MMP Limited carries its years of experience in providing legal land surveys into the utility locating field, including the sewer and watermain industry. Combining the latest radiodetection technology with top of the line survey equipment you can have confidence that the best tools are in the right hands. Serving Greater Toronto, Hamilton/Burlington, Southern and Central Ontario mmplocators.ca | 905-639-1375 | halton@mmplimited.com Managing the success of your construction business can be challenging in today’s evolving marketplace. When you partner with Aviva for your surety needs, you can count on us to provide you with: • Expert advice and consultation for your specific project • Our commitment to help you meet your business goals • A stable partnership focused on the long-term With more than 100 years of expertise behind us, you can trust Aviva as your valued business partner. Contact your broker to learn more. A partner you can trust Aviva and the Aviva logo are trademarks used under license by the licensor. avivacanada.com Insurance – Home | Auto | Leisure & Lifestyle | Business | Surety UNDERGROUNDER Winter 2017 23 E-tendering could also change the process of evaluating bids into a straight numbers game at the expense of industry experi- ence, Bellissimo believes. “Say there’s a watermain project out for tender. Is it on an arte- rial road or a residential road? Sandy wet material or rock? Are there a lot of utilities present, or few? PVC pipe or high-density polyethylene? Is the pipe six- inch, is it 12-inch? Is the work going to be done in October or in May, December or July? A lot of components could affect the pricing. It’s easy to give this information to someone who doesn’t really understand the composition of these numbers. They can mismanage this information.” For DiPede, the biggest issue is bid bonding. It’s a common process, but with an electronic tender, the legal stamp from a bonding agent that would normally appear on a paper document has to be rendered in a digital form that is secure and verifiable. Fortunately for the contractor, it’s a one-time chore. “The biggest hurdle at the start was dealing with the company you have to go through that gives you a digital format of that bonding agent’s stamp and bonding form,” DiPede says. “The first one took some time. Not a lot of time, but it was a new thing for us.” The owners will be the ones who push e-tendering into the industry, and it’s starting to happen. Contractors should get ready now if they don’t want to miss out on lucrative opportunities. “We need to understand as contractors that life changes and progresses,” DiPede says. “It’s going to be beneficial to us and it’s going to become main- stream very soon, so you might as well jump on board and learn now as opposed to being behind the curve.” INDUSTRY INNOVATION