Pedernales Electric Cooperative Achieves 150% Increase in RFPs with Bonfire Strategic Sourcing Software

The largest electrical cooperative in the United States adopted online bidding software to streamline their processes and improve internal customer service

KITCHENER, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bonfire Interactive Ltd. (“Bonfire”), a business unit of GTY Technology Holdings Inc. and a leader in strategic sourcing and procurement software, today announced that Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) has reported a 150% increase in RFPs since adopting Bonfire Strategic Sourcing Software to digitally streamline procurement processes and provide better service for their internal clients and vendors.

PEC is the largest electrical cooperative in the United States, servicing more than 346,000 active accounts across 8,100 square miles of service area in Central Texas. PEC’s paper and email processes, which were often circumvented by some departments because of their lack of efficiency and transparency, did not align with their goal to provide better service and strategic advice to their internal clients.

“PEC wanted to do more than simply standardize their procurement operations,” said Omar Salaymeh, Chief Client and Product Officer at Bonfire. “To provide next-level support to the rest of their organization, PEC’s procurement team needed a solution that would get quick and best-value results for their internal clients, without taking up too much of their time.”

After adopting Bonfire in March 2020, the PEC procurement department was able to transition from in-person to fully-remote work within days. One year after implementing Bonfire’s online bidding software, PEC not only saw 150% growth in the number of RFPs they’ve been able to run, but also saw immediate process improvements. For instance, when PEC needed to award a contract before energy prices changed, their procurement team was able to send out confidential files to all approved vendors with Bonfire’s Q&A feature. Those efficiencies enabled the contract to be awarded by 10:00pm the same day.

“PEC’s procurement processes were seen by the rest of the organization as burdened by red tape,” said Salaymeh. “Bonfire introduced enhanced operational efficiency, improved visibility into the procurement pipeline, and a less demanding scoring process for evaluators. In my experience, organizations that are able to achieve similar levels of process improvements as PEC generate cost savings in the neighborhood of $225,000 per year.”

Read the full story on how PEC’s procurement digital transformation led to better service for their internal clients and vendors here.

About Bonfire Interactive Inc.
Bonfire Interactive Inc. (“Bonfire”) is a business unit of GTY Technology Holdings Inc. and a leader in strategic sourcing and procurement software. Bonfire brings procurement online, ensuring 100% compliance, reducing cycle times, and improving transparency. Through the power of tools optimized for collaboration and in-app access to RFP insights and templates (surfaced from Bonfire’s library of 40,000+ projects), Bonfire unlocks procurement’s potential to drive greater agency impact, achieve better outcomes, and engage colleagues along the way. Bonfire’s proven history of customer-driven innovation is trusted by hundreds of public procurement teams across North America.

About GTY Technology Holdings Inc.

GTY Technology Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: GTYH) (“GTY”)) brings leading government technology companies together to achieve a new standard in citizen engagement and resource management. Through its six business units, GTY offers an intuitive cloud-based suite of solutions for state and local governments spanning functions in procurement, payments, grant management, budgeting, and permitting: Bonfire provides strategic sourcing and procurement software to enable confident and compliant spend; CityBase provides government payment solutions to connect constituents with utilities and government agencies; eCivis offers a grant management system to maximize grant revenues and track performance; Open Counter provides government payment software to guide applicants through complex permitting and licensing procedures; Questica offers budget preparation and management software to deliver on financial and non-financial strategic objectives; Sherpa provides public sector budgeting software and consulting services.