TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Mark Danaj, City Manager
FROM:
Bruce Moe, Finance Director
Gwen Eng, Purchasing Manager
SUBJECT:Title
Three-Year Contract with BidSync to Provide eProcurement Services (Total Cost of $28,050) (Finance Director Moe).
APPROVE
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council approve a three-year contract with BidSync to provide eProcurement services, maintenance and support in the amount of $28,050.
Body
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
The first year cost of this service is $11,050. This amount includes a $5,000 base cost, $2,550 implementation fee and a 10 percent fee based on the City's resident population ($3,500). Years two and three will cost $8,500 each (base cost plus per capita charge).
BACKGROUND:
The City purchases approximately $5.1 million in goods, materials, and services each year (this excludes capital improvements). These purchases range from office supplies and vehicles to computer equipment and professional services. Open and competitive bidding, advertising of solicitations and reporting of all expenditures is fundamental to the public procurement process. Modern procurement practices leverage the Internet to access a greater number of suppliers and facilitate solicitation and submission of quotations and proposals.
DISCUSSION:
Staff reviewed the City's purchasing processes and procedures with an eye towards improving efficiency, maximizing the value of staff time used to obtain bids and proposals, as well as offering greater transparency for vendors desiring to do business with the City.
Through this process, staff determined that a cloud-based eProcurement solution that facilitates on-line solicitations in a centralized location, and ensures all suppliers receive the same communications regarding solicitations, would enhance current outreach efforts. This system would simplify the process of doing business with the City by providing suppliers with a searchable on-line database of current bid and proposal requests. This would allow the City to broaden vendor access.
In an effort to select the best eProcurement platform, staff compared applications from a number of firms, including:
· BidSync
· Planet Bids
· Public Purchase
· SciQuest
· Smart Procure
After thorough review, staff recommends BidSync for this solution. The BidSync eProcurement application will track bid requests, broadly advertise bids to make it easy for suppliers to respond, keep automated trails on the distribution of public information and provide data for fiscal management.
BidSync has the largest number of registered suppliers (800,000), thereby providing the greatest exposure for City solicitations. Further, they have the lowest overall cost based on the City's requirements ($28,050 for three years). Finally, BidSync is widely used by other public agencies including the State of California and the County of Orange, California among others. Their growing client base of 1,000 agencies demonstrates their knowledge and understanding of public procurement processes.
The closest responsive competitor, Planet Bids, has only 350,000 registered suppliers, fewer public clients (110), and a higher three year cost of $36,125. Public Purchase's offer was at no cost to the City; however, they only have 100,000 registered suppliers, and their website is not as dynamic or user-friendly as the two top contenders. Both SciQuest and Smart Procure do not offer the vendor outreach and bid management tools needed for the City's solution, and therefore were not considered for this requirement.
CONCLUSION:
Staff recommends that the City Council approve a three-year contract with BidSync to provide eProcurement services, maintenance and support in the amount of $28,050.
Attachment:
1. Agreement with BidSync