AC Transit

AC Transit is the largest public bus-only system in California and the third largest in the US. Based in Oakland, the agency serves approximately 1.5 million residents across Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Operating more than 600 buses, AC Transit’s mission to deliver safe, reliable, and sustainability transit services that meet the needs of customers and communities is rooted in their support for small businesses and their fierce commitment to environmental sustainability, equity, and innovation.

Aligning procurement with mission and regulatory compliance
While AC Transit’s mission is front and center, powering their overall business strategy, it also aligns directly with their procurement efforts—driving purchasing compliance, process efficiencies, and data-informed business buying.

Like many transportation and government agencies, AC Transit is subject to Federal and State purchasing regulations. For example, to ensure small and disadvantaged business have opportunities to participate in government contracting, government agencies are required to support Small Business Enterprises (SBE) and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE). To help AC Transit prioritize spend with SBEs and DBEs while implementing purchasing approval workflows to meet their needs, the agency sought a procurement solution that would offer flexibility and administrative simplicity while aligning with their strategic procurement goals.

“Because of the diverse range of suppliers on Amazon Business and the guardrails we've created through Guided Buying we’re able to implement around what our buyers can purchase, we easily satisfy our regulatory requirements,” said Chellate Young, Senior Management Analyst with AC Transit.

Using Amazon Business, the agency implemented socioeconomic filters that prioritized SBEs and DBEs, as well as suppliers that have sustainability certifications and local vendors. These filters ensure that every purchase made prioritizes socially responsible purchasing practices.

“With other suppliers, our buyers had to manually filter products, which created inefficiencies and compliance risks,” said Young. “With Amazon Business, we’ve set filters so that search results prioritize SBEs, DBEs, and more sustainable products. It really relived us of the constant auditing to ensure compliance. Our Amazon DBE utilization is at 41%, far surpassing the district’s target.”

Optimizing approval workflows
With a need for multi-level approvals and delegation capabilities, AC Transit wanted flexible workflows that helped them avoid bottlenecks while improving spend transparency and ensuring policy compliance. Like many government agencies, they previously gathered approvals on paper, requiring approver signatures. But by implementing Approvals through Amazon Business, AC Transit not only automated these manual approvals and eliminated the need for paper-based approvals, their approvers can now delegate authority during holidays or vacations, ensuring uninterrupted processing of purchases. And AC Transit’s administrators were able to specify at group or account level and create intelligent approval workflows that made it easier for their buyers and their approvers. By automating these workflows, the team’s purchasing activity is no longer dependent on an approver being physically present to sign paperwork, it all happens with the click of a link in an approval email and can be done remotely and by mobile device—reducing approval timelines from weeks to hours.

Driving compliance and insights with easy-to-understand analytics
Beyond daily operations, Amazon Business Analytics has played a critical role in providing actionable insights. With just a few clicks, AC Transit is able to generate reports that break down their spend by buyer, department, category, and vendor. This data has proved crucial for finance reporting and responding to audits. The team even tracked the location of vendors, using zip code data, to confirm compliance with local sourcing mandates.

“Amazon Business’ reporting tools make compliance and visibility so much easier,” Young explained.

Easier reconciliation with Pay by Invoice
Given AC Transit’s unique procurement and payment policies, the agency currently leverages Pay by Invoice as their exclusive payment method with Amazon Business. Pay by Invoice provides eligible customers with net payment terms and easy invoice management for streamlined reconciliation.

When AC Transit made the strategic choice to use Amazon Business, they evaluated payment alternatives including their P-card program, Amazon Business Pay by Invoice, or a combination of both. AC Transit settled exclusively on Pay by Invoice, which is available to eligible Amazon Business customers and provides net payment terms and easy invoice management for streamlined reconciliation. By consolidating their Amazon Business spend on Pay by Invoice, they eliminated the need to juggle yet another third platform for reconciliation - it’s all done within the tools provided by Amazon Business. By leveraging centralized Amazon Business work streams, AC Transit ensures that their purchases adhere to their established guidelines and policies, saving time to reconcile orders and allocate costs to the correct departments because they don’t have to jump between multiple systems. To further streamline reconciliation, the agency pairs Pay by Invoice with 3-Way Match, which helps accounts payable confirm delivery of goods before payment approval to ensure billing accuracy.

By combining Amazon Business solutions like Approval workflows, Amazon Business Analytics, Pay by Invoice, and 3-Way Match, AC Transit has saved significant time across their entire procurement process—from purchase to approval to auditing and reconciliation.

“Amazon Business helped us eliminate inefficiencies and ensure compliance—not just with ease but with agility,” said Young.

A proven procurement playbook for public agencies
AC Transit’s success with Amazon Business highlights how public sector organizations can benefit from a purchasing experience designed to simplify procurement while meeting their unique compliance and operational needs. From setting socioeconomic filters and leveraging robust analytics to using innovative payment methods and guiding purchasing decisions, AC Transit’s use of Amazon Business solutions helps them align procurement with their mission of serving their community responsibly and efficiently. As a result, the agency estimates that end-to-end purchasing is 90% faster with Amazon Business than before.