of areas. Most notably for IT vendors, this includes investments in broadband infrastructure. Companies that supply internet services can realize substantial benefits by tapping into this funding stream.

Benefits systems

Unemployment modernization is an initiative the Department of Labor is supporting by providing states with $2 billion to improve unemployment insurance systems, enhance program integrity, provide better access to benefits, and reduce delays. IT and software companies can support state departments in improving systemwide efficiency and integrity to prevent fraud and increase accessibility.

Distance and hybrid learning

Schools faced dramatic upheaval over the past year in switching between virtual, physical, and hybrid classrooms in response to changing public health directives. Bonfire data shows that, in August and September 2020, schools saw a 122% increase in tablet and computer projects, and a 183% increase in cybersecurity software and equipment projects.

Federal grants at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels will support these continued efforts. Projects will focus on keeping students safe during the pandemic through enhanced distance learning, networking, and digitization. Local education agencies will receive $128.55 billion in funding while higher education institutions will get $39.58 billion. 

The E-Rate Connectivity Fund for schools and libraries is also delivering an additional $7.59 billion to support the purchasing of connected devices, internet service, and equipment for teachers and students. All these funding streams present big opportunities for vendors that supply digital learning systems, devices, and networking in the education sector.

Public health

If your technology can support COVID-19 testing or improve efficiency in the public health workforce, a significant injection of federal funding in these areas could provide you with an influx of new opportunities. The American Rescue Plan will provide $46 billion for improving COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, and risk reduction, including modernizing IT, data analysis, and reporting functions. In addition, $7.66 billion in funding will be available to agencies to increase the public health workforce, a portion of which can be used to source IT solutions that advance this goal.

Marketplace modernization

Finally, the new federal funding will award $20 million in grants to State-Based Marketplaces (SBMs) to make processes more efficient by updating systems, programs, or technology. Vendors that can support SBMs in making health insurance enrollment more efficient, profitable, and sustainable are poised to benefit from this funding stream. 

Recent IT opportunities from Bonfire clients

Bonfire clients regularly procure IT and software solutions to support modernization in a wide range of areas, from HR to medical records to finance. Here are some recent bid opportunities that may inspire you to expand your company’s strategic focus to the public sector:

• Ocean County College – Economic Modelling Software
• Milwaukee County – Budget Management Software
• University of Guelph – Veterinary Hospital Information System
• University of Guelph – Electronic Medical Records Solution
• University of Guelph – Human Resources Management System
• Atlanta Public Schools – Construction Program and Project Management Software
• Atlanta Public Schools – Property Lease Management Software
• Montgomery County – Poll Worker Management Software System
• University of Manitoba – Anesthesia Scheduling Software Solution
• Toronto Public Library – Incident Management System

Ready to bid on more public sector opportunities? Learn how Bonfire gives vendors access to over 20,000+ public sector projects per year.

2020 was a year of challenges tackled and lessons learned for public sector agencies. While no one could have predicted the pandemic or the events that unfolded as a result, procurement teams had no choice but to keep calm and source on.

At Bonfire, we celebrate the innovative thinking and quick action of procurement professionals in continuing to deliver critical public services through COVID-19. In order to learn as much as possible from your efforts in facing the demands of the pandemic and your outlook for 2021, we distributed a survey to public procurement professionals across the US.

The results, collected over December 2020 and January 2021, uncover key trends related to how procurement teams responded to the pandemic, how COVID-19 affected operations, and how these impacts have shaped procurement priorities and strategies for 2021.

Read on for an overview of key survey insights that you can use to establish benchmarks and inform your procurement strategy going forward.

Addressing 2020’s biggest challenges required digital solutions

Looking back to the early days of the pandemic when public procurement departments scrambled to source in-demand items – hand sanitizer, face masks, IT equipment, remote work software – it’s not surprising that supply chain shortages rank at the top of 2020’s biggest procurement challenges, affecting 65% of respondents. Given the current struggles of the vaccine roll-out, with agencies looking for emergency supplies, it’s clear those challenges have only continued.

Beyond sourcing frustrations, our survey results show that procurement teams were facing other key points of strain in the procurement process, including quickly finding new vendors in new categories, facilitating contactless bid submissions and public bid openings, and responding to new and/or urgent project requests.

For many teams reliant on paper-based processes, these challenges necessitated some degree of rapid digital transformation. Survey respondents reported three very different approaches to digitization during the pandemic, from no changes to temporary fixes to permanent shifts to digital operations.

Remote work continues to be a reality in 2021

A central goal of our survey was to explore the longer-term impacts of changes driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. By understanding how agencies reevaluated operations, procurement teams can strategize about what needs to change permanently to meet new stakeholder expectations.

When it comes to one of the biggest workplace shifts of 2020 – telecommuting – our results show that nearly half of respondents expect to go back to the office full-time in 2021. On the other hand, 30% will work from home more than 50% of the time. 

While the majority of procurement professionals expect a return to the office, many agencies will have to explore ways to accommodate a hybrid work environment in which nearly a third of employees perform at least half their work from home. On top of that, procurement teams will have to account for the new dynamics of evaluators and vendors, who may expect the option of a remote, digital experience.

Cooperative contracts are the most popular cost-cutting strategy

The consequences of COVID-19-driven financial pressures on public sector organizations cannot be underestimated. Slashed budgets and downsizing across public agencies in the US have resulted in a reevaluation and reprioritization of projects and spending. 

Our survey explores this topic by measuring procurement teams’ key priorities and strategies for driving savings in the coming year. With the need to explore innovative cost-cutting opportunities in 2021, 54% of survey respondents say they plan to pursue cooperative contracts.

This strategy allows public procurement teams to leverage the benefits of partnership and gain access to vendors that are already vetted by the contracting agent. They can avoid running a solicitation and provide a faster solution – accommodating the shortened time frame that more stakeholders have come to expect, according to our survey results.

Explore more insights

Many of the changes spurred by the pandemic will have wide-reaching, long-term consequences for public procurement. And, after a whirlwind pandemic year of new processes, technologies, and ways of working, many teams are only just beginning to get their bearings.

In order to build a strategy for the coming years that’s cost-effective, agile, and future-proof, public procurement teams will need to integrate the lessons of the past year and continue building on newly realized strengths and efficiencies. 

Get more insights to inform your strategy by downloading the full survey report.

How does your procurement team manage intake requests? If you’re like procurement coordinator Marla Bossons of the District of North Cowichan, requests could come in any number of formats, from phone calls to Post-It notes left on your desk to what she calls the “Friday afternoon drive-by.”

No matter what, juggling so many different intake channels makes it tough to work strategically, track progress, and get projects off the ground successfully.

Fortunately for Marla, all of that changed when North Cowichan implemented Bonfire, complete with the Intake module. By making the switch, the District has realized major process improvements that are supporting key procurement objectives.

For other public sector organizations hoping to improve their intake process, North Cowichan’s story shows how a more streamlined request system leads to direct benefits for your stakeholders and internal clients.

A procurement team of one

Like many small municipalities, North Cowichan has limited resources and needed a way to make their procurement procedures as efficient as possible.

Located on Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada, the District has a population of approximately 32,000 residents. Since becoming a Bonfire client in 2018, they’ve processed over 100 projects through the platform.

That’s no small feat for a procurement team of one. With over 20 years in the finance department, Marla started working on procurement policies and procedures six years ago when she realized the value that process improvements could deliver to her community.

Enhancing the process with Bonfire Intake

Whether you’re flying solo like Marla or part of a larger procurement team, the reality is, all procurement professionals are working at or over capacity most of the time.

With so many responsibilities to juggle, everything you can do to streamline is a good thing. By implementing Bonfire, Marla says North Cowichan now has “a consistent, defensible, transparent process throughout the lifecycle of our projects” with notifications that keep projects on track, a central place for information, and heightened visibility into the pipeline.

 Bonfire Intake gives North Cowichan an efficient, easy-to-manage system for receiving all project requests. Instead of being brought in late to new projects or learning about them through emails, phone calls, impromptu conversations, Council meeting minutes, or Post-It notes, Marla is looped in from the start. Project managers are required to submit all requests through Bonfire, triggering an immediate notification to procurement.

An intelligent to-do list

Marla says “the Intake dashboard is now basically my to-do list.” From a single screen, you can see all project requests, including the number of unassigned, new, and draft ready requests. You can even check the Archive tab to review information about past requests.

For multi-person procurement teams, the option to assign projects is especially helpful, allowing you to distribute the work, while still having a bird’s-eye-view of all projects.

By tracking the status of requests and providing automated notifications and reminders to stakeholders, Bonfire Intake has saved procurement substantial time, reducing the need for back-and-forth correspondence about project requests. 

Project managers can go into Bonfire to get updates whenever they need to without having to reach out to procurement for a status report. The new intake process has also eliminated the need to email large files, since all documents for review can be shared through the module.

The benefits of centralized intake

Overall, North Cowichan’s new process using Bonfire Intake is a game-changer when it comes to tracking, prioritizing, and successfully posting projects. Not only does it make the process easier for all stakeholders, the risk of projects falling through the cracks is virtually eliminated. 

Most importantly, procurement is brought into every project from the get-go, allowing North Cowichan to plan strategically and set projects up to succeed. No last-minute scramble or overlooked priorities – just greater efficiency and value for the community.

For North Cowichan and other organizations using Bonfire Intake, a streamlined request process unlocks these benefits and more:

• Improved efficiency driven by a consistent, trackable process for receiving project requests 
• Complete visibility into the procurement pipeline, including planning, approval workflows, execution, and contract activity
• Better collaboration across the organization, allowing stakeholders and internal clients to see all project requests at a glance, track progress, and distribute tasks
• Simplified decision-making, thanks to a central dashboard that makes it easier for senior leaders to prioritize projects according to strategic goals

Bonfire Intake helps you start every project off on the right foot, maximize your team’s efficiency, and deliver more value for your organization. Join our upcoming webinar to learn more about Bonfire Intake and Approvals.

Approvals are a key part of the solicitation process. But, all too often, they’re the source of serious headaches for procurement teams and stakeholders alike.

That’s because obtaining them is often an informal, manual process – using email chains and follow-up phone calls – that results in longer solicitation cycles, project delays, and poor visibility.

We know this issue hinders productivity for many procurement teams, which is why we’re so excited to announce the launch of our new Approvals feature, now an integral part of Bonfire.

Introducing Approvals in Bonfire

Using the new Approvals feature, you can capture your existing approvals process in Bonfire for consolidated visibility, turnkey compliance, and improved stakeholder engagement with solicitations.

Most importantly, you can say goodbye to unnecessary friction in the process and reclaim your time, so you can focus on your most challenging work.

Capture and streamline your existing approvals process

Here’s how the Approvals feature removes even more internal barriers to efficient solicitations, gets everyone on the same page and keeps projects running on time—making life easier for your procurement team and stakeholders:

• Simplify the approvals workflow with standardized templates, straightforward forms, and concise email notifications and reminders.
• Easily track approval requests at multiple stages of a purchase, from intake all the way through to awarding a vendor, and quickly generate reports.
• Let Bonfire take care of the follow-up with your approvers through system-generated reminders to encourage timely review and submission of responses, as well as immediate notifications to buyers as soon as anything changes.
• Improve efficiency with repeatable templates that let you identify stakeholders and get approval requests out quickly.
• Eliminate the time crunch with heightened visibility into the status of all current, upcoming, and past requests on the approvals dashboard, helping you keep projects on time.
• Automate compliance with turnkey reporting that tracks approval statuses across multiple people, emails, and phone calls and generates real-time audit reports.

Expedite approvals at every stage of the process

Ensuring stakeholders review and approve key elements of the solicitation process is essential. Sign-off needs to happen at multiple stages of the process, and the Approvals feature is designed to make it seamless and straightforward for everyone involved.

Beginning with intake, you can capture all approval steps alongside a new procurement request as it progresses and keep all details organized in one place. The Approvals feature provides a consistent experience for end users and a transparent view into the request status.

When it comes to creating requirements, Approvals delivers an audit trail, common approval steps, pre-scheduled email reminders, and notifications for late approvals, making it easier and faster to finalize RFP requirements with stakeholders.

Prior to bid posting, Approvals ensures all finalized documents are signed-off by relevant stakeholders, including end users, legal, procurement, and any other offices before posting. Anyone can be added as an approver — even non-Bonfire users. It’s also quicker to post addenda by getting quick approval on any Q&As, forms, or documents being shared.

Finally, when it comes to the award recommendation, Approvals streamlines the process of summarizing the results and putting forward a recommendation on which vendor to award.

Approvals minus the headache

Up until now, managing and responding to approvals in the solicitations process might feel like a time sink that adds more stress and administrative overhead to your already-full plate.

Approvals in Bonfire eliminates the burden by easily connecting all stakeholders in a fast, efficient, and streamlined workflow that’s purpose-built to solve procurement teams’ biggest barriers to efficient solicitations.

To see Approvals in action, join our upcoming webinar, where we will show you how to add approval requests, track them, and generate reports at every stage of the procurement process.

As employee #3—and then Chief Client and Product Officer—at Bonfire, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside hundreds of public agencies across North America to achieve a procurement process that serves their agency and their constituents better. So it’s an honor to publicly announce that I will be stepping into the role of CEO at Bonfire. 

I was exposed to the world of public procurement early in my career. I worked at an engineering firm and our main clients were cities, school districts, and universities—which means we competed for almost every one of our contracts.

Whether it’s waiting for weeks to get a debrief on a lost RFP, spending half a day near the printer assembling multiple copies of proposals, or having to borrow a dolly from our maintenance staff to wheel multiple bankers boxes of paper to be shipped—I had direct experience with the pain points experienced as a vendor.

That early exposure to the world of public procurement is what motivated me to join Bonfire almost a decade ago. As I saw a demo of the product for the first time, I witnessed solutions to the challenges I had experienced as a vendor—streamlined operational tasks, better alignment and collaboration throughout the process, and a radically improved vendor experience that no longer had me lugging paper files to city hall. At the time Bonfire had a deep focus on the RFP evaluation part of the process, and as far as we could tell, was the only solution on the market focused on digitally transforming both the RFP submission and evaluation process. We always knew that collaboration throughout the experience was critical to helping procurement teams make a greater impact within their agencies and that quickly became the heartbeat of our mission at Bonfire. I had the privilege of helping us achieve that mission by cultivating a culture of innovation and client support. 

Over the years the product has expanded immensely, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with hundreds of procurement professionals from across the public sector, spanning all sizes of organizations and state agencies. I have seen firsthand the role that procurement teams play in improving the lives of citizens, students, and patients, and as effective partners in their organizations by providing strategic advice and critical know-how. You don’t have to look far to see how critical procurement teams are to the functioning of our society. Who can forget the rush for PPE, hand sanitizer, and special services a year ago at the start of the pandemic? 

As I take the helm at Bonfire, I will bring everything I’ve learned throughout this wonderful journey standing shoulder-to-shoulder with procurement teams to advance the innovation that will shape the field of public procurement tomorrow. With more and more procurement teams going through digital transformation journeys, there will be many opportunities to combine the wisdom of the masses and power of the public purse for public good—and Bonfire will be there to provide the best solutions. Our team at Bonfire is deeply motivated to make the world a better place by equipping procurement teams with modern technology. We are proud of the reputation we have built as a company that provides a world-class client experience, and we’re committed to continue building on this reputation. As the pandemic begins to fade away and our societies begin their march back to normalcy, I’m excited at what the future brings.