Florida Department of Transportation to Hold First Official Bid Letting Using Bid Express

Tallahassee, Fla. and Gainesville, Fla. – August 2004: Beginning with the September 2004 bid letting, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will begin accepting bids via the Internet using Bid Express, an online bidding service.

After extensive testing of Bid Express by the agency and contractors, the FDOT is preparing for full production use of the system. Bid Express provides significant time and cost savings to both the agency and contractors by automating many currently manual processes and eliminating the need for contractors to travel to the letting location to submit bids in person.

Contractors who bid in Florida who wish to use Bid Express beginning in August can visit the Bid Express website at www.bidx.com or call Bid Express customer support at 1-888-352-2439 for information.

"We wanted to offer our bidders an online bidding option," said Juanita Moore, Manager, Contracts Administration Office for the Florida Department of Transportation. "We found Bid Express integrates well with our current system. Thus, it was the best option."

Bid Express is a web-based bidding information service developed exclusively for the highway construction industry. By using Bid Express, contractors can save time needed for preparing and submitting bids and bid bonds on paper, and travel time and expense in attending lettings. Simple screens allow contractors to quickly scan all current lettings, and a search function is available for keyword information on current lettings and bid tab data from previous lettings. Users have access to lettings from across the country -- not just those of their home state -- and real-time bid results are available.

Bid Express is already in production use in 13 state transportation agencies, with ten additional states in various stages of implementation and testing. Agencies typically participate in a pilot program for several months to introduce the service to their bidding community before officially accepting Internet bids.

Bid Express is offered by Info Tech, Inc. Info Tech software is installed in 39 state departments of transportation, several hundred US cities and counties and two foreign countries, performing a wide range of functions from project estimation to contract administration to electronic bidding. Info Tech, based in Gainesville, Fla., provides customer-oriented, highly technical consulting, software development, systems.

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Valerie Riley, APR
Info Tech, Inc.
(352) 381-4400
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