BidPrime Quarterly Edition: 21, 2021 - Q2

As with many businesses, public sector entities, pundits, and others, U.S. infrastructure continues to be a hot topic here at BidPrime. Although negotiations and debate are ongoing to finalize the specifics on the proposed near $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, we continue to see movement from federal, state, and local agencies on a number of infrastructure-related projects.

Last month, in a webinar attended by many of you, our very own Bill Culhane and Anthony Kallas hosted a presentation on the proposed ‘American Jobs Plan’ put forth by The White House, infrastructure-related industries, and an overview of current and impending solicitations from the public sector. Kallas wrapped up the webinar by covering how BidPrime assists businesses with connecting to the opportunities.

If you would like to access a recording and transcript of the webinar, please visit our ‘Webinar Library’ by going here: Login to your BidPrime account. Go to SUPPORT>Tutorials>Webinar Library.

Also, if you haven't already, we highly encourage you to go to the Infrastructure Hub to see the purchasing activity throughout the various aspects of infrastructure.

What Critical Infrastructure Providers Need to Do to Enhance Their Cybersecurity

Vulnerability scanning and user training can go a long way to guarding against cyberattacks for utilities and other critical infrastructure players. Read More

Community Navigator Pilot Program

Information for community organizations on how to participate in the Community Navigators Pilot Program. Read More

Virginia announces $29M broadband expansion

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Tuesday announced the award of $29.6 million... Read More

A procurement paradigm for digital government

If there’s one bright spot to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that the global health crisis turbocharged the adoption of high-tech tools... Read More

'Certificates of Competency: A Little-Known Friend of the Small-Business Contractor

You can’t believe it. You did everything right. The solicitation required that offerors have three distinct licenses... Read More

Report tells counties how to close the digital divide

A report published Wednesday by the National Association of Counties is reinforcing local officials’ beliefs... Read More

5 Reasons Fleet Management Technology Should Be a Priority

Whether you’re a small business with a few trucks or a state or federal agency with thousands of vehicles in your fleet... Read More

Industrial-grade LED lighting improves safety

Employee safety is a primary directive in the oil and gas industry, but despite a multitude of safeguards... Read More

In 2020, it has been well documented that most U.S. public sector agencies were forced to redirect funds to address issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many plans were halted, postponed, or all together cancelled. Now, as we have passed the midway point of the 2021 calendar, our analysts have crunched the numbers to determine which are some of the industries where U.S. federal, state, local agencies have been especially active. Obviously, this overview of activity to date, does not include other industries that are progressing well on the public sector side of things.

At the end of '20, Stephen Hetzel, BidPrime’s COO, offered his predictions on what he forecasted was ahead for 2021. So far, Hetzel particularly hit the mark regarding growth in renewable energy generation, grid modernization, mass transit projects, and water projects. In addition, the industries in this analysis have been notably hot. In some cases, a movement north from what originally seemed to be the path towards the end of 2020.

Emerging from 2020, with the global pandemic well underway, there were numerous questions and valid concerns on how the public sector would be able to formulate, fund and execute 2021 budgets. Yes, add a national election to the equation. Driven by the American Rescue Plan, increased emphasis on infrastructure, and other initiatives, the U.S. federal government is projected to spend $6.8 trillion in 2021.

Sustainability - is one of the slogans of the 21st century and growing in use. No matter the business you work in, no matter the government agency you deal with, you can’t go to a conference, read a policy briefing, analyze purchasing activity, or talk to a thought leader without hearing the term thrown around.

Yet, if we look past the buzzwords, and get to the core of what sustainability really means, the concept remains the same - a broad range of technological solutions that can be implemented to reduce energy and resource costs, as well as limit the environmental impact of our activities.

Your business was looking to earn a government contract and responded to a bid or RFP. An important one. Your team worked super-hard to get your bid submission exactly right. Sweated the details. Rewrote and rechecked your response a number of times, before you lost count of all the versions you cranked out.

Which explains why it stung when your business wasn’t awarded the contract. You want to know specific details on why a competitor won the contract and you didn’t.

So, you pick up the phone and call the government agency that let the contract. Alas, most often, your questions won’t be answered through a simple phone call.

What are you going to do to get at the truth of the matter and be able to understand why you didn’t win this contract opportunity?

Excuse us for a second as we applaud our Technician team, headed up by Braedon and Byron! Over the past quarter, our Technician team set new standards across many metrics. Since March '21, they audited, QC'd, and refined the most account setups in the history of our company (2009, for those keeping score at home). Why are their efforts critical to our customers and our team? Relevancy of bid results is important to you. It's important to us. The techs accessed and analyzed a record number of account setups to ensure results match with keywords and other setup parameters.

Sure we have a number of technology tools and programs in place to monitor accounts, but we understand that human intervention is still critical to maximizing results.

If you need assistance with your setup, please be sure to contact an Account Manager. As needed, they will escalate to our Technician Team.

Again, kudos to Braedon, Byron and their teams of all stars for helping us to deliver on our promises!

Changing government purchasing & mankind one edition of #CrazyBids at a time. Special guests discussing special topics. All of that and more. A lot more!

How are you taking advantage of video conferencing solutions? Over the past couple of years, the video conferencing industry has experienced explosive growth. In this episode, hear how businesses and the public sector are making use of the services and solutions.

Will Purcell, from Pepperland Marketing, visits with Bill Culhane to discuss Purcell’s report on the industry, filled with interesting information (see below), and what we can expect to see in the future.

Rick Jennings shines the light, and sound, on this Crazy Bids.

All of that and more. A lot more!

Is the U.S. ready to solve the infrastructure problem? In this episode, we have an expert, Dr. Joseph Schofer, who is quite open about his opinions on how to address the lingering U.S. infrastructure challenges. There’s a lot of news, debate, plans, report cards on the subject, but you can invest a few minutes to hear from this Northwestern University professor, a veteran of many decades in studying, researching, and teaching the subject matter.

Rick Jennings takes you to school with this version of Crazy Bids.

All of that and more. A lot more!