Industry: Public

After the pandemic put public procurement plans on hold, 2021 brought a resurgence of activity that shows purchasing teams are putting their foot on the gas. Bonfire clients are on track to complete an average of 27 projects in 2021, up 39% from 2020 and nearly on par with 2019 numbers.

While public agencies are accelerating into an uncertain post-pandemic world, things are different now. Approaches, processes, and tools have transformed. And there’s no going back to pre-pandemic ways of working. 

One of the most transformative changes for agencies that used paper-based or “patchwork” procurement processes before the pandemic was the transition to eProcurement. Let’s look at some of the findings from our report on the State of Public Sourcing in 2021 to understand how eProcurement use has changed and what it means for the future of public procurement.

More users than ever are logging into Bonfire

In the State of Public Sourcing in 2021, we looked at data from around 400 public agencies that use Bonfire for procurement. Our analysis compares key metrics from January to June of three consecutive years—2019, 2020, and 2021—to shed light on how the pandemic has impacted public procurement departments’ strategies and priorities.

One of the biggest takeaways? eProcurement use is on the rise.

That trend was clear even in 2020 when the pandemic forced many procurement teams to put plans on the backburner. Despite lower project volumes, there were more people logged into the Bonfire platform in 2020 than ever before. Compared to 2019, Bonfire users logged in 50% more in 2020 and 38% more in 2021.

For public sector agencies, including municipalities, school boards, and healthcare organizations, eProcurement became a critical lifeline for continuing operations and delivering essential services. The speed and efficiency of digital procurement processes helped public sector teams expedite critical projects. And it also kept procurement departments, internal clients, stakeholders, and vendors connected while working safely from home.

Agencies are increasing how many buyers use eProcurement

eProcurement levels up an organization’s ability to collaborate with stakeholders all across the agency, and externally too. When the pandemic hit, procurement teams realized the value of digital processes virtually overnight. Traditionally office-based teams became remote ones and regular processes like lunchroom chats and paper-based forms were no longer an option.

Over the course of 2020 and 2021, teams accelerated their adoption of digital solutions for things like productivity, workflow optimization, and collaboration. So it makes sense that, on top of logging into Bonfire more frequently, agencies also expanded the use of eProcurement to a broader set of buyer groups within the agency.

The number of procurement buyers per agency leveraging eProcurement software increased by 44% from 2019 to 2021. That upward trend correlates with the increase in project volumes we mentioned earlier, as public agencies leveraged relief funding to address new and emerging priorities.

Buyers are logging in from anywhere and everywhere

With more people working remotely at least some of the time, our data shows that procurement teams, internal clients, stakeholders, and vendors were logging into their accounts from more places.

When looking at the average number of distinct locations per eProcurement user from 2019 to 2020, we see an increase from 1.7 to 2. Comparing 2019 to 2021, there’s an even bigger 41% increase in the average number of locations where each buyer uses Bonfire.

In other words, people are working on eProcurement tasks from more and more locations and devices, not just a desktop in the office. That finding lines up with data we collected in our 2021 procurement priorities survey, in which over 50% of respondents said they expect to work from home on at least a part-time basis after the pandemic.

Once an anomaly in the public sector, the increase in remote work reflects digital transformation and new workplace norms driven by the pandemic—specifically, the introduction of work-from-anywhere policies and technologies. 

Get the full picture

Our data analysis offers evidence that COVID-19 has been a catalyst for permanent change in public sector procurement. The rapid pace of transformation has many procurement teams developing new strategies and priorities as they head into an uncertain future.

For more insights into how your peers are navigating eProcurement adoption, plus other priorities like vendor diversity and engagement, download your free copy of the Bonfire 2021 State of Public Sourcing Report. 

You’ve posted your RFP, evaluated dozens of candidates, and finally selected the best vendor for the job. The contract is signed and now it’s time to celebrate. Right? Not quite.

The next step in the procurement lifecycle is contract management. Not only is it critical to ensuring a project’s success, you can also improve outcomes across the board when you use a purpose-built digital solution for automating, tracking, and analyzing elements of your contracts.

In this blog post, we’re looking at the value of contract management and the advantages that your procurement team can realize when you take contracts out of filing cabinets or shared drives and into an eProcurement platform.

The value of improved government contract management

Contract management is a phase during the procurement lifecycle when the procurement team, internal clients, and vendor work together to ensure performance meets expectations and the vendor delivers against all requirements.

In a recent episode of our podcast, Inside Public Procurement, we talked to Tyler Liu, Strategic Sourcing Services Manager at the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), about how procurement software has streamlined the process in his department. He said, for ICBC, “having contracts management is very key, especially for big projects where there are multiple deliveries and milestones listed out in the contract.”

With contract management integrated into their digital procurement workflow, Tyler can ensure there are no gaps between the contract requirements and vendor performance—something that can create issues if there’s no monitoring or oversight in place.

Why bring contract management into eProcurement?

Integrating contract management within a single, purpose-built digital procurement platform transforms your approach from reactive to proactive, giving you the ability to stay on top of your active agreements and build strong vendor relationships.

When sourcing and contract management are hosted together, all the data you need to generate a new contract is already there for you to pull from. But that’s just the beginning. The Contract Management module in Bonfire also helps you reduce risk, manage contracts more proactively, centralize data, and collaborate better.

Manage risk more effectively on existing contracts

Ensuring vendors are performing as expected is an important part of successful sourcing. Bonfire delivers clear visibility into vendor performance, so you can stay on top of every project easily. With contracts on a centralized, searchable platform, you quickly see what you need to focus on to make strategic decisions. You can also level up your vendor performance data by creating surveys that pull expertise and input from stakeholders. View and export survey results to see at-a-glance insights and trends in performance scores. And get instant alerts about any performance red flags, so you can get ahead of potential issues.

With tools to support contract and vendor management, your procurement team spends more time building strong relationships with great vendors. And you also minimize risk by ensuring you have plenty of lead time to go back to market if vendors are missing the mark.

Take a proactive approach to contracts

Once you have data around vendor performance, you’re better equipped to make decisions around contract renewal. But you also need to be able to track important contract dates like lead times and end dates so you know, in advance, whether you need to go back to market.

When we talked to Tyler from ICBC, he said contract management in Bonfire helps his team better manage hundreds of contracts with notifications about renewal timelines. “So we can remind ourselves and the business units, ‘Hey, we have a contract expiring in six months, so what’s our plan? Do we want to extend, terminate, or go to market?’”

In Bonfire, a calendar heatmap gives you a high-level view of important dates. Dark-color days signify more contracts expiring for greater values, allowing you to prioritize your time. You can also see visual timelines for individual contracts and set custom reminders to stay on track.

Share insights and collaborate better using a single source of truth

Having strong data is key to making the best possible contract and vendor management decisions—and it’s even more powerful when all internal and external stakeholders have visibility into the same consolidated source of truth for agreements and milestones. 

Bonfire improves communication and collaboration that helps you manage the contract lifecycle more effectively. Clear, easy-to-use dashboards and KPIs keep everyone on the same page, giving your team the information they need to identify and respond to issues, set priorities, and continuously improve. It’s easy for everyone to view, filter, and export contract information—such as vendor documentation, insurance certificates, contract details, and more—all in one place. And auto-reminders ensure you never miss an important milestone.

Learn more about how Bonfire integrates sourcing with contract and performance management, all in one seamless eProcurement platform.

Any software can digitize your process. What’s truly special is when it can connect you with a peer community and best practice experts so you’re not doing it alone. 

These were some of the opening remarks from Bonfire’s CEO Omar Salaymeh at our latest client virtual meetup. His words perfectly encapsulate the heart of these meetups, which are all about connecting users from the 500+ agencies across North America that use Bonfire in order to level-up their mastery of the Bonfire platform, and public procurement in general. 

If you had to miss last week’s meetups, if you were an attendee who wants a refresh of what you learned, or if you’re not yet a Bonfire client but you’re curious about benefits of joining the Bonfire community, we’ve got you covered as we recap the highlights of our last virtual meetups of 2021. 

Day 1: Panel and Roundtable

As we mentioned, day one of our meetups started with some opening remarks from Bonfire’s CEO. In them, he covered:

• What’s new at Bonfire, including the launch of the Approvals Module, Community Projects, and new functionality to track DBE / diverse supplier participation
• A glimpse into the makeup of the Bonfire community, including client distribution and project activity
• An introduction to key leaders on the client experience team

To deliver insight on navigating vendor diversity and supplier relationships, we welcomed our panel speakers,

• Sheena Fain, Contract Compliance and Supplier Diversity Officer at the City of Akron
• Karen Smith, Purchasing Officer at San Antonio River Authority
• Shawn Garris, Procurement Analyst at the City of New Haven

Each panelist shared their stories and best practices when it came to things like tracking vendor diversity information, their biggest vendor diversity challenges, and their processes for communicating with vendors to maintain relationships. One of our highlights from the discussion was Karen Smith’s anecdotes on how San Antonio River Authority uses Bonfire’s subcontractor feature to provide more opportunities for smaller agencies to be involved in large, complex projects. The day ended with all attendees going into breakout sessions to share their own learnings when it came to the topics of vendor diversity and relationships, and how they use the Bonfire product to support their initiatives. 

Day 2: Toolkit Session

“I’ve loved Bonfire since the day I met it.” 

That’s according to Crystal Vandermeulen, Procurement Analyst for the City of Kamloops, who took a deep dive into how her agency uses some of Bonfire’s most unique features. She covered:

Approvals: How the City of Kamloops uses Bonfire’s Approvals feature for different approval processes, and how it has helped streamline and centralize this process.

Setting up and managing criteria: Crystal walked through this process in Bonfire, highlighting how criteria in Bonfire has positively impacted time savings and project success.

Contract and performance management: In this part of her demo, Crystal highlighted how the City of Kamloops uses Bonfire Vendor Performance Management, which has allowed them to keep tabs on how vendors are performing against criteria, and how the platform has made this information easily accessible to anyone who needs it. 

Day 3: Best Practices and Product Releases

Day 3 of our virtual meetup was dedicated to learning about best practices on how Bonfire’s recent and popular features have been used by clients and the Customer Success team. Bonfire Client Success Manager Ryan Hamill headed the session, demoing best practices for modules like Intake, Approvals, the Public Portal, and Contract Management. 

Since client feedback is a major driver of Bonfire’s product roadmap, Ryan led the group in a round of feedback sessions on recent and new releases, integrations, and future features. We were taking furious notes as our clients expressed both what they were excited for, and what could see improvement. 

Overall, our last client virtual meet-up of the year was a blast, connecting and learning from on-the-ground procurement professionals from over 100 public agencies across North America. Curious about how Bonfire inspires a community of public procurement peers beyond our user meet-ups? Learn more here.

For many public procurement teams, vendor diversity is becoming more than just a buzzword; it’s a priority. And for good reason—procurement departments have a unique opportunity to promote social good through their purchasing decisions. Diverse suppliers also provide more competition, ultimately leading to better value decisions.

Join Anthony Berry, Director, Sales Solutions at Bonfire, as he outlines 3 simple ways you can level the playing field and diversify your vendor pool.

Agenda

• Why is vendor diversity important?
• 3 ways to award RFPs more equitably

As supply chain issues continue to impact public agencies around the globe, many are turning to diverse small businesses to fill the gap. For Amanda Burton, Contract Buyer at Utah Transit Authority, for example, the pandemic “was a big eye-opener… It showed me personally how important vendor relationships are. Suddenly those mom and pop shops that I kind of overlooked a little bit were my main go-tos.”

Exploring new vendor relationships has partly been driven by necessity. But there’s a silver lining too. More and more agencies are realizing that sourcing goods and services from diverse vendors—including historically disadvantaged or marginalized groups and small businesses—gives them a big advantage. First, let’s look at why vendor diversity is getting increased attention right now. Then we’ll explore some simple steps you can take to make your procurement process more equitable.

More public agencies are prioritizing vendor diversity

More than a buzzword, social procurement has become a top priority for many organizations in recent years. The Biden administration has said it will “support small businesses and tackle inequities in the federal contracting system” by tripling federal contracting goals for small, disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs) by 2025. And recent Bonfire data reveals public agencies across North America are making a greater effort than ever to build diversity and equity in their vendor pools. 

Our 2021 State of Public Sourcing report shows at least 10% of Bonfire users are already tracking vendor diversity. That number has doubled over the past year—and it’s likely to keep increasing. Tracking vendor diversity helps buyers see how well their efforts to engage more diverse suppliers are working. In fact, as new policies and government funding emerge to promote supplier diversity, this type of reporting is becoming a requirement. eProcurement platforms like Bonfire allow you to set registration fields to easily collect data around a vendor’s status (e.g., DBE, small business, non-profit, and more). That information helps buyers improve strategic decision making and comply with social procurement policies.

Agencies that engage diverse vendors aren’t only using their purchasing power to promote social progress; they also benefit in tangible ways from driving increased competition against large, well-established players. That approach promotes best-value purchasing that supports the social, economic, and cultural best interests of the community.

Breaking down barriers to entry

Organizations that want to prioritize vendor diversity need to do more than just talk the talk. They also need to actively dismantle barriers that may be preventing historically disadvantaged and marginalized small businesses from participating in bids. Here are some of the top ways your agency can foster equity in your vendor selection process.

Invite more vendors to the table

Bonfire data shows 66% of proposals come from vendors that have been invited by the purchasing organization. If you want more diverse suppliers to bid on your projects, you need to get your opportunities in front of them through vendor invitations. Using Bonfire, you can maintain an active list of vendors with DBE status and invite them to bid on projects in a single click. More invitations means more competition in the market, including diverse vendors, local small businesses, and fresh options that can improve outcomes for your organization. 

Bring DBEs on as subcontractors

Inviting DBEs to be subcontractors also has many advantages. eProcurement systems like Bonfire allow suppliers to flag themselves as subcontractors with the click of a button so agencies, as well as prime contractors, can easily view and bring DBE subcontractors on board.

Rethink your evaluation criteria

It’s important to consider how your scoring criteria might be reinforcing barriers that make it harder for DBEs to compete. By rethinking your evaluations, you can promote greater diversity in your vendor pool and relationships. For example, Bonfire’s evaluation features let you create scorecards that reflect DBE status, including custom scoring fields that help promote DBE representation in your vendor selections.

Building resilience through diversity

Agencies that promote equity in their vendor selection process and build greater diversity in their vendor pools will be better positioned to meet the challenges of an uncertain post-pandemic world. Having diverse vendor relationships puts procurement teams at a significant advantage when it comes to navigating future supply chain shortages, driving increased supplier competition, and finding best-value solutions that promote social, cultural, and economic good.

For more insights into how your peers are navigating supplier diversity and other priorities this year, download your free copy of the Bonfire 2021 State of Public Sourcing Report. 

Did you catch this year’s NIGP Virtual Forum? It was an action-packed conference full of forward-thinking ideas, latest trends, and actionable insights for public sector procurement professionals.

If you missed our session on “Procurement Priorities in a Post-COVID World,” this blog post is for you! We’ve got all the highlights, including hot takes from our expert panelists on how the pandemic has shaped procurement processes, strategies, challenges, and next steps in 2021.

The stories behind the data

During the session, Bonfire’s own Rachel Friesen, Director of Client Experience, sat down with our three featured public procurement experts:

• Michael Brinton, Assistant Director, Contract Compliance Manager, Metropolitan Transportation Commission
• Jennifer Frates, Chief Procurement Officer, Barnstable County
• Omar Salaymeh, CEO, Bonfire

Each panelist shared their own experiences to illuminate some of the top findings from our report on the 2021 State of Public Sourcing. The report looks at Bonfire client data from 2019 to 2021 to measure how public procurement opportunities and challenges have shifted as the pandemic has evolved—impacting everything from project volumes to eProcurement adoption. Here’s a snapshot of some of the highlights from their conversation.

How did the pandemic affect your relationships with suppliers?

Our 2021 report revealed an increase in overall project volumes and a resurgence of RFPs as compared to 2020 numbers. With more projects on the go and many agencies switching to fully digital processes, we asked our panelists how the changes have impacted the dynamic between vendors and their procurement team.

Jennifer: I think we were just able to work a lot more efficiently. Previously when we had in-person bids, it was a lot more time consuming. Vendors were always worried if their bid was going to make it on time… And then, when the pandemic hit, vendors reached out to me personally and were just so grateful that [we had switched to eProcurement] and they never had to put something in the mail again… I got a lot of positive feedback from that.

Michael: As far as the move to eProcurement, Bonfire was really one of our first transitions to that. We had been starting this process, pre-pandemic, for years. And luckily we were finished turning everything on… before the pandemic. What I’ve seen is that, actually, we’ve been able to work more closely. It’s more cooperative… It reduces costs for our vendors. They don’t have to travel, we’re not doing hard copies of proposals. So it’s actually improved and allowed us to get more firms to participate and compete because there’s less of a barrier to entry.

How has procurement’s role shifted in 2021?

With the pandemic catalyzing digitization, many public procurement teams were able to automate manual tasks, such as tracking down physical signatures or managing evaluations in Excel. With fewer administrative responsibilities, it follows that teams have greater capacity for higher level thinking. Here’s what Bonfire’s CEO, Omar Salaymeh, had to say on that topic.

Omar: We’ve heard this over and over again that procurement teams wanted to modernize, but they couldn’t. And now [with the pandemic] they had a really good reason to shift. Those platforms end up saving hours and hours of time…. And what do you end up doing with the extra time? What we hear from our clients is now you have time for market research, you have time for scoping and drafting better RFPs, negotiation, diversity initiatives. All of that allows you the headspace and the opportunity to start tackling these larger projects instead of doing things that, quite frankly, computers are really good at doing.

Has remote work impacted your team’s ability to be audit-ready?

The move to digital platforms and processes can carry a steep learning curve—but, for procurement, there’s no “grace period,” especially when it comes to compliance. Here’s how our panelists are tackling the challenge of upholding transparency in a digital world.

Michael: From an audit perspective, where it becomes challenging is when you have multiple platforms that you use… You also have to be aware of trying to cut corners or skip steps. Digitally it can be easy to move around or skip something that could impact the audit trail… I‘m not as worried about it because we’ve been going to a transition to digital working for the past five years or so… But I can definitely see it, especially for an agency that was relying on paper and had to switch really quickly to digital. Having to have records retention tools in place, it really is challenging.

Omar: More and more organizations are using best-in-breed technology to do what they want to do really quickly as opposed to introducing a behemoth software solution that does it all and takes three years to implement and nobody likes to use. I think that nimble approach is definitely the way to go… It also leads to quick results that you can see right away.

How are you adjusting to increased demand and stakeholders?

As our 2021 State of Public Sourcing report revealed, the number of stakeholders involved in projects has risen 49.3% between 2019 and 2021. With more hands on deck, we asked our panelists how their procurement teams are facilitating collaboration and building consensus.

Jennifer: We’ve been able to add a lot more stakeholders… We do a lot of cooperative bids for the 15 towns in the County that may not have dedicated procurement folks. They were able to sign onto Bonfire and see the projects firsthand. So I definitely had a lot more stakeholder involvement and, even internally, with all of my departments.

Michael: We’ve increased our staff size. Using the tools between Bonfire and another system that we use, we’ve been able to coordinate making sure we’re able to monitor workload, shifting workload around so that no one’s completely overburdened. One of the things that we’ve also done is… we’re a regional agency, so we cover nine counties. And within those nine counties, I think there’s 116 jurisdictions. And they’ve been much more challenged through this pandemic than my agency has. So we’ve made an effort to make sure our procurements are available for cooperative use or piggy-backing by other jurisdictions within our agency… It’s not necessarily our volume, but we’ve been trying to help our jurisdictions and our regional partners handle their own resource versus volume challenges.

Ready to put your foot on the gas pedal?

Public procurement teams are racing ahead to a brave, new post-pandemic world. And we’ve got all the insights you need to reprioritize and plan your strategy—now and into the future. Get your copy of the 2021 State of Public Sourcing report to learn more. Watch the full panel session on our website.

As the US continues to re-open, public procurement teams are returning to the office, resuming on-hold projects, and setting their sights on more long-term goals than just the here-and-now of emergency procurements. Although different states are in different stages of re-opening, across the board, it feels like things are going “back to normal”—the reality is, however, that there has been a drastic shift not only in the priorities of procurement teams across the country, but in how your agency views procurement’s role in building for the future.

Join us as we walk you through the 2021 Bonfire State of Public Sourcing report, which explores what’s on every procurement team’s minds these days—what are procurement priorities in a post-COVID world, and how can I learn from the experience of my peers while navigating these new priorities?

Agenda

• How did we get here?
• Public procurement in 2021: What is happening, what is here to stay, where do we see changes?
• What does the future look like for public procurement?

While empathy may not be a required qualification on many procurement job postings, it’s one of the most important qualities of a successful procurement professional. When agencies need to make big decisions about how to spend taxpayer dollars effectively, procurement professionals are at the center of it all, putting themselves in their colleagues’ shoes, connecting diverse stakeholders, and helping them agree on the best possible solutions. 

It’s a position Peggy Ferrin has been in countless times, and she joins us on the Inside Public Procurement podcast to talk about why empathy is her procurement superpower. As Procurement Coordinator for the Town of Paradise Valley, Peggy brings over 20 years of experience working in purchasing for school districts, cities, and hospitals. During that time, she’s dealt with her fair share of resistance to procurement policies. On the podcast, she shares her tried-and-true strategies for building trust-based relationships and promoting compliance.

Keep reading for all the highlights from our conversation and tune into the full episode on our website or wherever you get your podcasts!

Buy-in starts with trust

In public procurement, regulations play a central role in maintaining a community’s trust. “I think in my view, procurement basically is compliance. I mean, that’s what we do and that’s the way we think,” says Peggy. And, when it comes right down to it, she says it’s her job “to keep the government officials and all the employees out of the newspaper.”

Unfortunately, many internal clients don’t realize just how important compliance is to keeping the organization running—particularly when it comes to securing funding and managing public opinion. As a result, educating colleagues and overcoming their resistance is something Peggy has learned to do well over her 20-year career. 

So what’s her proven method for winning over even the most resistant colleagues? Building a personal relationship first. “I had the mentality that I would just meet with all my user groups at least once a week, once every couple of weeks, depending on their schedule. And I would sit down and talk to them… on a personal level.”

That approach allowed her to gain clients’ trust and encourage buy-in, ensuring projects achieve the most favourable outcomes possible.

Beyond black-and-white rules

Approaching procurement from a relationship-building perspective isn’t just about winning trust. It also lets Peggy see things from internal clients’ perspectives. The big takeaway? Procurement doesn’t have to be as rigid as she first thought when she entered the profession years ago.

“I used to look at it that procurement was just black and white and all these rules, but there’s so much gray in between. It’s important for us to look at it through the lens of our user groups. You know, what is it that they want? What’s the end goal? What are they trying to accomplish? Then in procurement, how can I help them do that?”

That’s where empathy comes in. Connecting on a personal level helps procurement professionals reach a deeper understanding of internal clients’ challenges, pain points, needs, and goals. Peggy says starting a project from that perspective drives the best results.

“I always try to do that when I work with user groups. What is it they’re looking at? What are their obstacles that they’re trying to get over? Just try to help them, and now they call me in advance, which is procurement’s best way to have it, right? That’s our dream is that they call us in advance before they get started.”

The difference eProcurement makes

A third key ingredient to fostering better collaboration and consensus, in Peggy’s experience, is eProcurement. While some organizations struggle to get agency-wide buy-in for large-scale digital transformation, Peggy is proud to say that wasn’t the case in Paradise Valley, even though “some of our employees have been there 10, 20, and we have quite a few that have been there 30 years.”

eProcurement has helped the team to build trust and transparency around the procurement process—especially bid scoring. And having access to a digital platform during the pandemic allowed them to continue operations remotely without interruption. Now that they can complete procurements of all shapes and sizes in one central place from the beginning, Peggy has noticed an improvement in the way the whole agency works and communicates. “It’s so easy to pull [a bid] into the contract module and then set those reminders right from the beginning, put my stakeholders in there so they get those emails as well.”

And that’s not all… 

Don’t miss the full episode for more advice and firsthand procurement stories from Peggy on the importance of empathy, negotiation, and relationship-building in public procurement.

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!

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!