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| Q: How can my company benefit from the Bid Ocean Network? |
A: The Bid Ocean Network is a Government-to-Business (G2B) and Business-to-Business (B2B) Network. We connect buyers and sellers by publishing reports on organizations wanting to obtain specific goods and services. If your company caters to businesses or government agencies it can benefit by simply responding to the business opportunties published in the Bid Ocean Network. If your company caters only to individuals then we can help you with marketing tools such as flyers, a web site, e-commerce, etc.
Bid Ocean specializes in helping companies prosper and our customers include a wide range of businesses, from the largest down to the smallest. We have opportunities for manufacturers, contractors, subcontractors, retailers, consultants, designers and other service companies.
We can also help your company save money on its own purchasing through our easy to use B2B e-procurement system and our Buyers Club. We leverage the combined purchasing power of all our customers to obtain deep discounts on a wide range of materials and supplies. |
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| Q: Where does Bid Ocean gets its information from? |
A: Bid Ocean gets its information directly from governement agencies and designers by mail, Fax, Email and from their web sites. Some govt. agencies, designers and businesses use our e-procurement system and post their data directly into our system. We also monitor all online newspapers and subscribe to those with no online presence.
We repeatedly request bid advertisement, plan-holder and bid tabulation data from all government agencies in the US and Canada who do not reliably publish their data online or send it to us. |
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| Q: Does Bid Ocean list plan-holders on all projects? |
A: No, not all agencies or designers will provide the information. Bid Ocean does have more plan-holder lists than any other bid lead service. Bid Ocean requests plan-holder lists and bid tabulations on all construction projects and enters plan-holders on all other procurement solicitations from agencies who make the information available online or who send it to us. When agencies are non-responsive we make repeated requests.
Bid Ocean aggressively pursues bid tabulation data for some types of projects and has low-bidder data on nearly 100% of the types of projects deemed to be the highest priority.
Not all states have procurement laws requiring government agencies to provide plan-holder lists. Some states have lax procurement laws and agencies use the lack of legal requirements as an excuse to engage in less than transparent procurement practices. In New Jersey, many agencies claim that revealing the identity of bidders is a violation of privacy laws (which it isn't), while other New Jersey agencies will provide the information. Some agencies are simply short-handed and don't have the resources to respond to our requests for data, even if required to by law. |
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| Q: What types of opportunities does Bid Ocean publish? |
| A: Bid Ocean publishes all types of government procurement solicitations for goods and services. We also publish a significant number of private construction bid opportunities such as private commercial building projects, oil & gas pipelines, wind energy, solar power, ethanol plants, bio-mass plants, power transmission and more. Members of the Bid Ocean Network also post their own solicitations for goods and services related to business. |
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| Q: Do you have private bid leads? |
| A: Absolutely! Bid Ocean publishes a substantial number of private bid leads. We cover a wide range of private construction projects such as office buildings, stores, restaurants, residential units as well as private telecom and gas & oil pipeline projects. Members of the Bid Ocean Network also post their own solicitations for goods and services related to business, which results in even more private bid opportunities. |
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| Q: My company is a Subcontractor and doesn't bid on prime contracts. Can Bid Ocean help us? |
| A: Many members of the Bid Ocean Network are subcontractors and use our reports to identify relevant opportunities and prime contractors. Bid Ocean also publishes opportunties just for subcontractors. With our integrated Contact Manager, subcontractors can easily identify and capture the contact information for key prime contractors. Our MarketBot™ feature provides alerts when selected companies have appeared on a plan-holders list - making it easy to track prime contractors and respond to opportunities. Each report also has a section where subcontractors can list their company and prime contractors can click to request a quote. |
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| Q: Why are some bid leads posted with less lead time than others? |
A: While Bid Ocean has better lead times than other reporting services, some states do not require much lead time. In some states procurement law only requires 4 days advance notice. Also, some government agencies deliberately publish bid advertisements late in order to reduce competition and to ensure that a favored contractor will be awarded the project. Since 2001, the FBI and state authorities have greatly decreased the investigation and prosecution of government corruption and so corruption has become more of an issue.
Bid Ocean tries to alert its members when evidence shows that a government agency is engaged in corrupt bidding practices and lobbies agencies with poor procurement policies. In some cases Bid Ocean is able to encourage better practices and in some cases our efforts are ignored. |
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| Q: My company is a Vendor. Can Bid Ocean help us? |
| A: Many members of the Bid Ocean Network are manufacturers or retailers and use our reports to identify relevant opportunities for direct purchases of their product or contracts which require a contractor to purchase their products. Each report also has a section where vendors can be listed and bidders can click to request a quote. |
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| Q: How does Bid Ocean compare to Other Services? |
| A: When comparing the total amount of data, ease of use and features, Bid Ocean has no competition. However, if you are comparing only bid leads for specific industries or products Bid Ocean has more data and better lead-time. When comparing price, Bid Ocean guarantees to beat any competing price for comparable service. Most importantly, Bid Ocean has projects not published by other services and many of these projects have a significantly greater profit potential. For a more indepth comparison click here. |
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| Q: What is the Bid Ocean Buyers Club? |
A: The Buyer's Club features more than 150,000 products from over 600 quality manufacturers at discounts of 25-50% off retail. It includes a wide range of tools, equipment and supplies used by businesses in a wide range of industries. In addtion, Bid Ocean will use the combined purchasing power of members of the Bid Ocean Network to obtain discounts on additional products that members request. |
Q: Will Bid Ocean Publish Opportunities from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009? |
| A: Absolutely. Bid Ocean has staff to specifically track all of the money to be spent as a result of the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009" (Recovery Act, Spending Bill, Stimulus Package). Much of the money will be spent in the form of grants and the opportunities will not be published through normal channels so a significant amount of research will be required to identify where the real opportunities are. |
