TAKE ME TO THE RIVER - How the Cloud is the Best Tool for Managing the Management of Water

Photo of Mount Shasta, California, by Bubba Suess

Water is a streaming topic across the country. There are approximately 150,000 public drinking water systems and 16,000 publicly owned wastewater treatment systems in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In California, there are 7,500 public drinking water systems and 900 wastewater treatment plants.

Water management activities are huge in California, covering water supply, improving water quality, reducing water demand, enhancing flood management and resource stewardship.

Despite the diverse sizes, programs and services of this state’s water and wastewater systems, the agencies that manage them rely on the same key procurement capabilities:

1. Vendor Management
2. Bid Management
3. Contract Management

VENDOR MANAGEMENT: The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), the largest supplier of treated water in the United States, is a cooperative of 14 cities, 11 municipal water districts, and a county water authority, providing water to 19 million people. With mandated goals on construction projects, the MWD takes vendor outreach efforts and diversity inclusion seriously.

Carmen Bermudez-Bracy, Certification Officer, states, “With 1,000 new or supplier certifications and renewals annually, it is vital for our online system to be very user-friendly. With an annual $250 million construction spend, it is important to encourage small business and Disabled Veteran Owned Business participation while tracking and reporting on those projects.” 

More than a decade ago, MWD implemented the Vendor Management, Bid Management and Prequalification Management modules of PlanetBids’ PB System™ to augment their supplier pool with the Small and Disadvantaged Business program. The ability to perform quick quotes, including an easier way for bidders to accept contract terms and conditions, assisted field staff in contracting with suppliers and contractors quickly.

The PB System™ also allows reciprocity of established vendor databases across multiple agencies, already used by other local California governments, and it provides greater outreach and access to small and disadvantaged businesses across the region. 

As a point of comparison, Renewable Water Resources (ReWa), a smaller organization that has been purifying wastewater from homes, businesses and industries and replenishing lakes, streams, and rivers of upstate South Carolina since 1925, also needed to automate, but an initial concern was how that would be received by the vendor community.

“The move from a paper-process to an on-line submittal was a bit daunting for smaller mom-and-pop companies,” says Stephanie Selman, ReWa’s Sr. Purchasing Agent. To assist customer departments in embracing the new system and procedures, meetings were held with internal teams, and PlanetBids provided demos to answer questions and give in-depth training.

Selman underscores the importance of contracting with a company that can quickly respond to questions or requests for help. “Some eProcurement systems might outsource or minimize this in their offering, but it’s an important reason for our success,” she says, adding, “PlanetBids has tremendous customer support.”

BID MANAGEMENT: In the past, ReWa’s construction solicitations were 1000-2000 pages, and bidders submitted large paper bundles as responses. Selman notes, “That’s a lot of paper being used by both parties!” An eProcurement system eliminated paper costs and travel to the ReWa offices to submit proposals. Selman shares, “The bid opening is now done on-line with the push of a button. We no longer set up a room for bidders, wait for them to arrive, handstamp the proposals and then conduct the in-person bid opening. This saves time and fuel costs for the contractors as well.”

Another benefit of automation: All information related to a bid is stored and tracked in one place, and there is a central portal for questions, which can be answered directly or through an addendum process. Selman says, “In the past, with the hundreds of emails received each week, this became difficult to manually track to ensure every request was addressed. With any issue, such as when a bidder does not submit by the deadline, research can be conducted within the system to determine exactly when a bidder logged in and submitted their bid. It is tremendously helpful to have every part of the process tracked, where hard facts can help defend a decision.”

CONTRACT MANAGEMENT, when paired with the Vendor Management module of the PB System™, enables contract administrators, procurement, and public works to maintain and retrieve up-to-date relevant information regarding contracts, reducing the need to search through endless documents.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District in California provides stream stewardship, wholesale water supply and flood protection in the southern San Francisco Bay Area through the district’s three water treatment plants; it also manages storm waters along Santa Clara County's hundreds of miles of creeks and rivers in an environmentally sensitive manner.

Valley Water was transitioning from a manual, paper-intensive purchasing process to an Enterprise Resource Planning software application when COVID forced its team to work remotely. The purchasing software was not yet implemented and had limitations, so Valley Water’s 21-person team pivoted quickly and chose the same three PB System™ modules that MWD has, adding the Emergency Operations module that enables an organization to retrieve up-to-date information on vendors 24/7 even in the event of an emergency. Users can also search for emergency vendors from a master database shared by other public agencies.

Kimberley Linser, Management Analyst II says, “While the pandemic pushed us over that hill, I would encourage others not to wait for an emergency to automate. Engage in the process and choose the modules to take care of business now.”

To learn more about PlanetBids eProcurement solutions, visit Planetbids.com.