Case Study: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California achieves stronger small business participation and procurement efficiency with PlanetBids

How MWD Overcame Small Business Participation Challenges

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) faced challenges in managing its robust Small and Disadvantaged Business outreach and certification program, which processes 1,000 supplier certifications annually. With a $250M construction spend, MWD needed an efficient way to encourage participation from small and disabled veteran-owned businesses and to track their involvement in projects. They turned to PlanetBids for a solution.

PlanetBids provided a comprehensive eProcurement system for MWD. The solution's vendor and bid management modules streamlined the certification process, provided greater outreach, and made it easier for suppliers to accept contract terms. This resulted in a centralized database of 20,000 vendors and over 4,000 certified firms, making mandatory small business participation goals more attainable. PlanetBids also allowed MWD to automate bids and RFPs, increasing departmental efficiency and enabling the team to manage procurement virtually from start to finish.

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

John Poli

Procurement Team Manager