6 Reasons Why Contractors Value a Virtual Bidding Process

6 Reasons Why Contractors Value a Virtual Bidding Process

The traditional bidding process can be a complete nightmare for busy, hardworking contractors. All the driving to pick up forms, painstakingly filling them out, checking and rechecking, then racing downtown to turn your proposal in on time has caused more than one contractor to shutter. Is there a better way for contractors to bid?

There is! A virtual bidding process is the best way for contractors to bid. Digital bidding eliminates many of the headaches and unnecessary work for bidders. There’s no driving to pick up documents, filling them out by hand, then rushing to submit them in time. With virtual bidding, everything can be done from your office or home. Here are 6 reasons why contractors value a virtual bidding process.

Paper bidding creates tasks that take way too long to complete. For reference, add up the time it takes to drive downtown to pick up bid proposal documents. Then record how long it takes to fill them out with pen and paper. After that, your team has to check the documents manually. Finally, someone is sent racing downtown to turn in your sealed bid proposal.

The old bidding process is obviously filled with time-consuming tasks. However, a virtual bidding process significantly cuts down the time it takes to bid. You can download and fill out bid proposal documents in a fraction of the time from the comfort of your office or home. There are no drive times or last-minute sprints to get your bids in on time. You and your team will have much more time with a virtual bidding system.

New construction projects are posted quite frequently. The challenge for contractors isn’t a lack of work; it’s the endless hunt for the right projects. Back in the day, contractors would have to comb through newspapers and talk to contacts in hopes of finding projects that fit their expertise. Today, there’s a much better way to find pertinent work.

With virtual bidding, contractors can easily and quickly find projects they’re interested in bidding on. All the hassle of reading through newspapers and calling old friends is removed with technology. Contractors can go to online bidding platforms and put in project criteria such as type and location and get plenty of immediate results. This efficient way of locating work beats the old way of searching for jobs manually.

There’s no point for contractors to search for work if their bids will be rejected. One of the most common reasons why contractors lose proposals is because of inaccurate estimates. Project owners tend to award projects to the lowest bidder, so it’s important for bidders to submit accurate estimates. With old paper bidding, many proposal estimates were much too high. It can be quite difficult for members of the estimation team to communicate and gather information with the old way of bidding.

Virtual bidding enables contractors to make more accurate bid estimates. It’s much easier for estimators to communicate with distributors, making the chances of overestimating low. Virtual bidding also allows contractors to make last-minute changes to their estimates, further ensuring accurate proposals.

Countless proposals have been tossed out due to simple mistakes. A line missing information, a document not signed properly, the proposal not being sealed correctly, and a late submission are simple blunders that have left contractors without work.

Contractors value a virtual bidding process because it reduces many common errors. Proposals can’t be submitted electronically until all information has been entered, all documents have been electronically signed, and the software has checked the proposal. And there’s no need to worry about submitting it too late. Virtual bidding can be done quickly and makes submission as simple as clicking a button.

Communication and collaboration are some of the most important pieces of the bidding process. Even a slight breakdown in these two areas can cause a project bid to be lost. Traditional bidding makes it difficult for team members to discuss important parts of the estimation with each other.

Virtual bidding makes it easier for estimators to communicate with other members of the team, distributors, and the contractor. Collaboration is also easy, faster, and more effective. Miscommunication is kept at a minimum with virtual bidding, and team members find it less frustrating to communicate with the new way of bidding.

There are a lot of documents and information for contractors to keep up with throughout the bidding process. All this information used to be printed on countless sheets of paper that always seemed to get lost or not have what the contractor needed.

With virtual bidding, contractors can access all the documents they need through files that are located online. Addenda, notes, upcoming events, estimations, and bid dates are easy to find and won’t get lost. This makes it simple for estimators and other team members to access and edit information.

Key Takeaways

The traditional bidding process doesn’t cut it anymore. Successful contractors now value a virtual bidding system because of the many benefits these systems offer. 6 of which are:

• Elimination of time-consuming tasks
• Easier location of the right projects to bid on
• Making accurate bid estimates
• Reducing bid mistakes
• Better communication and collaboration
• Centralization of all bids and documents

Here’s a table for you to compare the two types of bid processes:

Contractors value a virtual bidding process now more than ever. There are many benefits to this type of bidding that can’t be found in traditional bidding. If you’re a contractor who’s still bidding manually, try out virtual bidding and see why so many contractors love it.