The Georgia Department of Administrative Services (DOAS) recently published an article highlighting two mistakes most often made by bidders on State contracts. The article is reprinted below in its entirety.
We know: Successfully competing for statewide contracts is not easy!
However, you can improve your chances, regardless of the form of business and the type of solicitation.
Here are two of the most common setbacks to successful submissions and their fool-proof remedies:
Setback #1: Waiting Until the Last Minute
Procrastination is one of the leading culprits to unsuccessful bids. Rarely are extensions to solicitation deadlines allowed. State law deems incomplete bids unacceptable.
Time and time again, suppliers don’t begin to post their response until minutes before the solicitation closes and more often than not, they are unable to place a bid. Typically, suppliers are just unfamiliar with the system or with the procurement processes and required documents.
Bid posts and any number of changes are permitted, but only before the bid closes. All suppliers are encouraged to allow a full week for initially submitting their bid and then up to the last hour before the bid closes for edits or changes. This method should give ample time for inputting error-free responses and ensuring that all required documents are uploaded and burning questions are answered.
Setback #2: Neglecting Your Profile
Once a supplier registers in Team Georgia Marketplace™, it can be easy to forget about maintaining your profile. However, this simple mistake can have a huge impact on a supplier successfully bidding and acquiring a state contract.
Staff come and go, but if the right organizational representative and his or her contact information is not in the system, you are leaving it up to chance as to whether you will be able to make timely submissions for contract bids. Team Georgia Marketplace™ will only send electronic bid notices to persons with registered emails.
Similarly, Team Georgia Marketplace™ will only send electronic bid notices for registered NIGP codes. When your business’ product or service lines change, update your profile. Regular profile maintenance will ensure that you don’t receive invitations unrelated to your business or miss receiving appropriate bids altogether. Don’t miss business opportunities because you failed to receive the invitation to bid. Update your profile every six months to a year.
Believe it or not, there is another added benefit to maintaining your Team Georgia Marketplace™ profiles. DOAS tracks Georgia spend with resident small businesses and reports this information to the Governor’s Office. Small business spending statistics are used by Georgia legislators in making important decisions. All suppliers are asked to review their profiles for accuracy and to update as necessary, especially if they meet the state’s new definition of small business.
(The State of Georgia’s small business definition: A Georgia-resident business that is independently owned and operated. In addition, such a business must either have fewer than 300 employees or less than $30 million in gross receipts per year.)
