City of Brentwood Implements Digital Processes for Signatures and Procurement

The City of Brentwood is currently transitioning from a paper and in-person bidding process to an online electronic solicitation and vendor registration system, hosted by ProcureNow. The City believes that the implementation of this software and this process will enhance the City’s ability to receive the most responsive and competitive bidders for its solicitations.

ProcureNow’s Chief Customer Officer Thao Hill said, “The City of Brentwood is leading the way to be among the first Tennessee cities to make it easier for local companies to read, understand, and respond to business opportunities electronically, while minimizing the reliance on unpredictable mail and expensive paper bids. ProcureNow is proud to partner with Brentwood in this effort to leverage technology to make the City more accessible to its citizens and its businesses.” Brentwood City Manager Kirk Bednar said, “several times within the past couple of years, the City has been notified by vendors who said they would have submitted a bid had the City been capable of accepting electronic submittals, and not the cost prohibitive and time consuming hard copies.”

The City of Brentwood’s new e-Procurement Portal will allow interested parties to do the following:

• Register to receive notifications of future opportunities by signing up for our new e-Procurement Portal and selecting Subscribe to create an account. Registration is free for all vendors.
• Follow along with updates to existing solicitations by finding the solicitation and clicking the Follow button. This will allow all interested parties to receive amendments and addenda automatically.
• Submit questions and receive answers for open solicitations.
• Guide vendors through the process of responding electronically to RFPs, bids, etc. to ensure bids have been accurately completed.
• Ultimately, be the one location for all bid opportunities issued by the City of Brentwood.
• To register for City notifications of bid opportunities, please register with ProcureNow.
• They will receive an email to activate their account, and then subscribe to City bids by navigating here and clicking the subscribe button.

In addition, the City of Brentwood decided to implement an electronic business system that provides for the sending and receiving of electronic records that contain electronic signatures and/or authorizations. Bottom line, this will mean faster processing of contracts and other documents for departments and vendors. Staff will no longer have to print multiple copies of contracts and distribute throughout the City. This will save staff time preparing physical documents, envelopes, scheduling pickup and drop off times of physical documents, as well as the actual postage cost and paper. Brentwood City Finance Director Karen Harper, who oversees the City’s purchasing program, said, “when everything shut down at the beginning of COVID, we realized that signing paper the old-fashioned way wouldn’t work with employees and businesses no longer doing business in person. This is a system we have hoped to implement for a while and COVID helped us speed up the process.”