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One of the most challenging parts of putting together an RFP is getting stakeholders involved in the build process without creating chaos. If you’ve ever had different document versions from multiple editors get stored in different locations, or you’ve experienced painful approval processes that take place through endless email chains, you know how frustrating and time-consuming that chaos can be.

Eliminating that chaos reduces aggravation and waste, but also leads to happier stakeholders, more engaged vendors, and better solicitations that lead to better outcomes. With demands on public sector procurement teams increasing all the time, the need for effective RFP collaboration will continue to increase, too.

In this blog post, we’ll take a look at why RFP collaborations tends to be so chaotic, and how Bonfire helps transform the chaos into productive teamwork.

The sources of RFP collaboration headaches

The process of creating and posting solicitations is intrinsically cooperative; requesters, procurement professionals, evaluators, and approvers each have their own concerns, tools, and processes. Shoving them all together creates challenges that you may be all-too-familiar with, including:

• Tracking changes and comments: Keeping track of document edits becomes difficult when people prefer different editing tools and approaches.
• Managing document approvals: Approvals become cumbersome and slow the procurement process down because approvers have other jobs; they become a procurement bottleneck.
• Compliance and version control: Good change histories are hard to maintain, contributors are working on different versions of the same document, and viewing or rolling back to earlier versions is hard or impossible. This isn’t just inconvenient; it’s a serious compliance risk.
• Time management: Inefficient communication and unnecessary extra cycles make it hard to scale procurement operations up to the increasing demands stakeholders make on procurement teams.

These are the collaboration headaches we hear about most often from the public sector organizations we talk to. As part of our commitment to make public procurement teams as effective as possible, we decided to develop a solution.

Solving RFP Collaboration

In looking for a solution, we quickly found our way to a list of capabilities we knew procurement professionals needed – capabilities that, together, would make RFP collaboration easy by helping procurement professionals to:

• Maintain one source of the truth by keeping RFP documents in one place; no more fumbling through cloud and network drives.
• See who changed what, and when, and keep an auditable record of edits.
• Control access to documents from one place, granting viewing or editing privileges as needed.
• Do more with templates, including better template searching and a way to cascade template changes down to individual documents.
• Edit documents without leaving Bonfire.

The future of RFP collaboration

The need for collaborative tools in procurement isn’t going away, which is why we’re not stopping at these capabilities. Streamlining collaboration is one of the biggest opportunities for improvement that exists in the solicitation building process, and Bonfire is committed to leading the way, so stay tuned as we continue to develop and announce new Bonfire Solicitation Builder features and other collaborative tools in the future.

Learn more about Bonfire Solicitation Builder

We couldn’t be more excited about Bonfire Solicitation Builder, and we can’t wait to hear what you think! Learn more by visiting the Bonfire Solicitation Builder web page or get in touch with us now to book a demo!

Welcome to the moment in history when “business-as-usual” ceased to hold much meaning for public sector organizations. As the pandemic continues to impact ways of doing business and technology evolves at a rapid pace, change is the only constant.

At the same time, public procurement professionals everywhere are—how do we put this?—tired. Under constant pressure to respond and pivot, agencies are feeling the strain. So, it seems like the perfect time to ask: where do we go from here? If we know change is here to stay, how can public procurement teams make sure they’re ready for anything?

We’re tackling these big questions and more on our latest episode of Inside Public Procurement. We’re joined by special guest Amanda Burton, Contract Buyer at Utah Transit Authority (UTA), who shares her thoughts on how public sector procurement can respond to today’s challenges and innovate for the better.

Keep scrolling for a few hot topics from the show (spoiler alert!), and catch the full episode on our website or wherever you get your podcasts.

No shortage of supply chain shortages

65% of public sector organizations say they faced supply chain shortages during the pandemic, according to a recent Bonfire survey. For Amanda, even 15 years in the field of procurement couldn’t have prepared her for that challenge.

“There were many failures and many structural issues that have been brought to light due to the pandemic,” Amanda says. “Four or five years ago, most companies had moved to a just-in-time inventory, and with the pandemic, we realized pretty quickly that was not the best way to run a company. It left us very vulnerable.”

Describing a situation that’s no doubt familiar to many of our listeners, Amanda says she and her colleagues scrambled to get the products they needed to keep business running. Particularly challenging was the fact that organizations using the same pool of state and government funds were forced to bid against each other for essential products, such as PPE, causing prices to become even more inflated.

“I think that was a big eye-opener for a lot of us to kind of get out of the norm. 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.”

In our conversation, Amanda dives into the lessons she learned from ongoing supply chain shortages, including identifying and dealing with fraudsters, sourcing in-demand products, handling shipping delays, and maintaining strong vendor relationships.

“Get out of the norm” to improve procurement

Evolving away from traditional ways of doing business has been necessary during the pandemic, but Amanda says it’s mostly been a good thing. Seeing how organizations and vendors pivoted to help one another and solve critical challenges is a trend she hopes will prevail long after the pandemic. And, for the most part, that ability to adapt has been driven by innovation.

“Innovation is very important in the world of procurement. Many times vendors come to us with new ideas… And if we listen with a non-judgemental ear, we’re able to push ideas to the forefront and hopefully better our processes.”

It’s easy to focus on other priorities or “get comfortable with current suppliers” and ways of doing things in procurement, but Amanda says making a conscious effort to find efficiencies and explore new solutions is one of the main ways that procurement can deliver value.

“I just worry that business-as-usual isn’t always best and we need to continue looking outside and looking for opportunity, and that’s what I try to do all the time. And if you do that there will be failures… But there are definitely wins too.”

Amanda shares her own experience driving process improvements at UTA that made it faster and easier for transit mechanics to access the parts they needed for critical repairs. After overcoming months and months of resistance, procurement’s solution is now dramatically cutting downtime and improving efficiency.

Discover even more on the podcast

The pandemic has transformed ways of doing business for good. And Amanda’s insights offer great inspiration for every procurement professional feeling overwhelmed by the rapid pace of change in today’s world.

Tune into our next episode to hear more from our conversation, including Amanda’s take on bridging the generational gap in procurement and dealing with the ever-present challenge of funding in the public sector.

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!

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. 

With vaccines now rolling-out across all states and provinces, the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel is becoming brighter. But, for procurement teams, the pressure that started in March 2020 continues to mount as procurement plays a key role in setting-up vaccine clinics and supplying their agencies with the goods they need to fully and safely open.

As public agencies are setting their sights on our next normal, supply chains are showing signs of recovering, new suppliers are appearing, and more products are available through existing suppliers. All of this provides new opportunities for public agencies to grow their vendor pool. One of the best ways to find these new suppliers is by using commodity codes, such as the UNSPSC commodity codes and the NIGP commodity codes in public solicitations.

Using commodity codes is an effective way to make sure that qualified suppliers are aware of opportunities at your agency. For example, commodity codes can be used in Bonfire to invite all suppliers of that commodity to bid when the opportunity is published.

To help procurement teams everywhere, Bonfire has created a cheat sheet of UNSPSC commodity codes and NIGP commodity codes for commonly required emergency supplies. Here’s a sneak peek:

UNSPSC Commodity Codes

NIGP Commodity Codes

The full cheat sheet includes thermometers; sterilization, disinfectant, and antiseptic agents; PPE; and tents and partitions. Download it for free and save it as a desktop reference.

Amidst all the uncertainty of our nation’s post-pandemic outlook–given budget shortfalls and declining revenue streams–two things are certain to remain: procurement and grants processes. What’s also abundantly clear is that the status quo of manual and paper processes is no longer sustainable, especially in the era where governments have been forced to quickly move workforces, tasks, and processes alike to virtual environments.

Given the current reality, how do state, local, and tribal departments and agencies modernize government functions like procurement and grants management that seem as old as time itself? This article delves into why it’s essential to invest in tools to help virtualize procurement and grants management now and two ways to get started.

Why Legacy Modernization is Long Overdue

There are many good reasons as to why governments have remained on their legacy systems and processes, including time, concern for security, and cost savings. However, not only is cloud technology becoming more advanced by the day, more secure, and even more cost-efficient, but failing to modernize legacy technologies and processes is hindering public servants from being able to deliver essential services to their communities.

For example, a recent national survey from the Economic Policy Institute found that millions were unable to file an unemployment insurance claim. Upon examining this issue more closely, the last time states saw a surge of claims was during the Great Recession in 2009. While states later received funds to modernize their unemployment insurance systems and made some strides later in 2010, there were few jobless individuals actually applying for benefits. Their systems at the time were deemed “good enough” and remained largely untouched. Fast forward to today’s economic crisis, and many departments are now feeling the burden of legacy systems as unemployment claims skyrocket.

The moral of this story is that the era of COVID-19 is demonstrating the necessity of digital transformation across government. Never has it been more important or challenging for procurement and grant professionals to do their jobs.

How to Virtualize Your Procurement and Grants Management

Both eCivis (a leader in cloud-based grants management) and Bonfire (a leader in strategic sourcing software) understand what it takes to bring essential government processes online. Here’s how:

Taking Grants Management to the Cloud

eCivis helps state, local, and tribal governments reimagine the grants process by taking the full lifecycle of grants management to the cloud. Traditionally, governments manage grants through expensive legacy systems and disparate spreadsheets that are not only time consuming but also are more likely to lead to error, misused funds and audit findings.

By virtualizing grants management, grants professionals can automatically develop and track budgets by quickly importing cost data and excel spreadsheets all into one system. Teams can update these budgets and develop cost allocation plans in real time, calculate indirect cost rates on demand, and seamlessly manage their side of the grants in a centralized system (whether they’re on the awarding or receiving side of funding).

To help governments streamline the process of searching for COVID-19-related grants, eCivis recently launched a new COVID-19 Funding Toolkit. This digital toolkit has helped nearly 300 state, city, county, territory, and tribal governments maximize grant dollars through the CARES Act, with the ability to clearly delineate COVID-19 related grants through automated tagging.

Future-proofing Your Procurement Process

The role of procurement was already challenging, and with added pressures to deliver results faster than ever before amidst economic uncertainty and nationwide emergency supply shortages, it truly has never been more difficult for procurement professionals to do their jobs. Amidst all this, many public procurement teams have had to adjust to a new reality of working from home. As a function that tends to still rely heavily on paper-based processes, this was no easy task.

Bonfire helps procurement teams prepare for any future disruption to their business continuity by bringing the end-to-end sourcing process online. With tools optimized for collaboration and in-app access to RFP (Request-for-Proposal) insights and templates, Bonfire enables public procurement teams to drive greater agency impact, achieve better outcomes, and engage colleagues along the way.

After hearing client feedback on the role the Bonfire platform has played in ensuring emergency procurements get to the frontlines fast, Bonfire launched a program to offer its strategic sourcing software for free for 3 months. The program has already seen over 50 public agencies sign on to bring their procurement process online quickly.

Whether things may feel like they are finally starting to return to “business as usual,” or you’re still in the thick of COVID-19-related projects, it’s important not to fall into the mindset that this is a once-in-a-lifetime crisis. Procurement and grants management play a vital role in any national emergency, so it’s critical that your processes are prepared to handle any future disruption that comes your way. In today’s economic crisis, that means re-evaluating your legacy systems and bringing your essential government processes online.

For more information about bringing your grants management and processes online, reach out to eCivis at [email protected]

Schedule a demo to learn more about how Bonfire enables public procurement teams to future-proof their processes, collaborate better with stakeholders, and make data-driven sourcing decisions.