Hamilton, neighbouring communities and
public agencies switch from Biddingo to
eSolutions Group for bids and tenders
GTA Construction Report staff writer
The City of Hamilton and several
other public agencies in the Hamil-
ton and Halton region have
switched their procurement engine
from Biddingo to the Bids&Tenders
system provided by eSolutions-
Group Inc.
The change for Hamilton took
place on Oct. 1.
City council approved the
change in mid-2017 after reviewing
options and evaluating five compet-
ing responses to a Request for Pro-
posals from the city and
surrounding communities.
The eSolutionsGroup proposal
won the competition because of its
features and lower costs, both to
the public agencies and surround-
ing agencies, as well as prospective
bidders. All of the competing systems re-
quire bidders to cover the costs of
submitting their bids, but the
Bids&Tenders system proved to be
the least expensive, and in fact, ac-
cording to city staff, was less costly
than Biddingo.com. Bidders can ei-
ther sign up for an annual service at
$165 per year (where they can ac-
cess all available options from dif-
ferent purchasers) or pay a $45
one-time fee.
Biddingo.com charged $250 per
year. City staff determined that 84
per cent of vendors using Bid-
dingo.com were also registered
with eSolutions, meaning they
would have no trouble migrating to
the new system (and might save
additional money as a result).
The city also saves money on
the back-end, because of its built in
contract management system, sav-
ing an estimated $9,605 in hard
costs. “With the efficiency of this
system and as staff learn to use the
system to its fullest, staff also ex-
pect to achieve some time savings
in reporting in the maintenance of
contracts,” said the memo written
by Rick Male, Hamilton’s director, fi-
nancial services, taxation, and the
city’s corporate controller.
The system also includes re-
sources to manage the city’s Ven-
dor Performance Management
(VPM) processes, allowing procure-
ment staff “to set up an automated
process to capture the required
vendor performance evaluation
forms, as well as any vendor perfor-
mance incident forms issued
through the term of the contract,”
Male wrote.
The 10 agencies participating in
the new system include the City of
Burlington, the Town of Oakville,
the Regional Municipality of Halton,
the Town of Halton Hills, Hamilton
Wentworth District School Board,
Hamilton Catholic District School
Boar and Sheridan College.
Hamilton’s procurement opportu-
nities are listed at
https://www.hamilton.ca/buying- selling-city/bids-tenders.
The GTA Construction Report – NOVEMBER 2018 – PAGE 5