Government Procurement Services. In This Issue. The Rules of Netiquette. August GPS - Directing You to Success

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1 Government Procurement Services GPS - Directing You to Success August 2015 This newsletter is published on a monthly basis to provide relevant information to government purchasing and contracting professionals regarding public procurement and contracting topics. Hope you enjoy! In This Issue The Rules of Netiquette Question of the Month Current Training Schedule The Rules of Netiquette According to a market research study, in 2015 the average employee receives 125 s a day! With so many s bombarding us every day, we need to understand the rules of Netiquette. Netiquette is simply the "rules of etiquette for the Internet". Below is a list of twenty (20) Netiquette best practices. It is not an all-inclusive list, but will help you on the road to understanding proper Netiquette rules. 1. Work s are considered official business documents. Therefore, you should always use formal writing guidelines and conform to antispamming laws. 2. Do not use texting language - no emoticons or emojis. Use standard capitalization. Using all capitalized letters is considered 'shouting'. Using no capitalization is considered lazy. 3. Use a descriptive subject line that includes no more than four to five words.

2 4. Body of the should be descriptive, but brief and to the point. 5. Salutations such as 'dear' and sincerely' are not necessary. Start with hi, hello, good afternoon or good morning. Close with thanks or regards. 6. Use the "to" line for someone that needs to take action. Use the "cc" line for anyone who does not need to take action, but should have a record of the . Use the "bcc" feature for security and privacy reasons - the addresses are invisible to the recipients of the Include a brief signature line with contact information. 8. The ideal font is Arial; the ideal font size is Send attachments wisely. Business and government servers routinely block large attachments or multiple files. Compress or zip large attachments/files - or use a file sharing service. Consider posting large files on your website so you don't have to them. 10. Don't forget the attachment - When sending attachments, attach the file first so you don't forget it. 11. When sending bulk s don't use the "to" or "cc" fields when sending to bid lists or other large lists. If you do, you are publishing others address without their permission (See Question of the Month below). 12. Before using the following features ask yourself: Reply All - Does everyone in the list need the information? Forward - Consider whether to leave the message thread in the . Will it help the recipient (leave it in); not necessary to the recipient or harm the recipient (take it out). High Priority - Is it really necessary? Don't overuse it. 13. Respond to s in a timely manner. Preferably the same day, but not more than 24 hours. Even if you just say, "Received your and I am working on a response. I will get back to you by Friday".

3 14. When responding to an , if you change the subject - change the subject line. 15. Use spell check - set it up to run automatically. Even though you run spell check - remember to read the before you send it. Spell check does not catch all mistakes - especially words that are spelled correctly, but not the words you meant to use. Proofread carefully before sending. 16. Don't send an when emotional or angry. Sit on it for 24 hours. 17. If the is important, don't select the recipient address or delete it in a response until you are sure you are ready to send. This will prevent you from prematurely sending the Double check the recipient before you send. Often times there are similar names in large organizations is not confidential. Don't put anything in an that you wouldn't "want the whole world to know about". 20. Never try to resolve a conflict via . Back and forth ing is almost guaranteed to make the situation worse. Pick up the phone, walk down the hall, or set up a time to meet. Tone and body language are not communicated thorough and miscommunications are frequent. To resolve disagreements or misunderstandings, it is always better to talk in person or on the phone to resolve the issues. Question of the Month QUESTION: When you send solicitations to vendors via - should you use the "cc" line or the "bcc" line? I have seen co-workers use both and now I am not sure what I should do. Can you help?

4 ANSWER: I will certainly try. There was recently a discussion about this topic on the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP) discussion group. Some respondents said, "they thought it was a good idea to let all vendors know who was sent the solicitation as they thought it would encourage competition." However, most of the comments were favorable for using the "bcc" line. A member from South Carolina said that once when he used the "cc" line to send bids to vendors - he was told that a local supplier contacted other suppliers and threatened to pull their business if they put in a bid. One company even went so far as to hold all orders with them pending the bid outcome! The purchasing agent now sends all of his solicitations out "bcc". Another member said they create their bidders list in Outlook and give it a name like "Bid List 15-xxx Widgets". That name is what shows up on the "bcc" line in the . Many governmental entities are now using bid software which takes care of this problem - and sends solicitations "bcc" to all vendors. In my experience, I always included the vendor list in the "bcc" field. I don't publicize the list because I feel it can be an advantage for vendors to know who is or is not receiving the solicitation. In addition, there are anti-spam laws which must be considered. It is illegal under the anti-spam laws to publish someone's address without their permission. Using the "cc" or "to" line provides everyone on the bid list access to the entire list - which violates the anti-spam laws. So to answer your question, I recommend using the "bcc" subject line. However, as usual, I encourage

5 you to discuss this matter with your IT and/or Legal Department to make sure you are following the requirements for your entity. By the way, if you are under 30 and reading this you may not know what the terms "cc" and "bcc" mean. The terms originated back in the old days of paper documents when there was an original document and carbon copies made from using multiple sheets of paper in a typewriter with carbon paper in between them. The term "cc" means "carbon copy" and "bcc" means "blind carbon copy". The terms migrated from paper documents to our systems - but carbon paper for the most part, is a thing of the past.