Digital journey: York Region has successfully digitized its bidding process

Purchasingb2b.ca
June 18, 2018
Michael Power

From the June 2018 print edition

Automating procurement functions can be a multi-step process for many organizations. The Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto, began such a journey when it started to digitize its procurement process in November 2009. At that time, it started using bids and tenders software from a company called eSolutions to post procurement documents, says Jerry Paglia, the regional government’s procurement director. While the system made documents available for downloading, people still had to bid manually by printing off the documents and submitting bids. “We also still had paper documents available,” he says. “So if somebody wanted to come into our office they could pick up a hard copy.”

In 2015 the region purchased an e-bidding module from eSolutions, Paglia says. York Region piloted the module for road construction tenders, with the first e-bid issued on November 6 of that year. E-bidding was fully implemented on construction tenders by the end of 2016. The following year, the region rolled out e-bidding for all other tenders that didn’t need a deposit, such as certified cheque or bank draft. The municipality has just recently implemented its new e-RFP, with all tendering now electronic.

“The good news for us is, it was fairly easy to implement e-bidding from the perspective that the vast majority of our vendors were already accessing the documents online,” Paglia says. “They already knew how to get the documents and the addendum so there was already some familiarity. The number of hard copies we were selling was starting to dwindle.”

But the process wasn’t without obstacles, Paglia notes. Learning to use the eSolutions platform and training staff was a challenge. Staff needed to learn how to create procurements--for example, building pricing tables could be a bit tricky. The region also worked with eSolutions to customize certain aspects of the system, as well as to create e-bidding terminology, to meet the region’s needs. Bidders also needed to learn how to use the system, Paglia says. For procurements starting with a new pool of vendors, the region held an “enhanced bidders meeting” during which attendees got information on the system. And while these and other challenges arose, the hurdles were manageable, Paglia notes.

Despite the challenges, the system also has several advantages, Paglia says. Once bidders are trained, the system is easy and efficient. The system is intuitive and guides the user through the process, using green checks and red exclamation marks to indicate what’s been completed and what’s outstanding. Through built-in compliance checks, bidders can’t submit a non-compliant bid.

There’s also flexibility with closing dates, Paglia adds. The region can close procurements at any time and it’s easy to extend closing dates and issue addenda. Communication with bidders is easier and non-compliance has dropped to almost nothing--the only avenues for non-compliance are if a bid isn’t submitted on time--in which case bids aren’t accepted--or if the wrong document is uploaded. The systems also reduces the environmental impact by eliminating paper use and simplifies life for bidders, who no longer need to show up at the region’s offices with their bid.

“The eSolutions platform has been deemed compliant with trade treaty requirements,” Paglia adds. “It also allows us to reduce the amount of time that we have to keep our procurements out because under CITA you have to start at 40 days but you can take up to 15 days off of the bidding period by having a fully functioning e-bidding system.”

Vendors have adjusted well to the system, Paglia says. E-bidding is supported by industry associations such as the Ontario General Contractors Association. The region has received some “very positive feedback from the industry,” he adds.

York Region now hopes to introduce an e-fund transfer function to bring forward procurements where a deposit is desired but there’s no bonding, Paglia says. The municipality would also like to use e-bidding in other areas like pre-qualification and expressions of interest. The system has other functions, such as vendor management, that the region may employ going forward, Paglia notes. “We have very restricted access rights,” he says. “The system’s only accessed by the procurement office and legal. At some point we envision rolling the access out to a bigger audience.”

Overall, introducing e-procurement in York Region has been “very successful,” and council is happy with the system, Paglia says. “It’s all very positive,” he notes. “Once we have e-fund transfer functionality we’ll be fully automated on our tendering side and then bring in e-RFPs. I would say it’s been a huge success.”