Industry: Municipal

Public sector budgets may be bouncing back in 2021 but, no matter what, agencies are always under pressure to give taxpayers more bang for their buck.

Driving value increasingly requires creative solutions, which is why more and more procurement teams are turning to cooperative bids. But how do they work? And how can you show taxpayers measurable results?

In our first episode of Inside Public Procurement, we’re joined by Jennifer Frates, Chief Procurement Officer at Barnstable County and President of the Cape Cod Association of Public Procurement Officials (CCAPPO).

Jennifer discusses the value of cooperative bids and shares her experience leading collaborative purchasing for the 15 towns in her county. Plus, she gives us her insights from 15 years in the field, breaking down the importance of transparent reporting and the role of technology in public procurement today.

Tune into episode one on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

The scoop on coops

Many public organizations use cooperative bids, or coops, to optimize how taxpayer dollars are spent—and unlock better pricing too. But did you know they can also strengthen your organizational capacity?

In this episode of the podcast, Jennifer explains how agencies drive more efficient processes, eliminate duplication of effort, and save time when they work together—a strategy that’s especially valuable if you don’t have a dedicated procurement department.

Barnstable County has seen these benefits firsthand thanks to cooperative contracts with the 15 towns in the county. Plus, Jennifer says it’s been a win for continuity planning. “The more collaboration and involvement from different towns, the more that institutional knowledge will have a better chance of staying.”

Time-saving technology

Along with the efficiencies created by cooperative contracts, Barnstable has seen big time savings in other areas over the past year. Jennifer says moving procurement processes online and working remotely has totally transformed how her team collaborates with the towns in the area, internal clients, evaluators, and vendors, allowing them to “do a lot more with less.”

“Even now as people are starting to go back in person, I’m hoping that [remote work] is one of those efficiencies that we keep a little bit longer,” Jennifer says. “I can’t even begin to talk about the benefits of having that extra time.”

Let’s get transparent

As her organization realizes more time and cost savings thanks to strategic purchasing and streamlined processes, Jennifer says she wants to be as transparent as possible about the value of those wins.

While they may not be the decision-makers, procurement provides “a service that’s probably just as important as any elected official,” she says. “It’s not only the compliance, but also data and reporting. And, with that, [elected officials] can make better decisions, save money, and provide services for their constituents based on the savings we’ve made.” 

Jennifer says it’s in agencies’ best interests to use their data to report back to stakeholders. By demonstrating how their strategy spends taxpayer dollars responsibly, they can win confidence and show the real value of procurement.

Listen today

Tune into episode one today for our full chat with Jennifer—and more tips, insights, and inspiration you can use to level up your procurement strategy.

Hungry for more in-the-field insights from the world of public procurement? Head over to our website, or find Inside Public Procurement on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts!

Transposing thousands of line items from paper into Excel. Facing high-conflict moments while opening physical envelopes in front of a crowd of vendors. And, of course, dealing with countless inevitable paper cuts.

Those are just a few of the challenges Gerald Reiner, Bergen County’s Director of Purchasing, won’t miss now that the New Jersey county has transitioned from paper-based processes to Bonfire’s eProcurement platform.

“There was just so much paper,” Reiner says. “I can’t tell you just how many paper cuts I would get with bid openings. Not to mention, as you’re sifting through papers and everyone’s eyes are on you, looking for every little mistake so they can contend the bid if it’s close.”

As the largest county in New Jersey by geography and population, Bergen County jumped at the chance to streamline their processes when new state legislation brought on by the pandemic, namely Assembly Bill 3112, allowed local government and school districts to use eProcurement technology.

Since adopting Bonfire, their newly streamlined, digitized procurement processes are already driving overwhelmingly positive results — some they didn’t even see coming.

Serving New Jersey’s largest county

With a population of over 900,000, Bergen County runs an average number of solicitations that, within New Jersey, is second only to the State. The purchasing department sources goods and services for a diverse array of internal clients, including nine departments, a sheriff’s office, a prosecutor’s office, a surrogate’s office, New Jersey’s largest public hospital, and more.

While citizens have only a small window into purchasing activities — mainly roads, parks and plows, says Reiner — procurement teams know just how much sourcing goes on behind the scenes. Bergen County’s purchasing department sources a variety of goods and services, from professional consulting to veterinary pharmaceuticals, and everything in-between. 

Eliminating paper-based pain points

On top of the obvious safety risks that COVID-19 posed to in-person bid openings and evaluator meetings, even before the pandemic Bergen County had already been facing procurement challenges. Like any other government organization with predominantly paper-based processes, the County was dealing with issues like human error, significant project delays, and frustrated vendors.

Being limited to procurement processes that relied on paper and in-person meetings presented a host of challenges for every solicitation. Something as simple as procuring traffic signal repair parts involved weeks of transposing paper bids into Excel. “And then we would have to go through and make sure that everything was evaluated side-by-side after we transposed them, and hope we didn’t make an error,” Reiner says.

Bonfire delivers compliance, collaboration & security

Recognizing that paper-based and highly manual procurement workflows were limiting the busy purchasing team’s ability to meet their stakeholders’ complex and varying needs, Bergen County became one of the first public entities in New Jersey to transition to eProcurement.

Bonfire’s state-of-the-art procurement technology delivers on all of Bergen County’s security, vendor experience, and interdepartmental collaboration needs, all with fully-supported implementation.

Easy implementation

Implementing new eProcurement software in the middle of a pandemic came with some daunting change management demands, but Bonfire’s award-winning client implementation and support helped Bergen County get complete internal buy-in. “Our implementation specialist Krista was great because she not only helped us learn the platform, but she kept our implementation on track,” says Reiner.

Leveled-up security

Like every public entity, Bergen County needed a solution that protects their data while still ensuring a fair and transparent process. Bonfire meets their stringent criteria for fedRAMP compliance, consistent uptime, role-based access, and anti-virus security. 

A better vendor experience

Bonfire is also supporting Bergen County’s goal to drive more competitive solicitations and increase their vendor pool by increasing visibility into bids in the County and across New Jersey. With an improved, user-friendly experience, Bonfire ensures that vendors are able to submit their bids seamlessly, on time, and with support through email or phone. 

Boosted interdepartmental collaboration

According to Reiner, improved cooperation between departments is where Bonfire has delivered the most significant impact, providing a one-stop destination that’s easy to navigate and accessible to everyone. “We can work with our internal agencies or even our external consultants and we know that everyone is seeing the same information at once,” he says.

Improved processes for procurement, stakeholders & vendors

Delivering digitized procurement at every stage of the process, Bonfire empowered Bergen County to drive impressive results and return on investment, including:

• 100% compliance with New Jersey local public contracts law
• Seamless adoption for internal clients and vendors
• 99% uptime, role-based access, virus protection, and fedRAMP-compliant data security
• 50K+ pages of paper evaluations and bid submissions eliminated in less than a year

Better, faster sourcing decisions

As more public entities across North America make the switch to Bonfire, paper-based agencies are lagging behind. Learn how our intuitive, powerful, and easy-to-use platform can help you make better, faster sourcing decisions. Request a demo today

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.

COVID-19 has undoubtedly exposed just how critical (and difficult) the role of public procurement is. Vaccine sourcing and distribution, vendor diversification initiatives, and supply chain shortages have thrust municipal procurement teams in the spotlight as you navigate these unchartered waters.

As you innovate and adapt to respond to the crisis now and prepare for a post-pandemic future, it’s more important than ever for public procurement professionals like yourself to connect with your peers to learn from their experience. That’s why, here at Bonfire, we hosted our first 2021 virtual user meet-up for municipalities from February 23 to 26. These sessions, spread over the span of four days, brought together procurement professionals from over 40 cities and counties from across North America. Here’s an insider look into what attendees learned. 

Day 1: Procurement in 2021 panel

We kicked off the meetup week with Bonfire’s Chief Client & Product Officer, Omar Salaymeh, speaking to the growth of our municipal client base and the trends we’ve seen across municipalities. We introduced the virtual audience to the over 40 organizations that had registered for sessions—setting the tone for a week full of collaboration and networking across regions.

The real show stopper of the day was our Procurement in 2021 panel. Ron Shoram, Business Analyst at Fairfax County, dove into his recommendations for supporting and aligning his county’s 70+ procurement stakeholders. Crystal Vandermeulen, Procurement Analyst at the City of Kamloops, grabbed everyone’s attention by sharing how her team rolled out a vendor performance program. Shawn Garris, Procurement Analyst at the City of New Haven, shared his recommendations for designing and maintaining a vendor diversity initiative. 

Day 2: Peer-led toolkit session

Marla Bossons from the District of North Cowichan kept a captive audience as she dove into her best practices using Bonfire’s intake, projects, and lifecycle modules. She kicked off her session sharing that after 20 years in the finance department, she expanded the scope of her role into procurement 6 years ago and formalized their procurement rollout. Marla highlighted how she uses Bonfire to:

• Achieve a consistent, defensible, and transparent process throughout the lifecycle of a project
• Get notifications and reminders so nothing slips through the cracks when it comes to renewals, insurance reminders, rate changes, evaluations, and more
• Easily access all procurement information in one central location
• Provide stakeholders with a quick glance at the status of projects

Marla received lots of questions throughout her session and left attendees with plenty of tips and tricks. 

Day 3: Meet the Bonfire product team

Day 3 was all about giving our clients insight into what’s to come in the Bonfire platform. We gave a sneak peek into our upcoming Approvals feature, which is designed to consolidate approvals at every stage of the procurement process in one central place. 

At Bonfire, our product roadmap has always been inspired by our rockstar clients, so we always appreciate an opportunity to get feedback and ideas on how the platform can better serve them. We divided clients into smaller breakout rooms to discuss what they love about being a part of the Bonfire community, and how we can integrate those benefits in the platform. There was a collective feeling that procurement isn’t meant to be done in a silo, and there were lots of ideas on ways clients could learn from their Bonfire peers to improve and streamline their process through the platform.

To end the day, we discussed the challenges that come with tracking vendor diversity, especially given some recent policy changes that have made it even more critical. Teams discussed how they manage these challenges today, and how Bonfire as a partner could improve this very critical step of the process. 

Day 4: Municipality roundtable

This day was entirely dedicated to focused discussions centered on topics most pressing for municipalities in 2021. Topics of discussion that emerged in these breakout rooms included:

• How Bonfire was able to connect procurement with suppliers amidst nationwide PPE shortages
• Tracking supplier diversity and ways Bonfire can assist with tracking and reporting
• Supplying services and products necessary to ramp up vaccine rollout efforts 
• Using Bonfire alongside an ERP
• How COVID increased the need for an efficient and effective process, exposing ways old processes and systems weren’t supporting public procurement in the way they needed
• Transitioning vendors to an online submission platform

Overall, it was a fantastic week full of shared client insight, networking, and a look into municipal procurement in 2021. For a look into upcoming virtual user meet-ups, visit our website!

Established by the CARES Act, the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) is here to help State and some local governments respond to COVID-19. The Fund covers some more obvious expenses—like establishing temporary public medical facilities or disinfection of public areas—but it also covers those indirect costs related to COVID-19, like expenses to improve telework capabilities for public employees working from home.

We’ve previously talked about how governments can use their CARES Act funding to deliver services to communities faster than ever before with procurement software. So now what? What are the eligibility requirements for CRF dollars and how can you ensure that you’re being compliant as you’re investigating software options? We’ve got you covered. Three requirements for CRF eligibility were highlighted in recent guidance from the Department of the Treasury. In this blog, we’ve outlined how to identify procurement software that aligns with all three requirements so that you can spend your CRF dollars worry-free.

Are your expenditures necessary to address COVID-19?

The first requirement states that CRF may only be used to cover costs that “are necessary to expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency, with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).” In their list of nonexclusive examples of eligible expenditures, the Department of the Treasury mentions expenses for public safety measures (such as maintaining social distancing) as well as expenses to improve telework capabilities for public employees.

First of all, if vendors were previously coming into the office to drop off proposals, or were mailing them in, procurement software can help maintain social distancing and limit face-to-face contact by providing vendors with an easy and convenient online submission process. Unlike email vendor submissions, which can open your agency up to significant legal risk, keep an eye out for procurement software that is built for the rigor and rules of North American public sector procurement, so you can remain rest assured that you’re maintaining compliance.

And if your team is working remotely, you can award contracts seamlessly with online bid and RFP evaluation. You can also ensure project continuity while your team is working from home with built-in communication and collaboration tools.

Were the covered costs not accounted for in your budget?

Additionally, CRF may only be used to cover costs that “were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020 (the date of enactment of the CARES Act) for the State or government.”

This means that, even if you didn’t budget for procurement software this fiscal year, the CARES Act provides a unique opportunity to digitally transform your procurement process to make it more efficient, more collaborative, and more adaptive to emergency situations.

Are the costs incurred before December 30?

Lastly, the CARES Act provides that payments from CRF may only be used to cover costs that “were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, 2020, and ends on December 30, 2020.”

Guidance from the Department of the Treasury clarified that for a cost to be considered to have been incurred, performance or delivery must occur during the covered period but payment of funds need not be made during that time. So as long as you have implemented the software before December 30, the cost is considered “incurred,” even if you haven’t made a payment.

Since the December 30 deadline is fast-approaching, signing on with a software vendor that enables quick and organized implementation is critical. Although some solutions require 6-12 month implementations, eProcurement providers like Bonfire can provide successful implementations in as little as two weeks. Just make sure that, before signing the dotted line, you and your vendor are aligned on implementation outcomes to ensure you’re up and running with the new software before December 30.

Want more tips on how to find COVID-related funding, apply it to your missions, and multiply that funding to maximize outcomes? Download this guide full of practical insights on how to use your CARES funding as a catalyst for digital transformation that will help you thrive during the pandemic and propel you into the future.