Ah, the BidMatch System! One of the crown jewels of the Native PTAC! BidMatch is an automated system that searches new federal, state, and local government contracting opportunities on a daily basis and delivers matching opportunities to your e-mail inbox. The purpose of BidMatch is to help make the best use of your time. Instead of spending hours searching sites individually, BidMatch uses search criteria to pull opportunities together and delivers the link to your email daily. A benefit of becoming a Native PTAC client is that this service is offered to your company free of charge. Similar services from other locations may charge you anywhere from $90 to $1500. In order to keep you profile active, we simply ask our clients to respond to our yearly surveys.
BidMatch can help expand your customer base three different ways:
- A daily internet listing of contract opportunities that is customized to your business
- Names of potential customers who buy your products and services
- Subcontracting opportunities with primes on major contracts
Not everyone uses BidMatch the same way. We suggest you determine your goals in contracting prior to creating the search.
- If you are looking to increase your contracting in a specific area, focus your keywords to cover the industry or specific niche.
- Level of government is something to consider. We pull form Federal, state, local and tribal governments. This can include school districts, universities, small agencies and regional buying programs. Want to see the list yourself? Just ask. We can narrow to the areas you are interested in with some limitations.
- Location is another area to consider. BidMatch pulls from over 2200 sites GLOBALLY. If your company is tiny, you might not want to see what contracting opportunities are available in France or Maine. We cannot narrow your search to a specific radius, only to the state level.
- Is your best fit as a sub-contractor? Use Bid Match to find the primes and projects you wish to participate with and on. Also search for awards.
Oh my goodness! This sounds like the best thing ever! How do I get signed up?
It’s easy! Contact our office and we will get the process started. We begin by creating a detailed profile of your company, which may include the following information:
- Industry Keywords
- North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes
- Geographic Area
It may take a few tweaks to make sure the right opportunities are being found for you. It isn’t a perfect system. Important things to note.
- We pull from over 2200 sites, all with their own rules. Sometimes weird things happen. Here are some tips.We don’t pull from all sites out there. There are some sites that are not able to be included in the system for a variety of reasons. We can help you identify ones that are not included or see if it can be included.
- Site requires registration for details. This happens often with state and local sites. We are not registered for each of the sites as we are not vendors (just not appropriate) and cannot get more details then you without registration. If the details Bid Match provides seem like a good possibility – register. Make sure to keep track of the site, login in and password for future reference.
- Sites only takes you to the portal. If it is a public portal, search for the solicitation number. Government Printing Office (GPO) links are only active for a short period of time, but the solicitation can be found if you search for the solicitation number.
- If the link takes you somewhere that doesn’t work at all, please let us know asap.
- Often the respond by date on our list is incorrect because of the variance in sites, do not use it as a decision filter. If the solicitation listing looks good, visit the originating site to find out the details including correct respond by date.
- Track the data, we recommend setting up a spreadsheet or other method of collecting data. This is especially helpful if you are not planning on acting as the prime but need to track solicitations for awards.
- Timeliness of solicitations: some sites have a VERY short turn around; DIBBS, Fedbid, if these are your market or industry, then you should sign up directly with them. We can assist you with developing a search that mimics your Bid Match search.
- If you are not receiving appropriate matches, please let us know! You know if the solicitations are right for your business. Keep a list of keywords that bring you bad matches and let us know. We may have to “tweak” your keywords and adjust the search to get the best results. And there are some keywords that are simply problematic to use due to standardized language and need to use creative searching to find the right solicitations.
Contact our office at 206-816-6596. Our Procurement Specialist Extraordinaire, Marnie Tyson will be happy to work with you!
