In the world of construction, one of the most stressful and hectic times is when a project goes out to bid. On top of working on other projects, companies now have to worry about distributing their construction bid documents to interested contractors.
Take a look at the following questions and scenarios that demonstrate how outsourcing bid document distribution can save stress, time, and money for your company, as well as potential bidders.
“How many sets should we initially print?”
At the beginning of the distribution process, especially if the project is open to the public for bidding, there is no way to know for certain how many contractors will be interested. If the number of printed sets is overestimated, you have wasted money on printing those left over sets. If, on the other hand, bid distribution is outsourced to a print vendor, bid sets can be printed per order, which helps save you money.
“Our office is filled with contractors reviewing the plans.”
Many contractors want to look at what the project entails before they decide to purchase the bid documents and make a bid. If you are handling your own bid document distribution, this means that several contractors may be in your office at the same time or consistently throughout the day trying to review the documents.
If a print vendor manages your bid document distribution for you, contractors can review the documents conveniently online and at their home, office, or favorite coffee shop. Therefore, it saves you the stress of a crowded office and saves potential bidders time.
“A contractor is here to pick up the prints and we’re out of bid documents already!”
Once a project is advertised for bids, contractors will start to flood your office to pick up the documents. Unfortunately, not everyone will provide a courteous heads-up that they are coming to your office to retrieve the documents. If not enough sets were ordered initially, or the printed sets went more quickly than anticipated, now contractors have to wait longer and come back to your office once the new sets are available. Now you also have to scramble and figure out how many more sets to have printed. And what if this scenario happens again after placing the second order?
If a print vendor was handling your bid distribution, instead of instructing bidders to pick up bid documents from your office in your bid advertisement, you can direct them to the print house. That way contractors do not have to place orders with you or go to your office. Contractors will be able to place orders through the print vendor, who will notify them when the order is received, and when prints will be available for pick up or ship out.
“Did I add that company to the plan holders list?”
Throughout the day, you have multiple contractors picking up bid documents. Each time, you have to stop what you’re doing, record their contact information, and add it to your plan holder list, so that you have this information to notify all plan holders in the event of updates or addenda.
If you outsource your bid document distribution to a print vendor, you’ll never have to worry about this because, whenever a contractor places an order online, all their contact information must be provided before the order is placed. Their information is automatically added to a plan holders list and is available for you to review at any time.
“I don’t have time to issue this addendum.”
When addenda need to be issued, documents need to be sent to all current plan holders as soon as possible. If you are handling your own distribution, you either need the documents printed and sent to all the plan holders, or you email the addendum to them.
Since the vendor already has the most up to date plan holder’s list with emails, they can send an email blast with the addendum documents in a matter of minutes. If plan holders request hard copies, the vendor can also print per request.
So, using a plan vendor to handle the logistics of bid document distribution will not only save you time and money, but eliminate stress that could pull your focus from more important tasks.
Let Avalon prove it! Contact Avalon today and ask about our Planroom services and how to get started on outsourcing your next bid document distribution.
