Georgia DOT Completes One Full Year of Online Bidding

Electronic Bidding Continues to Make Headway in DOTs

by Valerie Ostrow, Info Tech Inc.

Contractors in Georgia have had a lot of extra time and money on their hands this year.

They haven’t had to go to Atlanta for lettings once a month. They haven’t had to pay huge bills for hotel rooms and meals. They haven’t had to use dozens of reams of paper for submitting bids. All of these time and cost savings can be attributed to one thing: electronic bidding through Expedite^® and Bid Express^™.

"Preparing bids electronically can save us up to one full day," said Wayne Boatright of Shepherd Construction in Atlanta. "Submitting them online is an added convenience. We can prepare and submit a whole bid and never write down a single number."

The Georgia DOT (GDOT) implemented two-way online electronic bidding one year ago and has seen the level of Internet bid submission rates rise steadily throughout the year. Since it started, 925 bids have been submitted through Bid Express accounting for over $2.25 billion in bids.

"Every letting, the number of electronic bidders grows," said Lem Dobbs, state transportation office engineer for GDOT. "For the July letting, 70 percent of the bids were submitted online."

Dobbs attributes this steady growth to the convenience of online bid submission. He knows that contractors would rather be working in their offices than attending lettings.

The process is simple. Contractors receive all the necessary information to prepare their bid online at the Bid Express web site. They can then download the information directly into Expedite to prepare their bid. The bid can be printed on paper and submitted, or it can be submitted electronically. Electronic bidding can be "one-way," where they submit the completed bids on disk. Even more efficient is "two-way" electronic bidding, where the completed bid is actually sent to the transportation agency electronically via the Internet using Bid Express.

"Contractors are using Bid Express because they see the value associated with the service," said Randy Ewald, product manager. "Implementing this service can easily save them thousands of dollars a year, not to mention the time saved being able to submit bids from their offices."

As a contractor, Boatright sees the benefits in this high-tech method and knows that it gives him an edge in competing for projects.

"If you are going to be competitive in this business, you need to keep up with the technology," he said.

Bidx.com^™, the company providing the Bid Express service, knows that security is an important issue with any online exchange. That’s why Bid Express uses maximum encryption technology, digital signatures and private and public key codes.

Expedite automatically encrypts bid files with the DOTs public key and "signs" the file with the bidder’s secret key. Digital IDs are issued to each bid signer to prove the identity of the contractor signing the bid. During the bid submission process, Expedite encrypts the completed bid with the DOT public key, signs the bid with signer’s Digital ID private key and sends the file to the Bid Express web server, where it is stored "in a virtual lock-box" for the DOT until bid opening day. The contractor is sent a receipt when the bid is received on the server. Through the system of public and private keys, the bid files are unreadable by anyone except the DOT on bid opening day, even if intercepted. Contractors can withdraw or replace their bids at any time prior to opening.

Georgia is just one of several states implementing this technology. Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina are currently running two-way electronic bidding pilot programs. New Mexico is piloting one-way electronic bidding, and Wisconsin, the first Bid Express state, now offers one-way electronic bidding. Both are considering two-way in the near future. Indiana is planing a two-way electronic bidding pilot program for Summer 2001, and Vermont is planning to implement one-way electronic tentatively during Fall 2001. South Carolina and Iowa are in production with one-way electronic bidding, and both have plans to implement two-way electronic bidding in Winter 2001.

Best of all, the service continues to improve. At the 2000 Trns•port Users Group meeting in Santa Fe, NM, a prototype version of Expedite that electronically checks bid bond information was demonstrated. The addition of electronic handling of bid bonds to an already very capable software package will make Expedite a complete solution for highway construction bidding.

For more information about Bid Express or Expedite software, contact Info Tech Inc. at (352) 381-4400.