14 Trimble Transportation Bid Don’t Bet Leaning on Technology for Bid Management 14 Trimble Transportation While you can take many different approaches and focus on different aspects during bid season, a holistic approach to analyzing the market is perhaps the best way for your organization to get the most out of the process. The problem, however, is that this holistic approach requires considerable manpower, a good bit of math and a wide-angle lens to see the big picture. Technology is perhaps the easiest way to overcome these barriers. The chief benefit of using technology for bid management is that it provides you with a tremendous amount of power - by automating some of these processes, you eliminate the strain and man- hours required to create a database of contracts, lane files and rates (the very database that will give you a better view of your own network). To be useful, bid management technology must be able to store and index master agreement and addendums, and be able to convert all the scattered lane file formats, so that you can see your network as an actual network, rather than a mish-mash of incongruent data. Furthermore, this technology needs to incorporate the old data with the new - your current contracts must be relatable to historical data, so that you have access to that predictive value. This type of software must also be powerful enough to keep up with multiple rounds of pricing. If it can keep up with all phases of a bid, the bid management technology is able to help you identify and analyze your awarded lanes and volumes and whether or not to publish rates for each lane. Ultimately, the power to achieve this level of organization and insight should result in a solid pricing platform that does the time-consuming work for you. A well-executed bid management software solution will do a lot of the hard work on your behalf. By improving the process for you, the bidder, technology enables you to participate in more bids, so that you can evaluate more opportunities for your network. It helps you store and organize all of your historical bid data in an easy-to-use format, so that you have a relevant and accessible bid reference resource for years to come. Most importantly, leaning on technology gives you the insight and market intelligence to bid with confidence. Bid Don’t Bet