PHA FINANCE, INC.
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PHA Finance, Inc. is a National CPA and management consulting firm that has over 25 years of vertical expertise in the housing and not-for-profit sectors. The company has over 25 employees who specialize in the accounting and financial aspects of the Low Income Public Housing Program,
Housing Choice Voucher Program, Capital Funds, Budgeting and Operating Subsidy, tax credits and market rate housing. Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) are one of PHA Finance’s biggest clients – in fact, 80% of their business is tied directly to government sales.
Prior to subscribing to Onvia, the firm spent time researching in-house for government sales leads, which “was very time consuming, and an
inefficient use of our staff time,” says Claire Russ, Manager of PHA Finance’s Marketing and Client Services Department. The company was searching
for Public Housing Authority (PHA) sales opportunities online and attempting to organize the information themselves, which could sometimes be an
arduous task. The process wasn’t the most effective use of PHA Finance’s time, and as a result, the firm decided to look into the services of a
government business intelligence company. Before their investigation, PHA Finance developed a list of requirements that the government business
intelligence service must fulfill. The list included:
1) Quick access to government leads and government-related RFPs
2) Reliable government sales data that is updated daily
3) Opportunity management capabilities
PHA Finance subscribed to Onvia Business Builder to access Onvia’s database of over 3.4 million procurement records. Onvia delivers daily government
leads that can be easily managed according to filtering preferences. Russ even uses Onvia to keep track of the competition. She relies on Onvia to
see which companies have been downloading bid packages and winning contracts, in addition to identifying pre-bid conference dates. Russ adds, “I also
like that Onvia identifies the buyers associated with the RFP. We use Onvia to obtain contact information; if we had to mine that data ourselves, it
would be frustrating.” In addition to gathering competitive data and information on agency contacts, Russ says, “Onvia captures opportunities from
each of the main housing authority sites that we were filtering, and it helps me organize our leads. I find this incredibly valuable.”
Lastly, PHA Finance is able to target the appropriate opportunities. “Onvia provides a one-stop location where we can find all the RFPs that my
company is looking for. I would say that 3 out of 4 opportunities that led to a closed sale could be linked back to Onvia,” says Russ.
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