Solicitation Development September CPO Certification.

Solicitation DevelopmentSeptember CPO

Certification

Getting StartedRemember how we access the Central Purchasing “Forms” area by going to the CP Library: forms,

PIMs, memos, etc… area of the Central Purchasing website? Once there, just type the word

“Solicitation” in the “Search by Keyword” box and click “Search”

Getting StartedThe bottom 4 packages are the packages you will use for Solicitations depending on how simple or

complicated they are or if you are sending them to Central Purchasing. The forms change and you

should always download the current forms from the website. Select “SA-Solicitation-Full”

Getting StartedThe results will give you the General Provisions (“GPs” or Section A) a review document with the

changes that have been made, Instructions, Forms (the cover sheet, Non-Collusion Certification &

Bidder Information forms), and the Solicitation Sections. We will start with the GPs.

DCS-SOLICITATION-INSTRUCTIONS-W07

This document is a comprehensive set of instructions on each of the sections of the Solicitation

Package, when you would use them, what other forms you might need for your solicitation and

how to format the documents, if you do not remember. Due to time constraints, we will show you

a quick way to format and compile the Solicitation.

OMES-SA-Solicitation-Forms

This portion of the package includes your

Solicitation Cover page

Responding Bidder Information form

And the

Certification for Competitive Bid and/or Contract (Non-Collusion Certification)

If you needed additional forms (such as a Professional Service Contract Certification OMES-FORM-CP-

21), I would scan those forms behind the forms above into your final package.

Solicitation Forms

OMES-SA-SOLICITATION-SECTIONSNow we get into the meat of the solicitation process. The first page that comes up is the Table of Contents, which can be electronically updated. We won’t need to do anything with it at this time. When you are done populating your Sections, you will click on the Table of Contents and select update the whole document, which will update your page numbers

OMES-SA-SOLICITATION-SECTIONSYou will notice it skips on the next page directly to “B. Special Provisions”. This is because we have a copy of the General Provisions already.

OMES-SA-SOLICITATION-SECTIONSOne of the most asked agency questions is either “why did you reformat my solicitation” or how do you format your solicitations. We have changed this once or twice, so there is a quick way to see how the documents are formatted. If you put your curser over the writing in “B” and look at your formatting bar on the top of your screen, you will how the document is formatted. It looks like this:

OMES-SA-SOLICITATION-SECTIONSTo be posted on a government website, all documents must meet Accessibility requirements. Setting up heading hierarchies shows a screen reader the context of the material or how it relates back to a main subject.

B. Special ProvisionsUsing this knowledge, lets begin to add some Special Provisions to our solicitation. If you have an electronic specification file, you can copy and paste Special Provisions your agency uses in all their solicitations and then add any that are particular to this acquisition. Notice they come in unformatted. The ones below all belong to “B”.

B. Special ProvisionsIf you highlight “Glossary of Terms” and select “Heading 2”, it will give you the results shown below:

B. Special ProvisionsIf you then highlight the three terms below Glossary of Terms, and Select “Heading 3” it will give you the formatted results below:

B. Special ProvisionsYou can use the method of highlighting each section (or several at a time) and establish the Heading hierarchy for those sections. Any time you wish to see where a section relates to, just put your curser over it and the formatting line on the top of your page will tell you.

B. Special ProvisionsThis tells a screen reader that the text in B.4.1 relates to B.4 and the text in B.4 relates to B. Special Provisions. When you convert your final package into one PDF, you can then enable the Accessibility features in Adobe to post your package online in a way that all public users can access the information.

C. Specifications -What to Consider• Section C is your technical requirements,

statement of work or statement of objectives• Whether you choose a Statement of Work or

a Statement of Objectives, there is specific information that must be provided.

• Background:• Describe the existing circumstances and infrastructure

• Who• Who is responsible for each part of the project

• Delivery, installation, interfaces, reporting, training

Central Purchasing Division 24

C. Specifications -What to Consider

• What• What is the desired product/service or the expected

outcome• What constitutes “acceptance” (When using F.O.B.-freight

on board- delivery, what constitutes acceptance of delivery and transfer of the asset to the State?)

• When• How soon must it be complete• Measurable Milestones and what determines completion


C. Specifications -What to ConsiderWhere

• Where is the installation or service• Will there be challenges in getting equipment into the

building• What facilities are available to the Bidder and who is

responsible for any modifications to those facilitiesHow

• What are the warranties (if any)• How will it be maintained – do you need renewals for

maintenance (add clause to section B)• How will it be paid for


C. Specifications -What to ConsiderDistribution / Recovery/Closeout

What will happen at the end of the contractWho is responsible for moving equipment at the end of a

leaseAre there hazardous materials the Bidder needs to take

back at the end of the contractHow will the state receive all the intellectual property and

information collected during the contract for future useHow will you assure the assets of the state are protected

after the contract ends


C. Specifications -What to ConsiderDistribution / Recovery /Closeout

Are “as-builts”, diagrams or training materials required to maintain the systems/information after the contract ends

Who is responsible for payment of any charges associated with close out of the contract

Who does the supplier report to, how often and how will those reports be closed out for supplier evaluation


C. Specifications – last thoughtsThe Scope of Work or Statement of Objectives

provides the boundaries for the work and sets the expectation for the results

Any change to the scope, no matter how small, has the potential to extend your timeline and/or put you over-budget

There is always a cost to expanding your scope – in money, materials, manpower and/or time

Any change to the scope may result in you being out of compliance with your original solicitation and subject to audit findings or bidder litigationRemember: “Do what the Solicitations says you will do.”


D. Evaluation• Section D Guidelines:• This is your evaluation criteria. You are not required to

disclose the category points in the solicitation package, but most federal entities require you to list the evaluation criteria in the solicitation in order of importance. Since you may or may not be using federal funds, it is a good idea to get in the habit of listing the criteria this way. If it is not listed, you cannot use it for evaluation. You should also speak to the process in this section (ie..will you possibly negotiate it or will you do interviews or site visits). You must state if it is “best value” or “lowest and best”.


E – Instructions to Bidder• Section E - Guidelines• These are additional instructions you will want to give the

bidder such as the deadline for any questions and how many copies of the proposal you wish to receive. As we go to online solicitations, you will not have to designate copies.• In this section you will want to detail what you expect to receive in

the response (such as the forms, insurance and acknowledgement of any Amendments to the solicitation), any required order, and any information as to format or samples.

• An easy way to be sure you do not have to reread the entire proposal for any exceptions to the terms and conditions is to require a signed Cover letter detailing any exceptions and any other information, such as past or pending litigation.


F-ChecklistIf you had an elaborate area for “Submittals” in section E, you might do an

abbreviated checklist in this section, or use it for one final opportunity to give the bidder one place to recheck their submittal documents.


G - Other• This might be a place where you attach other information about your agency or

information that might be useful to the bidder.


H-Price and Cost• Section H – Guidelines• This section is for Price and Cost.• It is sometimes only reviewed and scored by the procurement

lead.• Restate that all pricing includes travel and expenses or delivery

(and pickup), where required. • You have a chance in this section to explain to the bidder how you

wish them to bid the contract. For complicated pricing solicitations, it is recommended you attach a spreadsheet with the method of pricing you wish to see to make comparisons equitable.

• Failure to clearly define how you want the pricing may lead to some Bidders quoting by the dozen vs. a thousand; or some Bidders pricing by the pound vs. the load.


Now how to make the whole file “accessible” for posting?• There are two ways to accomplish the next task• Scan plus Adobe method:

• You can take your entire package (forms, sections, attachments), put them in order and scan them to a “pdf” format. Save the “pdf” as an “accessible” and “searchable” pdf (this process will vary depending on what Adobe products you have ). You may also want to reduce the file size. Reducing the file size will shorten the time it takes a bidder to download your package, lessening the possibility of it “timing out” before download.

• Electronic Adobe Professional method:• You can create an “accessible pdf” from a group of electronically saved documents by

assembling them with Adobe Professional, making them accessible, optimizing them for web or mobile publishing and making them searchable.


Standard Solicitation Package• Other general information

• There are numerous open, closed and awarded solicitations on the Central Purchasing Division website. They are good reference material when you are considering what clauses might benefit your solicitation.

• Your agency may chose to develop a suggested package of special terms and conditions to be used in most of your solicitation packages. You can work with your General Counsel or administrator on developing a standard terms file or checklist of requested terms for your agency to use depending on the function of your agency.

• You can always call the Contracting Officer at Central Purchasing assigned to that commodity for assistance or examples of other packages and they may be able to supply you with similar terms used on other projects.


Solicitation Development September CPO Certification.

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