Customer Case Study | Public Sector

About The City of Seattle

Founded in 1869, the City of Seattle is located in the State of Washington on Puget Sound, 113 miles (182 km) from the U.S. - Canadian border. With a populations of 536,000, Seattle is a commercial, cultural and advanced technology hub of the U.S. Pacific Northwest and a major port city for trans-Pacific and European travel and trade. Surrounded by mountains and water, the greater Seattle area features picture-perfect views and abundant recreational opportunities year-round.

Challenge

With a decentralized procurement process, each City department was responsible for the management of bid advertising, bid document distribution and vendor communications. This resulted in a fragmented process that relied on the reproduction of thousands of copies of bid documents each year. The distribution of time-critical addenda was particularly cumbersome and costly with many procurement managers relying on overnight delivery of documents to ensure their timely delivery to bidders.

Solution

eBid eXchange allows the City to have one Internet portal for all construction and services solicitations, facilitating document distribution and automating the bid solicitation process to enable more vendors to compete for the City's business. Over 100 City users across nine departments can post their invitations for bid and requests for proposal online in one centralized solution. In March 2007, the City upgraded to the latest version of eBid eXchange which adds an online print ordering and hard copy document distribution system. Now contractors can order printed copies of documents online and have the documents delivered directly from eBid Systems reprographics partner. This frees City staff from having to pre-print and handle the distribution of thousands of copies of bid documents per year.

Key Benefits

• Established a city-wide portal for construction and professional service business opportunities
• Eliminated City-financed hard copy bid document distribution
• Created an online self-service vendor registration portal
• Standardized the bidding process across all departments