How do I find bids on Biddingo?

What is Biddingo and who posts there?

The City of Windsor describes Biddingo as "an online portal that connects suppliers providing various goods and services to buyers from the provincial, municipal, education, Crown corporation, housing, construction, healthcare and private sectors from across Canada." Biddingo's own supplier pages list the kinds of public bodies on its network as provinces, Crown corporations, agencies, municipalities, school boards, universities and colleges, hospitals and housing authorities.

Buyers usually have their own Biddingo page. The City of Windsor directs suppliers to biddingo.com/windsor, and the City of Yorkton, which calls Biddingo its eBidding platform, posts its bids and tenders at biddingo.com/yorkton. Yorkton also says that, under its purchasing policy, solicitations over $75,000 are posted on SaskTenders as well.

What does an agency's Biddingo portal show?

The City of Yorkton's Vendor Portal User Guide is a good picture of how an agency portal on Biddingo works. Before you log in, you see a List of Solicitations with all of the City's solicitations, whatever their status: Open for Bidding, Closed, Awarded or Cancelled. You can search, filter and view details, but you cannot download documents until you are registered and logged in.

A solicitation page can include some or all of these parts, depending on the opportunity:

• Solicitation Overview: the closing date, bid status and any site meeting or question deadline.
• Solicitation Documents: the documents themselves. Download All Available Documents saves the documents and any amendment or announcement documents as a .zip file.
• Site Meeting: date, time and address. Yorkton's guide says that if a site or pre-bid meeting is required, you must attend or risk disqualification.
• Document Takers: the list of companies that have downloaded the documents.
• Amendments: changes to the bid document, each identified by name, number and issue date.
• Q&A Board: where questions can be submitted during the question period.

How do I search for bids on Biddingo?

On an agency portal, Yorkton's guide describes three tools:

• Keyword search, which matches the Solicitation Number and Solicitation Name fields.
• Date range search, by the solicitation's Posted Date or Closing Date.
• Status filter, to show only open, closed, awarded or cancelled solicitations.

Because the keyword search on that portal matches the number and name fields, try more than one term. In my experience, keyword searches miss tenders that use different wording, and a short title rarely contains every word a supplier would think to search for.

For alerts, Biddingo's supplier pages describe a company profile where you set criteria such as categories, location and keywords, and a daily email of the bids that match. Agencies also use commodity codes at vendor registration, and Yorkton recommends signing up on its Biddingo page to receive email notifications about solicitations in your selected commodities.

How do I register on Biddingo?

Registration happens through the agency's portal. These steps follow the City of Yorkton's Vendor Portal User Guide for new users:

1. Click the Vendor Registration button on the agency's Biddingo page.
2. Select every category and commodity code that applies to your business, including sub-categories, then click Continue Application.
3. Create your user ID, which is your email address. The system checks that you have not already registered, then you set a password.
4. Type your company name and click Verify. If your company already exists, the guide says to contact Biddingo to have your contact information added to that account.
5. Complete every field marked with a red asterisk and submit the application. You receive a confirmation once it goes through.

If you already have a Biddingo login, log in first and then click Vendor Registration for the new agency. Review each step with Modify to keep your commodity codes and details current. Yorkton's guide also asks companies to add unlimited users to one account instead of creating several accounts for one company.

How do I get documents and amendment notices?

Log in before you download. Yorkton's guide says you must be a registered vendor and logged in to download solicitation documents and be added to the Document Takers list. Biddingo's supplier pages say that downloading documents automatically lists you as a document taker, with notice of amendments sent to your inbox.

Once logged in, the My Bids tab groups solicitations into:

• My Bid Opportunities: solicitations where you downloaded documents and are a document taker.
• Solicitations I'm Following: solicitations where you clicked the Follow button.
• Amendment(s) Issued: solicitations where you are a document taker and the buyer has issued amendments.
• Invitation Received: solicitations the agency invited you to bid on.

Read every amendment in full. Yorkton's guide says amendments should be reviewed in their entirety and your bid response modified as instructed. On the Q&A Board, your company name stays confidential but other document takers can see your question, questions cannot be submitted after the deadline, and the agency may answer by issuing an amendment.

How you submit depends on the agency. Yorkton requires bid submissions through its eBidding system on Biddingo.com, following the requirements in the solicitation document. Always check the submission instructions in the documents for each bid.

Is Biddingo free for suppliers?

It depends on what you sign up for. Registering on an agency's vendor portal can be free: the City of Yorkton's guide states that registration on its portal "is free."

Biddingo's own supplier pages describe paid options for its wider service, namely a subscription or a one-time purchase for a single bid, along with a trial that gives access to bid advertisements. Those pages also say buyers may charge document fees, which Biddingo collects and remits to the buyer. Check the current terms on Biddingo when you sign up, since plans can change.

Where do suppliers miss bids on Biddingo?

• Watching one agency page and assuming it covers the rest. Each buyer's page is separate, and with dozens of separate agency portals, it is easy to miss one.
• Viewing a solicitation without logging in. You can read the overview, but you only become a document taker, and see amendments in Amendment(s) Issued, after you download while logged in.
• Following without downloading. Follow keeps a solicitation in view, but the Amendment(s) Issued list is tied to document takers.
• Commodity codes chosen too narrowly at registration, so agency notifications never match your work.
• Searching only by keyword when the portal matches the number and name fields.
• Missing a mandatory site meeting, which can disqualify a bid before it is written.
• Seeing a notice on a provincial site and assuming it is the whole package, when the documents, amendments and submission sit on the agency's Biddingo page.