6 Reasons Why Contractors Value a Virtual Bidding Process
5 Reasons Why You Should Switch to Digital Construction Bidding
Construction bidding has been done the same way for too long. You find a project you’d like to bid on in the newspaper, drive to your town hall or other building to pick up the bid documents, tediously fill those out, then race downtown to turn in your bid proposal before it’s too late.
Congratulations! You’ve just wasted a ton of time. And what if you’ve made a mistake on a paper form? What if you could have found a better project? If you’re a project owner, could you be awarding the project to the right bidder or simply the one who turned in the paperwork on time?
Digital construction bidding first began catching on in the early 2000s and gained popularity in the 2010s. Project owners and bidders realized the need for an easier and faster way to post and manage bid proposals. After the COVID-19 pandemic severely limited face-to-face meetings, many companies fully embraced virtual bidding. Digital construction bidding eliminates many of the common problems that have plagued busy contractors for generations. Here are 5 reasons why you should switch from old paper bidding to modern, efficient digital bidding.
- Streamline Your Search for Bids
Few things frustrate a contractor more than failing to find the right projects to bid on. Even if you find what seems to be the right one in the newspaper, there's a good chance you’re missing better-suited options. Of course, that chance begs the question: How can you make sure you haven’t missed the best projects for your company?
You need to switch to a digital construction bidding system. With virtual bidding, you can search through thousands of projects in specific areas and compare them to find the right one for you. Imagine having the power to sort through a ton of relevant-to-you projects in the blink of an eye. That means more efficiency, more accurate bid filtering, and overall greater control and familiarity with the whole process for you. Put down the newspaper. Pick up your computer.
- Saving Time = Saving Money
Time is money. As a busy contractor, you know this better than anyone. If you’re still bidding by driving to pick up forms, filling them out by hand, manually checking them, and rushing back to town hall before time runs out—or even if you’re having someone else do the dirty work for you—then consider digital bidding.
From the comfort of your office or home, complete all the requisite bidding paperwork faster than you ever would with a writing instrument and paper. This shortcut means no more long drive times, no more fighting for parking, and you can also say goodbye to the anxiety of rushing to hand in your bid. If you never seem to have enough time, or simply just want more of it, it’s probably a good idea for you to try out digital bidding.
- Eliminate 100% of Errors
In past years, filling out paper forms caused bidders to make mistakes that cost them the project. Even simple blunders like not properly signing a form will cause the project owner to toss out your bid, and such paperwork mistakes should not be the reason you’re losing business. The old way to check for mistakes was to reread everything filled out and hope all the required information is there. Seldom are we able to eliminate human error from such equations, but with digital bidding, clean paperwork is virtually always the result.
With digital bidding, software programs check everything the bidder inputs in the online form. You plug in the information, and the software ensures nothing is left blank. It can even point out potential errors for your review. Bidding digitally is the closest you’ll get to being sure that your bid is in tip-top shape.
- Win More Bids
Winning bids is crucial for contractors. Constantly finding new projects for your company is the only way to keep business going. As we pointed out in #3, sometimes simple errors get your bids rejected. You could have forgotten to input something, registered inaccurate data, or overestimated your bid.
You can’t win bids if your proposals cost more than competing contractors. If you use software, it’s much easier to estimate all the costs associated with a project accurately, which means you’ll be able to enter financially accurate bids every time. Plus, you can enter last-minute pricing adjustments in just a few seconds. Finding the right bids, making correct estimates, and filling out bid forms faster can increase the number of bids you win.
- Better Collaboration
Many mistakes made during the bidding process are the result of lackluster collaboration or poor communication. Digital bidding software allows your estimating team to communicate easily. Bid coordinators can promptly notify estimators of new opportunities and send them upcoming tasks and deadlines—all with a handful of keystrokes and clicks.
Additionally, team members can share bid notes and stay up-to-date. No more missed communication or employees wondering what the next step in the bid process is. Digital bidding makes collaboration and communication a breeze.
What to Take Away
You might be more comfortable with the old way of bidding manually, but there is a better way to bid. Switching to virtual bidding can start a cascading, domino effect of efficiency-boosters, all of which aggregate to save or even to make more money. Plus, it literally can help your organization operate more smoothly. Digital bidding also gives you the power to:
- Streamline your search for bids
- Save time and money
- Eliminate 100% of errors
- Win more bids
- Collaborate and communicate more efficiently
Here’s a table for you to compare digital bidding with pen-and-paper bidding:
| Pen-and-Paper Bidding | Digital Bidding |
| Can be difficult to locate bids | Easy to find the right bids |
| Costs a ton of time, which costs money | Saves time and money |
| Errors are easy to make and hard to detect | Ensures there are no errors |
| Bidding is much more competitive | Allows you to win more bids |
| Lacks quick back and forth communication, resulting in wasted time and frustration | Makes collaborating efficient |
It might not seem like bidding manually is costing your team time, money, and frustration, but when compared to digital bidding, it’s obvious how many resources have been lost to the old way of bidding. Give yourself and your team a better way to bid. Try out virtual bidding now.
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