In 2002 Barry Payne founded Adirondack Technologies Furniture Inc., and like many small start-ups, was a one person company working from the basement of his home. After hearing about MERX from acquaintances, Barry decided that MERX would be his first source in locating contract opportunities.
Not knowing where to begin, and with little experience in selling to the public sector, Barry began searching for contract opportunities every day on MERX.
Reviewing tender after tender and assessing what products and services he could provide to the public sector proved to be both informative and rewarding. Informative in the sense of getting to know the buyers' needs and understanding the market and what his competitors were doing, and rewarding when Adirondack Furniture Technologies Inc. landed their first contract with Public Works and Government Services (PWGSC) in its first year of operation.
Building the Business
On September 3rd, 2002, after weeks of relentlessly getting up every day searching for opportunities on MERX, Adirondack Technologies Furniture Inc. was awarded it’s first ever contract worth $1 million with the Federal Government to supply office furniture systems to PWGSC in Gatineau.
“We didn’t think we were going to win it. After researching previously awarded contracts on MERX for office furniture, I knew that our pricing was on the dollar and that we had a quality offering. However, the chance of winning a contract of this size was not in our favour. We were such a small company at that time.” states Barry Payne.
“MERX is a transparent method by which all suppliers become equal. This worked to our benefit. As long as you can supply the product/service, at a fair price and good quality, it’s anyone’s guess as to who will win the contract. It is our experience that most of the tenders on MERX are open to companies who want to supply public sector organizations in Canada.” adds Barry.
“Our success to date is highly dependant on the MERX service. Not only do we use it as a tool to access contract opportunities, we also use MERX to see what our competition is doing and to research industry trends. MERX is our “e-bay” for contract opportunities”
Adirondack Technologies Furniture Inc. Top 3 Uses and Tips of MERX
Barry Payne outlines his top 3 uses of MERX and the top 3 tips he would give to other businesses
Top 3 Uses to Give to Other Businesses
- Access contract opportunities with the online e-tendering service
- Review awarded contracts won by competitors to find competitors' pricing that will help in future contract bids
- Use MERX as a tool to research potential markets (spending trends, service/commodity trends etc. by public agencies), that will further expand business
Top 3 Tips to Give to Other Businesses
- Know the buyer and how they tender opportunities
- Know your competitors' mark-up and position tender bids competitively
- Continually develop your business to meet market needs and requirements
With MERX as its sales and marketing organization, Adirondack Technologies Furniture Inc. will continue to look into the past for new opportunities in the future, and with this initiative, continue to establish itself as a key provider of goods and services to public purchasing agencies in Canada.
Since its first contract award in 2002, Adirondack Technologies Furniture Inc. has won numerous contracts with both federal and provincial governments and the company has moved from Barry’s basement into a 30,000 sq. ft. building selling over $10 million worth of goods and services to public buying agencies.
Past history is important to Adirondack, but the future will also see the company use MERX extensively to continue to grow its public sector business.
Adirondack Technologies Furniture Inc.
Head Office
Peterborough, ON
MERX provides Opportunity Matching service
Upcoming Service Modifications
The MERX Opportunity Matching service allows registered users of the MERX Public Tenders service to set up and maintain a search profile that will automatically find notices posted by the Government of Canada, provincial governments, and Municipal, Academic, School and Health (MASH) organizations that match the types of goods and services that the supplier provides. With the upcoming service change, the Opportunity Matching Service will provide Basic subscribers with only Government of Canada Opportunities to Basic subscribers. Subscribers to the Complete subscription package will continue to receive matches found from all Public sector opportunities.
What is the Opportunity Matching Service?
The Opportunity Matching Service gives subscribers the ability to create custom profile(s) that can be saved. The Opportunity Matching Service allows registered users to perform searches for the types of opportunities relevant to your area of business. Depending on the method of delivery specified in your profile(s), Opportunity Matching notices will automatically be sent to you each weekday at no charge by email, fax, or online.
How Can the Opportunity Matching Service Benefit My Business?
The Opportunity Matching service is an extremely valuable service that easily and automatically identifies opportunities that may be of interest to your business. As a subscriber to the MERX Public Tenders Service, you can create one profile at no cost. As a value added service, you can create up to nine Opportunity Matching profiles, which will allow you to separate the different services your business may offer.
THE OPPORTUNITY
MATCHING SERVICE |
Basic Subscription
|
Complete Subscription
$16.95/month |
Automatic Delivery of all Federal Opportunities posted on MERX that match user profile |
|
|
Automatic Delivery of all Public Sector Opportunities posted on MERX that match user profile |
|
|
Opportunity Matching Profiles |
First Profile |
$0 |
$0 |
Up to 3 Profiles |
$1.95/Month |
$1.95/Month |
4 to 9 Profiles |
$2.95/Month |
$2.95/Month |
|