The province says it’s ready to bid adieu to its 20-year-old BC Bid system and introduce a new procurement strategy for businesses looking to land government contracts.
“There was no way you could fix such an archaic system,” Minister of Citizens' Services Jinny Sims told Business in Vancouver.
“People who would provide services to us couldn’t even search by region, by city or by area. So it shut a lot of people out and it was just so, so confusing.”
The BC Bid system serves as an online marketplace where public sector organizations advertise contracts.
The revamped procurement strategy announced on June 25 includes initiatives such as a procurement concierge program to act as a matchmaker between government buyers and potential vendors.
A government release said the new strategy would also launch a centralized tool to manage pre-qualified contractors lists, create a new process for large strategic contracts and create opportunities for startups to develop solutions with government buyers.
Sims said one of the goals is to encourage small- and medium-sized businesses to bid on contracts they may have felt shut out of previously.
It’s a strategy that picks up where the previous government left off.
Last year the province’s Startup in Residence (STIR) pilot program saw six startups partner with government ministries on five different projects.
Startups worked on everything from online tools for social workers to improving access to information for land-use planning.
STIR began under the previous BC Liberal government after former premier Christy Clark promised to reduce roadblocks smaller firms faced in the government procurement market.
Ministries compiled a list of problems in day-to-day operations in need of a technological solution for STIR’s first phase.
Startups would meet with government officials over the course of 16 weeks to develop tools in the hopes of landing a contract during the second phase.
Sims said it does not benefit either the buyers or vendors in the tech sector if the procurement process takes an unreasonable length of time.
“For example, if you’re looking for a software solution that you need now, you’re not going to go through a 24-month process,” she said.
“By the time that procurement process finishes, the kind of solution we’re looking for could have changed dramatically.”
Sims added her ministry would release its first progress report on the new procurement process in June 2019.
