Go Green! Making Procurement Paperless

Go Green!
Making Procurement Paperless
October 2021

“Going green doesn’t start with doing green acts – it starts with a shift in consciousness.  This shift allows you to recognize that with every choice you make, you are voting either for or against a kind of world you wish to see… when you assume this as a way of being, your choices become easier.”-Ian Somerhalder.

There has been a growing need to be green and paperless for many years. In some areas, government has been a leader in change and, in others, slow to make the necessary changes.  Over the past year, though, this has been put to the test with many staff working remotely. Countless staff were sent home with just a laptop, not knowing if they would be back in the office next week or next year. Numerous challenges came with that, including parents homeschooling their kids while also keeping a full-time job. And if that wasn’t enough, you now had to worry about how to access your data, work in a quiet place, how to print documents? The ease of being in your quiet office and having the ability to print whatever you want quickly was gone. So, if you liked paper copies, you were forced to become paperless overnight.

Procurement was no exception. Government agencies many times are reluctant to get rid of paper copies since there is constant public scrutiny. However, once you switch over to paperless, it is liberating. No longer are you worried – Does the hard copy file have all the documents in case there is public records request two years from now? How will I carry this stack of paper that is 2 feet tall to this evaluation team meeting?

You can achieve going Green by using an e-Procurement solution. The use of eProcurement systems creates an electronic repository for all procurement-related data — financial or otherwise. Gathering data in a standardized method and generating reports are powerful tools for any state or local central procurement office. These tools allow the office to review its procurement expenditures and make strategic decisions based on the spend analysis data. Additionally, they facilitate the review of internal practices and outcomes and identify how to improve service delivery.

Here are 5 Key Reason why an eProcurement paperless system should be implemented:

Greater User Adoption

Most organizations already have a financial or ERP system. However, most of those systems have a financial focus, with procurement as an add-on feature are typically harder to use when following procurement rules and processes. A system focused on procurement, AKA eProcurement, still interfaces with an existing finance system generally is easier to use, with more intuitive processes that match the procurement cycle. When performing in a virtual and paperless environment, a well-designed eProcurement solution becomes an essential tool to stay productive and continue serving the organization without depending on mail, email, or fax.

Eliminate Time-Consuming Manual Processes

Although the focus of eProcurement is mainly on the front end of a procurement process, such as issuing bids and RFP’s, there can be significant additional value delivered through the duration of that contract. For example, if something occurs during the life of that contract, can you find those documents quickly? What about the insurance certificate renewals – are these done on a timely basis each year before the certificate expires? If a public information request is received, do you have to make copies manually, or can you provide a public interface for the information? For those time-consuming but necessary processes, automation can be helpful to have a central location where documents are stored electronically that multiple users can access remotely, eliminating the need for exhaustive paper files.

Easier Bid Submissions and Trackability

With social distancing and virtual offices continuing into 2021, online bidding is the way of the future. Accessing information about available contracting opportunities and submitting bids from their PCs rather than drive a paper response to a procurement office is now preferred for many suppliers. A trackable time/date stamp is an avenue to ensure potential bidders know when an addendum is issued, track addendum acknowledgments, and most critically, track submissions help procurement and the supplier community.

Use Data and Reports Strategically

Whether it is combining spend into new contracts, negotiating or leveraging the spending toward a better contract solution, or sharing information with management to make better operational decisions, electronically tracking data can help procurement move forward strategically. Collecting it and creating reports is best done with automation.

Expanded Vendor Outreach

Having an easy-to-use paperless system for your suppliers is the surest way to increase vendor registrations, resulting in greater outreach, MBE/WBE/SBE participation, and ultimately competition. In addition, announcements on training or new initiatives from the organization can be included in the electronic communication abilities of an eProcurement system.

Summary

PlanetBids can help your agency go Green by:

• Reducing overhead costs (Paper storage, shredding, faxing, mailing, etc.)
• Streamline processes
• Increase outreach
• Connect internal and external users 24/7 from anywhere in the world
• Strategic reports
• Online submissions and audit trails
• Reduces Public Information Request costs

As with any journey with automation, there is a destination in mind. Our team brings over a 100+ years of procurement and contract experience in continually designing our eProcurement solution. We look forward to hearing from you and contributing to the success in going Green.

Arpie Zavian, President/Co-Founder of PlanetBids, notes, "By moving government procurement processes onto our eProcurement system over the past two decades, we collectively have helped to save over 250,000 trees from being cut down. As a result, we share in the excitement of our end users in feeling good about making a difference to the environment through sustainable practices while reducing risk and increasing efficiency!"

Want to know more?

PlanetBids, Inc is a WBE, SBE & US Corporation celebrating over 21 years of excellence. For a demonstration, go to Schedule a Demo or call us at 818.992.1771.