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Appia® | Bid Express® integration

In this article:

With the Bid Express® integration, users who license both the Appia and Bid Express services can seamlessly move data between project phases with one login.

The integration lets you:

  • Build your item list in Appia and send it to Bid Express for an instant item list component in your draft solicitation
  • Receive bids in Bid Express and send them to Appia to analyze, award, and create an instant bid item list for your project

Click to expand the following sections and learn more.

Overview

Who can use this integration

Agency users licensed for both services can use the integration to build and share item lists, advertise solicitations, analyze bids, and then quickly hand off the awarded contract for administration and inspection -- all within the digital environment between Appia and Bid Express.

To use this integration, you must:

  • Be licensed for both the Appia and Bid Express services
  • Have a System Admin or Sr. Project Manager role in Appia (able to create/work on new projects)
  • Have an agency account in Bid Express (able to advertise solicitations and open bids)

Not sure if you currently license both services? Connect with us to schedule a demo.

Recommended workflow

The following workflow outlines the recommended use of the integration. We'll go into more detail about how to perform each step in the sections that follow.

1. In Appia

  1. Create a new project and select I'm going to import bids for analysis and award
  2. Create your project item list from reference data or by import
  3. Send your item list to Bid Express

2. In Bid Express

  1. Create a new solicitation
  2. Add the Item List component
  3. Select Import from Appia
  4. Mark items as alternate, optional, or fixed as needed
    • Note: modifying the item list may affect bid analysis in Appia. See Errors and fixes for more information.
  5. Advertise the solicitation
  6. Open bids
  7. Send bids to Appia for analysis

3. In Appia

  1. Import bids from Bid Express
  2. Award bid
  3. Advance project to construction
Enable the integration

The integrated workflow between Appia and Bid Express happens at the project level. You will need to take this step when creating your Appia project if you want to connect it to a Bid Express solicitation.

To allow this integration to work:

  1. From the Appia My Projects page, click Create Project.
  2. Enter project details.
  3. Select I'm going to import bids for analysis and award.

appia-select-analyze.png

With this setting on, you can send item lists to Bid Express and use them when building your solicitation.

Item list | Export from Appia

The following section details how to perform each step of the recommended workflow for creating and sending your project items to Bid Express.

Create and share project item list

Next, you'll create your project item list to share with Bid Express.

Good to know | Item sections

  • If your item list is broken into sections, Bid Express will import each section as its own item list component.
  • Bid Express won't allow duplicate section titles. If you get this error message, you need to return to Appia, rename each item section, and resend the item list to Bid Express.
    • To rename an item section in Appia, go to the item section, then go to Actions > Edit and enter a new description.
  1. In Appia, select the project you want to connect to Bid Express.
  2. Select the Bid Items tab.
  3. Add project items from reference data or via CSV import.
  4. When your item list is ready, expand the Actions menu and select Send to Bid Express.
  5. From the confirmation window, click Send.
    • Note: If you have previously sent an item list from this project, you'll see a warning here that the new item list will overwrite the existing one.

appia-send-items.png

Item list | Import to Bid Express

Once the item list has been sent from Appia, it can be imported to your draft solicitation in Bid Express.

Import item list

You can import any item list that's been sent from Appia to any draft solicitation in Bid Express.

  1. In Bid Express, create or open a draft solicitation.
  2. Add the Item list component or navigate to the component if it already exists.
  3. Click More to expand the actions menu.
  4. Click Import from Appia. A window will appear displaying all of the item lists sent from Appia.
  5. Select the item list you want to include in this solicitation.
  6. Click Import. The items will now be included in your draft solicitation.

be-import-items.png

Good to know

  • If your item list has multiple sections using the default name from Appia, you'll get an error message in Bid Express. Return to Appia and rename each item section, then resend the item list to Bid Express.
  • You can mark items as alternate, optional, or fixed, and enter a unit price. However, doing so is not recommended if you plan to import your bids back into Appia. See Errors and fixes for more information.

Bids | Export from Bid Express

Bids are ready to send to Appia as soon as the deadline has passed and the bids are opened.

Export bids from Bid Express

Good to know

The integration will only send open and responsive bids to Appia. You can mark a non-responsive bid as responsive by clicking on the bid's flag in the Status column of the Bids panel.

  1. From the closed solicitation, click Fetch bids.
  2. In the Bids panel, click each bid to open them individually or click Open All to open every bid at once.
  3. Click More to expand the actions menu, than click Export to Appia.
  4. A confirmation window will appear. Click Send.

be-send-bids.png

Bids | Import to Appia

Import all open and responsive bids from your Bid Express solicitation into your Appia project for analysis and award.

Import bids to Appia

Good to know

Appia will only import open and responsive bids. If you are missing any bids when you import a solicitation into Appia, return to Bid Express and mark any non-responsive bids as responsive by clicking their Status flag.

To import bids from a closed solicitation:

  1. Open your project in Appia.
  2. Select the Bid Items tab.
  3. Select the Bids sub-tab, then click Import to expand the import options.
  4. Click Import from Bid Express. A new window will appear, displaying all of the Bid Express solicitations you've exported into Appia.
  5. Select the solicitation whose bids you want to import. Click Import.

After processing, each bid is displayed with its bid total, low bid information, and the option to award it. Two new sub-tabs also become available, Tabulations and Analyze.

Learn more about analyzing and awarding bids in Appia.

appia-import-bids.png