Madison, Wis. and Gainesville, Fla. – August 2002: The August bid letting at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation marked the first time bids were accepted via the Internet using Bid Express, an online bidding service.
Of the 99 bids submitted for the letting, 46% were submitted online representing more than $100 million in bids received.
"We were very pleased with the response from the contracting community in implementing this new technology," David Castleberg, Engineering Technology Supervisor for Wisconsin Department of Transportation, said. "Almost half of the bids were submitted online and those seemed to be the larger, more complex bids."
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 eight state departments of transportation, while eight additional states are in various stages of implementation and testing. States 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 and 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, Florida, provides customer-oriented, highly technical consulting, software development, systems integration and network communications services for transportation agencies, consulting engineers, and contractors. For more information, contact Info Tech at (352) 381-4400 or visit www.bidx.com.
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Valerie Riley, APR
Info Tech, Inc.
(352) 381-4400
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