Minnesota Department of Transportation Small Business Network Training

Transcription

1 Minnesota Department of Transportation Small Business Network Training January 20, 2011 Presented by: Ward Zerbe Info Tech, Inc.

2 What is Bid Express? An Internet-based bidding service for exchanging highway construction project information Used by transportation agencies to post letting information for contractors, and receive electronic bids from contractors Also serves subcontractors, suppliers and bonding companies Uses private & public key pair technology to ensure absolute security BidX.com, Inc. manages the digital signature certificates

3 The Bid Express Service Usage In production (35) Implementing (1) Reviewing Proposals (3)

4 How do contractors bid via the Internet? Use the Bid Express web site to obtain agency bid documents and addenda Use Expedite to prepare the bid (free software) Use Expedite & Bid Express to validate bid bond Submission Digitally sign and submit bid over the Internet using Expedite to connect to Bid Express Digital signatures and encryption verify identity and safeguard bids Secure lock box maintains bids until bid opening

5 How it works

6 Advantages for the contractor Access to bidding resources from home office Time savings and error checking during bid preparation Data import and export for existing systems Streamlining of entire bidding process Access to customer support help desk Savings in time and expenses by eliminating requirement to travel to the letting location

7 Small Business Network (SBN) Provides a virtual community for subs and DBEs to market their services by creating and submitting quotes and finding work by item and/or description Plan holder contact info available on the web site Gives primes a place to locate subs and DBEs and to advertise sub quote requests Option for agency participation Available for all subscribers at no additional cost

8 Benefits of the Small Business Network DBEs find opportunities quick and easy by item number and/or description Can create and submit sub quotes on-line Ready access to Planholder contact information Primes can solicit DBE quotes Single site for Primes, Subs and DBEs to communicate both their needs and services Provides agency with electronic audit trail for verifying primes good faith effort

9 Terminology BidX Account A means for a typical subscriber to access bidding information on Bid Express Digital ID A feature that can be added to a BidX Account to allow the subscriber to submit bids via the Internet on Bid Express (provides digital signature of bids) SBN Account A BidX Account provided to a DBE by the DOT. Also referred to as a Prepaid Account.ebsfile A file with the extension of.ebs which contains all the bidding data for a proposal that is downloaded from BidX Expedite the software used to read an.ebsfile

10 Important things to know about BidX Safe and secure Expedite software interfaces with third party products No long term contracts for subscribers Access to ALL bids posted on BidX Increased information for non-subscribers Digital IDs can take 5 business days to process You ALWAYS get a receipt for a submitted or withdrawn bid Access to customer support

11 Goals for Today Proficient in using SBN for creating requests for quotes and submission of quotes At ease in publishing and retracting postings on Bid Express Prepared to evaluate the product over the next 90 days

12 Demonstration Topics Brief website Navigation Viewing the Agency Home Page Obtaining an SBN account Viewing the Lettings Tab Viewing the Utilities Tab The Prime Console The Lettings tab My Sub-quotes Request tab Replies tab Unsolicited Sub-quotes tab Resources tab The Sub/DBE contractor Console Open Sub-quote Request tabs Responding to a Prime Saved Replies tab Unsolicited Sub-quotes tab Search Sub-quote Request tab The Prime Console View Reply Generate Good Faith Effort form