Q. Can local governments purchase from State Term Schedules and General Distribution Contracts?
A. Local governments that are members of the Cooperative Purchasing Program may access selected contracts and State Term Schedules issued by DAS/State Purchasing or DAS/Office of Information Technology.
Q. How do vendors register to receive ITBs and RFPs?
A. Vendors must register with State Purchasing. They may do so: in person at 4200 Surface Road, Columbus, Ohio 43228, via phone at (614) 466-5090, or the State Procurement website.
Q. How do I find out which vendors are certified as EDGE (Encouraging Diversity Growth and Equity) vendors?
A. Contact the Department of Administrative Services Equal Opportunity Division at
(614) 466-8380.
Q. Who do I contact for copies of documents?
A. You may contact the Contract Management Bid Room to obtain copies of competitive procurements (ITBs & RFPs) that have been released and awarded. You may also obtain copies of vendor responses to awarded contracts.
You must contact the individual listed on the state term schedule title page to obtain a copy of their state term schedule.
You must contact State Purchasing to obtain copies of the contracts and competitive procurements released by them.
You must contact the Office of Policy and Planning to obtain copies of an agency's Long Range Information System Plan or you may obtain it from the State of Ohio Web site.
Q. What is a Master Maintenance Agreement (MMA)? How do I get one?
A. The authority to create and enter into Master Maintenance Agreements is granted to the Office of Information Technology (OIT) by the Controlling Board to contract for hardware and software maintenance. State agencies may use MMAs with a release and permit from OIT. Vendors interested in learning more about MMAs should contact Contract Management.
Q. What is the difference between a state term schedule, a state term contract and a bid term contract?
A. State term contracts and bid term contracts are terms for contracts created through a competitive process (generally Invitations to Bid). A state term schedule is not created through a competitive procurement. The majority of state term schedules are based on existing federal GSA contracts or are held by manufacturers or software developers.
Q. How do vendors obtain a State Term Schedule (STS)?
A. OIT is granted authority to negotiate State Term Schedules by the Controlling Board for selected commodities and services. Contract Management is responsible for negotiating STSs for Information Technology hardware, software, maintenance and IT professional services. The Office of State Purchasing is responsible for negotiating the remaining goods and services. In order to qualify for a STS, a vendor must hold a federal GSA contract OR be a manufacturer or software developer of off-the-shelf or shrink wrap software. To obtain more information, contact the Contract Management Bid Room at (614) 728-8837.
Q. The STS information on this Web site does not contain information on specific products and services. How do I obtain this information?
A. To obtain specific product or service information, contact the individual listed as the vendor's contact person on the state term schedule title page. If you wish to verify the accuracy of a vendor’s quote against a state term schedule you should contact Contract Management Bid Room at 614-728-8837.
Q. If I am not registered with State Purchasing, can I still obtain competitive documents (RFPs & ITBs) and respond?
A. You can obtain information regarding procurement opportunities from the State Procurement web site. Vendors not registered with State Purchasing can respond to competitive procurements but will not receive notice of amendments of existing opportunities or future procurements. We strongly encourage all vendors interested in doing business with the State to register with Office of State Purchasing.
Q. Does registering with State Procurement automatically place me on a contract?
A. No. When you register with State Procurement you are being added to the vendor notification list. This makes you eligible to receive electronic notices of procurement opportunities that fit your company's product or service profile. You must compete through the competitive sealed bid process in order to be eligible for a contract award.
Q. What do I do after registering with the Office of State Purchasing?
A. After receiving notification that your registration has been accepted, you will begin to receive email notices when a particular procurement opportunity matches your product or service profile. If there are no bids that meet your profile, then you will not receive an email. If you are interested in any of the bid opportunities, you may download a copy of the Invitation to Bid from theInternet at http://procure.ohio.gov/proc/index.asp. To respond to the Invitation to bid, you must submit your response following the procedure and deadlines in the competitive document. Once all bids are opened, a contract analyst will evaluate and recommend an award based on the standard of lowest responsive and responsible bidder.
Q. How often do I have to register?
A. You need to register only once. However you are responsible for maintaining your company’s contact information such as an address change, change in supplies and services for which you wish to receive notice, etc. You can update your registration on-line using the State Procurement site.
Q. What are UNSPSC code numbers?
A. The United Nations Standard Products and Services Codes (UNSPSC) assigns standardized numbers to uniformly identify specific commodities and services. These commodity codes are used by state agencies on purchase orders to reference specific items purchased from the contract. The state replaced the existing NIGP numbering system with UNSPSC codes July 1, 2007.
Q. How may I notify agencies of what I sell?
A. You may obtain a mailing list of all state agencies, boards, and
commissions, along with email addresses to agency fiscal or business offices, on the State Procurement web site at http://www.procure.ohio.gov/proc/index.asp
Q. Can local governments purchase from State Term Schedules and General Distribution Contracts?
A. Local governments that are members of the Cooperative Purchasing Program may access selected contracts and State Term Schedules issued by the State of Ohio.
Q. How long does it take to complete a STS?
A. The time it takes to obtain a STS varies depending on the number of STSs under negotiation and the amount of changes needed to complete the negotiations.
Q. The STS information on this Web site does not contain information on specific products and services. How do I obtain this information?
A. To obtain specific product or service information, contact the individual listed as the vendor's contact person on the state term schedule title page.
Q. When will the contract award be published?
A. Once the contract is signed by the Director of OIT, or his designee, the contract award is made public. Generally this occurs two to three weeks prior to the effective date of the contract.
Q. How can I find out the projected dollar amount of the last awarded contract?
A. You can view the contract on-line at the State Procurement web site under the "Current Contracts" hyperlink.
Q. How may I find out contract award information?
A. You can obtain award information by viewing the contract on the State Purchasing web site at: http://procure.ohio.gov/proc/index.asp
Q. Where may I find copies of new contracts?
A. New contracts are added daily. You may visit the State Purchasing web site at http://procure.ohio.gov/proc/index.asp to see the most updated listing.
Q. How do I become a part of a State Term Schedule (STS)?
A. Interested parties can download the necessary forms for establishing a STS from the State Procurement web site by navigating to the "Selling to the State" hyperlink and then clicking on "State Term Schedules".
Q. How may I be added to a contract that has already been competitively bid and awarded?
A. Occasionally the need arises to add items to a contract that has already been bid. This "supplemental bid" follows the same bid process as the original contract. OIT has never done this to my knowledge. It may not be appropriate.
Q. Sometime within the past several months I purchased a specific item (e.g. ladder) offered on contract (e.g. State Term Schedule). I would like to purchase this item again, but when I search for the item, nothing turns up in the results. I have tried using the Keyword and the Alpha List search utilities.
A. The reasons you may not get a positive match on your search queries could include, but not be limited to:
• The contract you used formerly is in the process of being renegotiated and is currently not available.
• The contract you used formerly has expired and is no longer available.
• The item you are searching for is too specific to properly represent a contract that offers 1000s of items. At this time we do not offer complete vendor catalogs online. Rather, we carefully select primary keywords to associate with any contract. For example, "ladder" may be too specific, but "construction equipment" would provide a positive match.
• If the use of more general search terms does not yield the desired results, please select the contacts page, and contact the appropriate buyer or analyst to obtain further assistance With the exception of our ITB items this does not apply to OIT.