Bank of America

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Bank of America is the world's second largest U.S. financial institution and along with its various subsidiaries offers integrated corporate and investment banking and advisory services to clients worldwide.

Bank of America is a premier global financial services organization, providing tailored financial solutions to leading corporations, institutions and government agencies across the U.S. and around the world. Four business lines offer a range of banking services for global consumer and small businesses, global businesses and financial services, global capital markets and investment banking and global wealth and investment management.

Approximately 49% of Bank of America's (commercial bank division) revenue represents Government business. The company submits approximately 550 bids per year with the Proposal Management Team retaining and winning about 50% of larger clients. The Proposal Management Team focuses on opportunities that are $150,000 in value and above, with the client base concentrating on all types of government entities within the team's threshold.

Before Onvia, Bank of America relied exclusively on their sales team to generate new business opportunity leads. With such a large percentage of Bank of America's commercial bank revenue being tied to government sales, they needed a source to ensure their valuable sales time was spent more wisely, meeting with prospects and delivering high standards to their clients. Bank of America also needed a comprehensive way to tap into the government market.

In 2001, Bank of America was searching for a solution to their lost sales time and missed government business opportunities and they came across Onvia. The Onvia Guide appealed to them because it is the most comprehensive government business resource available, helping Bank of America to access, manage and optimize relevant government opportunities. The Onvia Guide delivers electronic notifications of bid notices, requests for proposals and contracting opportunities customized to specific industry categories and locations through unparalleled coverage of 73,000 federal, state and local purchasing entities. Glenna Thompson is the Vice President in the Global Government Treasury Management Division and Proposal Management Team Leader. The team of 10 people respond to state and local government RFPs for the entire nation. Currently, the group is focused on 29 states and the District of Columbia. Glenna says, "It [Onvia Guide] saves us a lot of time and it is a value added. Anytime you can save even just a few minutes gives us the opportunity to go after additional business."

In addition to the Onvia Guide, Bank of America wanted to know more in depth information on the business intelligence surrounding each opportunity. In October 2005, they signed up for Onvia Business Builder to help solve that business need. Onvia Business Builder gives Bank of America additional information surrounding each opportunity, including key information on government agencies, government buyers, government projects and companies that do business with the government. Glenna says, "It [Onvia Business Builder] gives us the ability to broaden our scope and look outside of our footprint. We have used it in that capacity to help us find out what's going on in the markets in which we don't have a local sales force and come up with some innovative ideas on how we can bank the State of Mississippi, for instance, even though we don't have a sales force or footprint there. It lets us know what's going on in those regions even though we're not there."

With the current implementation of the Onvia Guide with Onvia Business Builder, Bank of America saves valuable hours finding and qualifying new leads so they can better spend that time driving and closing new sales. The company uses Onvia services to help their sales teams proactively track and pursue all relevant government opportunities; the company is also able to make smarter decisions about how to approach the opportunities. Bank of America also receives personal attention from their account manager to ensure Onvia is helping her meet all their business needs. Glenna says, "Service is really important to us and I think that they [Account Managers] do a great job in servicing Bank of America and making us feel as though we're a very important client." If Bank of America has a question or needs assistance with their subscription, they can call their account manager year-round. The account managers also use client feedback to help Onvia's Product division in detecting new ways to add new features and develop new Onvia services. Glenna says, "I also like the idea that you're innovative thinkers and that you're constantly bringing to us new modules attached to the service that we're utilizing…you do survey your clients and determine what's important to us and what you can develop to meet that need."