Today, approximately $45 billion is spent annually on water infrastructure. Much of that is spent on contracts for such things as pipes, pumps, meters, chemicals, hardware and software, new water treatment plants, and consulting services. |
Take Advantage of Historical Data
You can gain insights that may help you prepare a better bid response if you have access to historical data. A bid information service with a database of previous bids may help you determine whether key specifications may have changed or remained the same from previous bids. A database of at least five years will provide you with a good source of historical information.
Another often overlooked source of valuable data are bid tabulations, which show the bidders and their bid prices. A bid tabulation database can help you determine your pricing strategy and compete more effectively for contracts.
Save and Send Data to Review Later
Once you conduct a search, you should be able to save the bids or send the search results to an email address for later review. Another helpful feature is the ability to download the bid or download search results in an Excel or CSV format. Look also for the ability to save bids in a folder for later review. Finally, you should be able to print individual bids or search results in a few clicks.
It’s All About Being Smart
The municipal water infrastructure industry consists of big data and big opportunities. In the past, there was no efficient means of tracking the thousands of bids and RFPs being issued by water utilities each month. Now vendors and contractors can use a bid information service to aggregate data on water infrastructure contract opportunities and receive timely notification of new opportunities. By keeping in mind a few key points, water utility vendors and contractors can find the right bid information service and maximize the benefits of using such a service.
About the Author: Glenn Oliver is the CEO of H2bid, a leading source for water and wastewater utility contract opportunities. He has over 15 years of public and private experience in the water industry, including formerly serving as a Commissioner for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. Under Oliver’s leadership, H2bid has grown to provide information on water utility contract opportunities from all 50 states and Canada, and has a database of over 350,000 water and wastewater utility bids and RFPs.