October 28, 2005

B2B software provider Onvia announces today a partnership with the city of Philadelphia. The city will utilize Onvia’s QuoteWire service to streamline its procurement process, attract bids from small and minority-owned businesses and increase participation in the city’s below bid threshold purchases.

QuoteWire is a tool within Onvia’s DemandStar service that is used to manage informal quotes falling under a certain monetary threshold. QuoteWire will enable the city’s procurement office to reach a greater audience, resulting in more competitive responses to informal quotes and reduced line item costs.

The partnership with Onvia will provide the city with a standardized internal process for routine purchases, and eliminate many manual steps traditionally found in the current labor-intensive RFP and RFQ process, saving the city valuable staff time and resources.

Placing procurement information online will also help the city reach a greater number of vendors, including small and minority-owned businesses.

QuoteWire enables buyers to code all posted RFQs and distribute them to subscribing suppliers and supplemental agency suppliers.

Some of QuoteWire’s primary features include tools that allow buyers to modify standard RFQ forms and create individual line items for each quote; a specialized version of the RFQ form whereby suppliers can input prices and other information; automatic tabulation of seller responses for comparison and award; and specific award notification to the selected supplier.

Onvia’s vendor registration is free, allowing all suppliers to participate in the procurement process.

“Government agencies need a tool that helps them maximize their efficiency in the often complex, time consuming, and expensive procurement process,” said Mike Pickett, CEO of Onvia. “We’re glad that Onvia can benefit the city of Philadelphia, and level the playing field for small and minority-owned businesses who wish to do business with the city.”

Philadelphia joins other major cities including San Jose and Tampa, who are using DemandStar to efficiently manage their procurement processes and increase bid competition. Philadelphia plans to begin using Onvia’s QuoteWire service within the coming months.

“We are pleased to partner with Onvia and use their services to help our procurement office run more efficiently,” said William Gamble, Procurement Commissioner. “The city of Philadelphia welcomes bids from all qualified vendors, and the increased bid competition resulting from QuoteWire will bring us new business opportunities with companies of all sizes.”

Onvia’s agency services streamline the procurement process for government agencies, enabling them to notify their suppliers, get quotes back, and track all bid activity electronically.

The free online bid process reduces advertising expenses, mailing and copying costs. Onvia’s other products include the Onvia Guide, an electronic notification service for companies that are looking for an effective way to identify the right government procurement opportunities for their businesses.

Onvia recently released Onvia Business Builder, a new product that enables businesses of all sizes to compete more effectively in the fast-growing government procurement marketplace.

Onvia Business Builder provides access to detailed information on over 2 million contracting opportunities from across 55,500 government agencies representing 194,000 buyers nationwide.

The product leverages Onvia’s massive proprietary database of historical information gathered from local, state and federal government agencies and education purchasing entities over the last seven years to help businesses evaluate and respond to new bid requests and RFPs, and capture more government business.

Source: Seattle D-Business News