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Process Group/Policy Details
Subject: General Policy & Procedures
Process Group: Procurement
Title of Policy: Policies and Procedures Procurement Solicitations
Effective Date: 07/01/2014
Approved/Revision Date: 07/01/2014
Approved by: State Controller
Solicitation – Key Terminology
Key Terms/Codes
VSS - Vendor Self Service - Portal that Vendors will access for State Business Opportunities
PRCUID - Procurement Management - Dept Buyer Queue to manage procurement process - Requisition to Award
DQ1 - Documented Quote - Solicitations for goods/services less than $150,000
IFB1 - Invitation for Bids - Solicitations for goods/services greater than $150,000
RFI - Request for Information - Request for information that does not result in an Award
RFP - Request for Proposal - Solicitations for goods/services greater than $150,000
NPSS1 - Notice of Proposed Sole Source - Notification to vendor community of a proposed Sole Source
RFQ - Request for Quotes - Request quotes from Vendor Lists
NCS1 - Notice of Contractor Settlement - Notification of Construction Project completion
RFQ1 - Request for Qualifications - Solicitations for construction vendors to evaluate
BAFO - Best and Final Offer - Used to solicit best and final pricing during final vendor selection
SR - Solicitation Response - Entry of vendor responses to solicitations
EV - Evaluation - Used to gather and evaluate solicitation responses
Procurement Management
Procurement Management in CORE:
Is used to manage the procurement transaction lifecycle and requires commodity code analysis by Department Procurement Buyers to ensure commodity code based procurement requisition approvals are achieved.
Procurement requisitions are automatically assigned to Department Procurement Management (aka Dept Buyer Teams) via CORE Department Codes or to OIT Procurement Management (aka OIT Buyer Team) based on IT Commodity code.
REMEMBER: Use “Update Procurement” to change from “Dept Buyer Team” to the actual Buyer, after assignment. The actual Buyer name will appear appropriately on the subsequent Solicitation and Award.
When processing Sole Source RQS transactions, an attached Sole Source Justification should accompany the RQS.
Waiver Approvals are required to be attached to the RQS transaction, prior to submission (e.g. Personal Services, Training, IDS Printing, Furniture, and Real Estate).
Proprietary/confidential documents should not be attached to any Solicitation related transaction in CORE (e.g. DQ1, RFP, SR, EV, etc.).
General Policy & Procedure
Solicitations in CORE:
Solicitations require a preceding Procurement Requisition
Exceptions: All RFI transactions, NCS1 transactions, and solicitations for IHE, State Purchasing Office, and CDOT.
Solicitations will be auto-numbered.
Solicitation Category:
Not a system required field – it is required by Policy as it will provide vendors with a filtering mechanism in VSS.
Terms & Conditions:
Standard Templates will be available or can be added to the Solicitation via attachments.
Attachments:
Proprietary/confidential documents should not be attached to any Solicitation related transaction in CORE (e.g. DQ1, RFP, SR, EV, etc.)
Attach at Header of transaction.
Freight costs will be included the line item costs on Solicitations and Solicitation Responses.
Commodity Line description will NOT appear in VSS – use Extended Description on the Commodity Line to display specific information about the good/service on the Commodity Line.
Commodity Codes:
Each Commodity Line can have only 1 commodity code.
Use 5 digit commodity codes on Award transactions (Inventory will use 11 digit).
Service Commodity Codes start with the number 9 and must be used in conjunction with Line Type of Service.
Goods Commodity Codes do not start with number 9 and must be used in conjunction with Line Type of Item.
REMEMBER to flag Active when searching for Commodity Codes.
3 Way Matching will be driven by Goods related Commodity Codes.
Award, Invoice, & Receiver
2 Way Matching will be driven by Services related Commodity Codes.
Award & Invoice
Additional Information:
Indicate if Attachments are included in the Solicitation.
Transaction Solicitation modification and cancellation rationale.
Transaction Description:
Can be used to indicate Cabinet/Department specific information.
Notice of Intent to Award & Notice of Award in CORE:
Solicitation Transaction Notice of Intent to Award? Notice of Award?
Documented Quote (DQ1) Yes Yes
Invitation for Bids (IFB1) Yes Yes
Request for Information (RFI) No No
Request for Proposal (RFP) Yes Yes
Notice of Sole Source (NPSS1) No Yes
Request for Quote (RFQ) Yes Yes
Notice of Contractor Settlement (NCS1) No No
Request for Qualifications (RFQ1) Yes Yes
Best and Final Offer (BAFO) Yes Yes
If there is no vendor list on the Solicitation, then all VSS vendors with the commodity code(s) plus any other VSS vendors with submitted Solicitation Responses for that Solicitation will receive email notifications for Notice of Intent & Notice of Award.
If there is a vendor list on the Solicitation, then all VSS vendors on the list plus any other VSS vendors with submitted Solicitation Responses for that Solicitation will receive email notifications for Notice of Intent & Notice of Award.
Solicitation Transactions
Documented Quote (DQ1):
Solicitation Responses for DQ1, if submitted online, can be reviewed prior to the formal Solicitation close date – for DQ1 only.
Invitation for Bids (IFB1):
If your IFB1 is being issued for a construction project and is a “Competitive Sealed Best Value” Invitation for Bid, then the “Competitive Sealed Best Value” verbiage will be entered in Transaction Description.
IFB1 transactions can be used during typical one step bid process or as the first step in the 2 Step Bid process.
Request for Information (RFI):
Information request leveraging solicitation functionality that will not result in an Award.
Request for Proposal (RFP):
RFP transactions can be used during typical one step bid process or as the first step in the 2 Step Bid process.
Notice of Proposed Sole Source (NPSS1):
Sole Source transactions will be routed through workflow before publication to VSS.
Indicate the Vendor in the Transaction Description field of the NPSS1.
Request for Quotes (RFQ):
RFQ solicitations are used in conjunction with an existing Vendor List e.g. Lean Vendors and Disability Set Aside Vendors.
Awarding to a Vendor will require a manual reference on the Delivery Order to the State Price Agreement (MA Ref field).
Notice of Contractor Settlement (NCS1):
NCS1 transactions require “Prohibit online responses” to be flagged. The NCS1s are a means by which to communicate final settlement information on Construction projects.
For Notice of Partial Contractor Settlement, use Transaction Description to indicate “Partial”.
NCS1s will not result in having SR, EV, or Award.
No modifications will occur for the NCS1 – cancellation of the NCS1 and resubmission is Best Practice.
Use Office of State Architect form and attach to NCS1 transaction.
Request for Qualifications (RFQ1):
RFQ1 solicitation will not require a dollar response or price criteria as part of the Evaluation Criteria Line section.
Best and Final Offer (BAFO):
2nd step in 2 Step Process.
Solicitation Question and Answer in CORE:
A vendor can submit a question regarding a Solicitation in VSS using the “Q & A List” functionality - an automatic email notification sent to the assigned Buyer which contains the Solicitation Transaction ID.
Best Practice when responding to these inquiries - Q and A attachment. A modification to the Solicitation will result and send an email notification to the Vendors.
Solicitation Modifications in CORE:
Locate and edit the Solicitation, make desired changes and finalize the transaction.
For any modifications made to a solicitation use the “Additional Information” field to document changes for Vendors in VSS.
Modification can only be made to a Solicitation transaction after it has been published but before it has closed.
When Solicitation modification is finalized, Amendment History records are updated in VSS and email notifications are sent to all Vendors registered with Commodity Codes associated with the Solicitation and those who previously submitted an online response in VSS.
Solicitation Response (SR) & Evaluation (EV) in CORE:
Online Vendor responses preferred.
All solicitations require a Solicitation Response and Evaluation in CORE prior to Award.
REMEMBER: Publish flag on the Header of an EV will drive Public Bid Reading information to be displayed in VSS for the solicitation.
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