Month: September 2021

Creating an RFP isn’t always straightforward—especially when you’re dealing with new or unfamiliar projects. Even if you find a few general templates from Google searches, it’s hard to know if these examples will get you the outcomes you’re looking for.

Just like us, you’ve probably thought that building RFPs should be easier. After all, if you’re looking at creating a new project for your agency, chances are that others have already been through the same process. 

We’re excited to announce that building new RFPs just got easier with the all-new Bonfire Community Projects—a searchable collection of tens of thousands of public projects within our network of 500+ agencies across North America.

Introducing Bonfire Community Projects

We’ve designed Community Projects to give you instant access to best-in-class projects from across procurement, including access to all supporting bid documents. We also knew that general search engines were, well, too general—so we’ve given you search tools that let you easily filter by location, organization, project type, and more. 

Here’s how Community Projects can give you a head start on building quality, strategic RFPs for your next project:

Use best-in-class project examples to jump-start your next RFP

Draw from tens of thousands of successful projects run by 500+ agencies across North America, so you can create quality, strategic RFPs using established practices from your peers.

Search and filter results to find the right project template, fast

Easily search through projects using a tool designed specifically for public procurement, without generic search results getting in the way. Filter by project type, location, organization, and more, giving you instant access to the most relevant projects for your next RFP.

Structure the best RFPs by drawing from supporting bid documents

Save time and ensure success by leveraging bid documents from other procurement professionals.

Join a community that grows by thousands of projects every month

Learn from one of the industry’s largest communities of procurement professionals, with over 500 public agencies across North America. With thousands of projects added monthly, you can rest assured that you’re accessing the most relevant, trending projects from your peers. 

Never start an RFP from Scratch Again

As more demands are placed on procurement teams every year, tools need to adapt and provide faster, easier ways to keep up. With Community Projects, you can now leverage a huge collection of projects the next time you’ve got to start a new RFP. 

There’s also more to Community Projects than just helping you speed through your next project. Keeping an eye on your peer’s projects is a great way to spot industry trends and best practices. Our search engine intelligently highlights fresh and trending projects based on the activity of your peers, so check in often and stay in the know for best practices, no matter the project.

Not yet a Bonfire customer? No problem!

We know that collaboration makes procurement better for everyone, whether or not you’re a Bonfire customer. To that end, we’re also releasing a completely free version of Community Projects, open to every professional in procurement. This free version—Bonfire Open Access Community Projects—gives you all the same search features for public projects in the Bonfire community.

Learn more about our free version here, and be sure to get on the list for early access when it arrives later this fall.

Over the past 19 months, public procurement teams have been challenged to get creative with how and where they source goods and services. For better or worse, supply chain disruption, economic instability, and skyrocketing demand have all been drivers of innovation. But, according to Darren Tompkins, that’s nothing new. Procurement has always been an arena where creativity is essential to success.

In this episode of Inside Public Procurement, the Manager of Purchasing for the City of Kelowna sits down with us to share valuable insights from 20 years of experience in K-12 and municipal purchasing. We chat with Darren about what creativity in public procurement looks like and why it doesn’t have to come at the cost of compliance.

Keep reading for all the highlights from our conversation—and discover even more in the full episode. You can find it on our website or wherever you get your podcasts.

Why public procurement needs creativity

Public procurement teams tend to focus on driving efficiency and standardization to manage the many projects, stakeholders, and vendors they’re juggling at any given time. But Darren says falling back on standard processes isn’t always optimal. “There are times where, if you’re trying to fit that square peg into a round hole, you need to be a little more creative.”

That’s where thinking outside the box becomes essential—because there will always be procurement challenges that demand new and novel approaches. So what do those approaches look like? Here are four big ideas Darren shares on the podcast.

1. Rethink repetitive tasks

In certain purchasing areas, there’s a much higher transaction volume and that “takes up effort and time.” In those instances, “you really want to get your buying team using their critical thinking skills and adding value to everything they touch.”

Darren suggests automating as many low-value transactional activities as possible, such as using P-Cards or standing orders with certain suppliers for low-value repetitive spend. “And then really get your buyers immersed in the files they’re working on… getting good long-term agreements with suppliers to provide what we’re looking for and leveraging their expertise.”

2. Tailor the selection process to your project

Few procurements are suited to a one-size-fits-all selection process. Darren says, although it’s often the go-to approach, using a price-based tender isn’t always ideal—for example, when buying professional services. “When you’re buying knowledge, when you’re buying expertise… you really want to engage with the service provider that can provide the best outcomes for you.”

Using a quality-based, rather than price-based, approach in those instances allows Darren’s team to make sure they’re always finding the best vendor for the specific goals they need to achieve. Ultimately, that’s the best way to use taxpayer dollars efficiently.

3. Explore creative methods—within limits

Every procurement professional knows that public agencies in Canada are bound to strict purchasing regulations. And Darren says encouraging creative thinking on your team doesn’t mean throwing out the rule book. “I think one of those things that we need to satisfy is transparency in our process… Within a procurement, you can do a lot of things, but you need to say what you’re going to do ahead of time and it needs to be in your document.”

Creativity within limits—and with full transparency—isn’t just important for process improvement, it’s also critical for your team’s career development. Darren recommends taking low-risk opportunities to experiment with pilot projects as a way to try new approaches and get everyone in the organization on board.

4. Reframe the RFP ask

Another area where Darren says teams can think more creatively is the RFP. “At times, we don’t necessarily have the internal expertise to describe, in fact, what we want to buy or what we need to address a problem. And so, in an RFP, I encourage our teams to think about presenting a problem rather than presenting the solution.”

“Let the marketplace, which are the experts in this area present a solution to you, present what you’d like to see as an outcome, or present the problem and ask them for answers… And that’s really where an RFP can produce innovative solutions.”

Get ready to be inspired

The greatest opportunity that creative thinking gives procurement professionals, Darren says, is the ability to make a difference. “If you’re not feeling as though you’re making a difference right now, find a space where you can be an influencer and a champion.” 

Inspiring, right? There’s lots more where that came from on the full episode of Inside Public Procurement. We cover topics like social procurement, bringing more value to your organization, and strengthening relationships with vendors through the power of feedback. So be sure to bring us along on your next lunch break or evening commute.

Hungry for more tips, insights, and inspiration you can use to level up your procurement strategy? Head over to our website, or find Inside Public Procurement on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts!

When we talk about innovation in procurement, we tend to equate it with digital transformation or next-gen technology. And that’s certainly not wrong. It’s a big part of what we do here at Bonfire. But innovative procurement can actually take a lot of different forms. Just ask Carol Izzio, our special guest on the latest episode of Inside Public Procurement.

With over 15 years of experience in the field, Carol is the Director of Procurement at Sheridan College. An expert in the higher ed realm, she’s also worked in healthcare purchasing in both the public and private sectors.

According to Carol, the key to innovation is being creative “about the way you procure. And be[ing] innovative about the tools that you’re using to help you procure.” She joins us on our latest episode to talk about one surprisingly simple—but game-changing—approach to innovation: collaboration.

Here are some of our favorite lightbulb moments from the conversation. Have a read and be sure to check out the full episode on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Procurement’s bad habit of reinventing the wheel

“In the past, public procurement has always been [done in] silos,” Carol says. Individual institutions would create their own procurement policies and processes, “so, we’ve been known to reinvent the wheel.”

In recent years, and especially with the pressure placed on procurement teams during the pandemic, it’s been increasingly important for agencies to collaborate. Carol explains why it’s so important to start sharing resources, tools, templates, and best practices right now.

The need for collaboration between agencies

The concept of pooling resources and working together for mutual benefit has been around for probably as long as humans have. And despite the fact that it’s not new, it’s still key to innovation and, in particular, optimizing procurement.

“Optimization is really about using each other. So, we have a ton of professional procurement people out there. There are a ton of procurement organizations out there.” Rather than starting from scratch on a new procurement policy, for example, Carol says the best way to optimize time and resources is by reaching out to other institutions.

She sees duplication of effort happening all too often and, in our latest episode, she shares her tips for tapping into existing networks and resources.

Maximizing value with sustainable procurement

In the second half of our conversation, we switch gears to chat about another hot topic in procurement right now: sustainability. Specifically, how can procurement teams make the most of taxpayer dollars through sustainable procurement policies?

For Carol and her colleagues at Sheridan, sustainable procurement “isn’t just about clean purchasing” or reducing the organization’s environmental impact. It’s procurement that “achieves social, economical, environmental, and financial goals.”

When planning their approach to sustainable procurement, Carol says her team focused on shifting priorities to drive those goals. “Let’s see what we can do about keeping our communities healthy, people in jobs, making sure that we can support people who have smaller companies, or who want to start entrepreneur groups, and let’s try and support them.”

More aha moments on the podcast

Catch the full episode for more advice and firsthand experience from Carol on how to promote collaboration, optimize procurement, and approach conversations around sustainability policies in your agency.

Hungry for more tips, insights, and inspiration you can use to level up your procurement strategy? Head over to our website, or find Inside Public Procurement on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts!

From the moment she stepped into her role as Chief Procurement Officer, Jennifer Frates knew the procurement process had to change if Barnstable County was going to improve collaboration and deliver more value for stakeholders now and into the future.

With 15 towns and a one-person procurement team managing cooperative bids for all of them, the regional government for Cape Cod, Massachusetts relies on strong collaboration in its procurement process. Achieving that through workflows involving hardcopy submissions, in-person bidding, manual Excel tabulations, and email wasn’t only labor-intensive. It was also preventing the county from reaching more vendors, making data-driven decisions, and finding innovative new purchasing solutions.

Having come from an organization that used Bonfire for eProcurement, Jennifer says, “I knew right away – the technology exists, we can use this software to be able to efficiently have the same exact process that we have now and be able to do it quicker, faster and with a lot less administrative work on my part.” 

Experience had shown her that switching from paper-based to eProcurement would be the best way to help the towns deliver more cost-effective, on-budget solutions and collaborate more effectively — and Bonfire fit the bill.

15 towns working together

Barnstable County has a population of over 212,000 across its 15 towns. Since none of the towns have dedicated procurement departments, they often pursue cooperative bids coordinated through the county to make the most of their resources and level up their purchasing power.

In order to do that, the towns need to be able to work together effectively and efficiently to get projects off the ground, a task single-handedly managed by Jennifer, who is responsible for all the bidding, contracting, and purchasing for the internal department and county-wide cooperative bids. That includes RFPs for critical projects such as road materials, school supplies, fuel, professional services, and more.

Paper-based procurement slows progress

As if coordinating cooperative bids for 15 towns wasn’t already complex enough, Barnstable’s manual processes made every project even more difficult and procurement was up against some significant challenges, including:

• Labor-intensive clerical processes that were creating inefficiencies and unnecessary administrative overhead
• No centralized way to coordinate communication and collaborative processes between stakeholders, vendors and evaluators across multiple towns
• A lack of data analysis and insights that limited strategic planning and decision-making
• A small pool of vendors with no easy way to extend their reach, which meant the county and towns weren’t getting the best possible value for citizens

Bonfire keeps all stakeholders on the same (virtual) page

Switching to Bonfire’s state-of-the-art eProcurement software has saved Barnstable County countless hours of administrative effort, expanded their vendor pool, and improved pricing and value, enabling them to divert more funds to critical projects that make all the towns better.

Everything in one central location

Providing a centralized platform for seamless collaboration, Bonfire allows all stakeholders, including vendors, internal departments, and evaluators, to see all the information they need in one convenient place with automated reminders and notifications so they never miss a step or deadline. It’s simple for everyone to see where others are in the process and easily submit and view documents, comments, and feedback.

Time-saving process automation

Like many agencies struggling with a shrinking budget, adding more team members to the procurement department simply wasn’t an option for Barnstable. Bonfire eProcurement has filled that gap and delivered more value with less budget, taking the administrative burden off Jennifer’s shoulders — almost like a virtual extension of her team.

Faster, data-driven decision-making

Automating previously manual tasks has freed up time for higher-level strategic planning and decisions backed by data-driven insights from Bonfire. Not only do digitized processes allow Barnstable to complete projects faster, they also translate to more competitive bids, higher quality submissions, and direct cost savings. During COVID-19, Barnstable was able to use Bonfire to complete time-sensitive projects quickly and easily, including procuring COVID testing equipment and commissioning a study on the pandemic’s economic impact.

A future of collective success

Every day Jennifer sees the role collaboration plays in getting the most value for taxpayer dollars. “A lot of budgets are getting slashed and people are trying to find new opportunities to save,” she says. “This is where it becomes much more important for public procurement officials to collaborate.” For Barnstable’s towns, which rely on cooperative bids to stay on budget, Bonfire has drastically improved their ability to collaborate for better, faster results.

If your agency uses paper-based procurement processes, some of the challenges Barnstable County was facing probably sound familiar. Discover more about how Bonfire instantly expanded their procurement capacity with Bonfire by watching the full video client story.

Have you noticed a shift? Public agencies are getting back to business in 2021 and procurement teams are feeling the pressure to post more bids and complete more projects this year. But COVID-19 has changed the world of procurement—possibly forever. What does that mean for how public procurement departments work, collaborate, and plan for the future?

Our 2021 State of Public Sourcing report is here to answer those questions and more with a deep dive into the Bonfire database. We analyze the key trends and challenges that are driving procurement priorities and strategies right now. Our analysis examines data from approximately 400 U.S. public organizations that use the Bonfire eProcurement platform, comparing metrics from 2019, 2020, and 2021 over a 6-month period (January through June) of each year.

Keep reading for the top three insights from this year’s analysis and be sure to download the full report for findings and guidance you can use to inform your procurement strategy.

1. Projects and RFPs are back on track

If you work in public procurement, you don’t need us to tell you that project and RFP counts plummeted from 2019 to 2020. The pandemic forced you to put many plans on pause to address emerging priorities like sourcing PPE and setting up COVID-19 testing sites.

The good news? In 2021, we’re seeing a resurgence of projects verging on pre-pandemic numbers. This can be explained by a number of significant shifts, including a mass return to the office, continued stimulus funding from the American Rescue Plan, and Biden’s proposed $1.2 trillion infrastructure package—all of which are making it possible to pursue more complex projects.

Here are some of the key project-related trends that are impacting public agencies right now:

• In the first six months of 2019, organizations were putting out an average of 11 RFP projects. That number dropped to 8 by 2020, but bounced back up to 11 within just six months.
• In 2020, healthcare was the only sector to see an increase in projects—and it was significant, with project counts skyrocketing 117%.
• Looking into 2021, K-12 and Special Districts both have higher project counts than before the pandemic, increasing by 49% and 13% respectively.

2. eProcurement adoption continues to rise

With projects and RFPs bouncing back to pre-pandemic numbers, it’s worth asking: are agencies going back to pre-pandemic ways of working too? When we look at the number of eProcurement users, the answer is clear. Times have changed. Public agencies are embracing digital transformation and rethinking procurement processes to incorporate streamlined, digital-first practices.

Here’s some key evidence of eProcurement’s continued growth:

• Even though project volumes dipped in 2020, there were close to 50% more logins to the Bonfire platform than ever before.
• Not only did people log in more, but agencies expanded the use of eProcurement to a broader set of buyer groups within the agency. 
• Vendor and supplier registrations jumped by over half between 2019 and 2021.

3. Agencies are diversifying and widening their vendor pools

Public agencies are shifting their strategies for a post-pandemic world. And one significant way they’re doing that is through their vendor pool. Bonfire data shows that agencies are widening their network by sending out more vendor invitations. And they’re also seeking out more diverse, local, and small businesses to partner with. 

By tracking vendor diversity in Bonfire, buyers can quickly and easily gain increased visibility into the participation of diverse vendors, including small and medium-sized businesses and those owned by historically disadvantaged or marginalized groups. Diversifying and widening the vendor pool is a strategic move because it allows agencies to increase competition, mitigate supply chain issues (which continue to be a critical challenge during the pandemic), get the most value for taxpayer dollars, and support social procurement policies.

Our analysis uncovered these insights pointing to agencies’ increased attention to vendor diversity and relationships in 2021:

• Agencies have doubled the average number of registration fields they use to track vendor diversity within Bonfire.
• At least 10% of buyers are tracking vendor diversity in Bonfire.
• The percentage of vendors that identify as small, disadvantaged, and/or minority owned has increased in recent years.
• Agencies are also sending out twice as many vendor invitations in 2021 than they were in 2019.

Get more insights to accelerate your strategy

In 2020, public agencies pivoted to tackle emergency projects and keep their communities safe. Now, halfway through 2021, it’s clear that procurement teams are back to pre-pandemic levels of business—but it’s not business as usual. Agencies are advancing new priorities, strategies, and goals, and they’re planning for a world that looks a lot different than it did in 2019. The pandemic will continue to impact life for years to come, but our latest State of Public Sourcing report shows that public organizations are already integrating its lessons to plan for a better future.

Get more insights to help your public procurement team get back to business. Download The State of Public Sourcing: Fast and Focused.