Some of the first steps toward two-way solicitation and bid services on the Internet are beginning to emerge. Washington's accepted an electronic bid came from a recycling firm in King County, home of Seattle. The pilot project tested the capabilities of Internet access and digital signature technology. Plans are under way to test several more such transactions and to find out what the requirements are for both suppliers and the state before opening the service up to general use. This fall, Indiana issued an RFP to build a bid-response system for its procurement Web site.
Plans are to allow vendors to submit bids as encrypted documents.
The aim is to cut the tremendous paperwork and delivery cost associated with bids. Instead of cutting purchase orders and getting paper invoices, you are just presenting plastic, which makes an electronic record and consolidates the billing process. State and local governments are adopting credit cards for a number of reasons. First and foremost, they are aimed at cutting the paperwork for petty-cash purchases. The paperwork on these purchases can be mindboggling and costly.