{"id":9891,"date":"2025-09-12T13:59:56","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T17:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/?p=9891"},"modified":"2025-09-12T15:43:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T19:43:44","slug":"rockford-airport-authority-replaces-chaos-with-control-and-sees-366-roi-with-sovra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/fr\/success-story\/rockford-airport-authority-replaces-chaos-with-control-and-sees-366-roi-with-sovra\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockford Airport Authority Replaces Chaos with Control and Sees 366% ROI with SOVRA"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Located in Northern Illinois, the Greater Rockford Airport Authority oversees one of the fastest-growing cargo airports in the United States. With millions in annual federal and state funding and a critical role in regional infrastructure, the Authority manages complex procurement needs with high compliance stakes.<\/p>

Challenge:<\/span> Everyone Was Doing Procurement\u2026 Differently<\/strong><\/h2>

Before SOVRA, procurement at the Greater Rockford Airport Authority was decentralized and disjointed. \u201cEverybody was doing procurement, and of course, everybody did it in a different way,\u201d said Chip Geiger, Procurement Officer, who brought 47 years of supply chain management experience into his new role at the Airport Authority. \u201cIt depended on Word documents, spreadsheets, manual vendor lists, and people\u2019s memory.\u201d Without a centralized system, transparency was difficult, DBE tracking was non-existent, and contract expirations often went unnoticed.<\/p>

Solution:<\/span> Structure, Scale, and Simplicity in One Platform\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>

Geiger started small, utilizing SOVRA\u2019s basic bid features, and quickly realized the value of a centralized system with an auditable vendor history, automated addendums, and searchable supplier data. \u201cI got rid of the manual Excel vendor lists and trying to figure out who can do what,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, addendums don\u2019t have to go out manually. It saved me a tremendous amount of time.\u201d<\/p>

From there, the Airport Authority added contract management<\/a> functionality and gradually built out its use of advanced sourcing features on the platform, including DBE tracking and vendor registration support. The entire operation now runs on a single, connected database. \u201cYou post something once and refer to it when you need it. SOVRA\u2019s been able to do that for me.\u201d<\/p>

Results:<\/span> Tangible ROI, Stronger Oversight, Better Access\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>
  • 366.93% Average ROI Over Five Years<\/strong>
    With Chip\u2019s leadership and guidance, the Rockford Airport Authority has achieved, on average, a 366.93% return on investment (ROI) from procurement operations over the past 5 years. \u201cAny purchasing department should be at least 100%. I\u2019ve been upwards of 700%. That just gives them an idea of what we can do.\u201d<\/li>
  • 55+ Vendors Notified Per Bid<\/strong>
    Using SOVRA\u2019s digital posting and supplier engagement tools, Rockford Airport notifies over 55 vendors per opportunity, dramatically expanding reach and visibility.

    \u201cBefore this, our procurement info wasn\u2019t even on our website. Now, I tell people, just go to flyrfd.com and you\u2019ll see everything we do.\u201d<\/li>
  • 15+ DBE Metrics Tracked<\/strong>
    Geiger built a transparent and auditable DBE program from the ground up, going beyond federal requirements to track:
    \u2022 Who receives and downloads the bid
    \u2022 Which DBEs submit
    \u2022 Who wins
    \u2022 Year-over-year participation rates

    \u201cAnybody can say they have a DBE program. I can show you a list of 15 metrics that I\u2019m tracking.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>

    Favorite Features:<\/span> Automation, Audit Trails, and Supplier Education\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>
    • Bid Distribution & Addendum Tracking<\/strong>
      With manual processes, tracking which version of a solicitation each person had was nearly impossible. Now, the system automatically logs views, downloads, and communications. \u201cJust the tracking of who’s got my bids, who’s submitting a bid, where my addendums are going, it helps tremendously.\u201d<\/li>
    • Supplier Education and Access<\/strong>
      Geiger proactively educates vendors about the platform and even created step-by-step registration guides. This hands-on support has helped remove barriers for smaller or less tech-savvy vendors. \u201cI tell them, if you have a Facebook account and email, then you can do online bids. It\u2019s an education process, and I help them get there.\u201d<\/li>
    • Contract Management Visibility<\/strong>
      The days of contracts expiring unnoticed are over. SOVRA\u2019s contract tools ensure documentation is accessible and deadlines don\u2019t fall through the cracks. \u201cNow I make sure it gets in the hands of those managers so that they at least know that the contract was out there.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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      \u201cJust the tracking of who’s got my bids, who’s submitting a bid, where my addendums are going, it helps tremendously.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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      Chip Geiger<\/strong>, Procurement Officer, Chicago Rockford International Airport<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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      Implementation:<\/span> Strong Buy-In, Stronger Results<\/strong><\/h2>

      Through Chip\u2019s leadership, communication, and strategic vision, he gained full support from his executive team to drive the procurement transformation. In return, the executive team not only learned more about how procurement operates, but now receives annual KPI reports that are aligned with their strategic goals, such as transparency and community engagement. \u201cI presented to our executive board and showed them how we handle bids, how we ensure transparency. We\u2019ve got nothing to hide, and now we\u2019ve got the data to prove it.\u201d<\/p>

      Advice to Other Public Procurement Teams<\/strong><\/h2>

      \u201cThe first thing you have to understand is what you want to accomplish. Don\u2019t use the software to duplicate your current manual process. Think about what makes the most sense, efficiency-wise. It\u2019s completely different\u2014but so much more effective.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Located in Northern Illinois, the Greater Rockford Airport Authority oversees one of the fastest-growing cargo airports in the United States. With millions in annual federal and state funding and a critical role in regional infrastructure, the Authority manages complex procurement needs with high compliance stakes. Challenge: Everyone Was Doing Procurement\u2026 Differently Before SOVRA, procurement at the Greater Rockford Airport Authority was decentralized and disjointed. \u201cEverybody was doing procurement, and of course, everybody did it in a different way,\u201d said Chip Geiger, Procurement Officer, who brought 47 years of supply chain management experience into his new role at the Airport Authority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"positioning":[58],"class_list":["post-9891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-story","positioning-public-sector"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9891"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=9891"},{"taxonomy":"positioning","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sovra.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/positioning?post=9891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}