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Government Contracting : How to Do Business With : Doing Business with the State of Nebraskaby Mary Graff | mgraff@mail.unomaha.edu Small businesses often come to us and ask how they can learn about bidding opportunities with the State of Nebraska. While we will direct them to the State of Nebraska Department of Administrative Services (DAS) Materiel Division website, this site generally only lists a small number of One-Time Purchases or Invitations to Bid for Contracts. Similarly, there is only a limited number of Requests for Proposal opportunities listed for services.The small business person invariably will ask why? The answer is simple. The State Purchasing office is responsible for all contracts for goods through the formal bid process, which includes purchases greater than $25,000 in value. The State Purchasing Department's Materiel Division also makes purchases "informally" for goods valued at $10,000 - $25,000, although the purchasing authority for these purchases may be delegated directly to agencies on occasion. So what about all those "small" purchases valued at less than $10,000? Agencies have the authority to make purchases under that threshold. That means department personnel in each of the various state agencies have the authority to make direct purchases using purchase cards (credit cards) or paying via a purchase order. Purchases valued at less than $2,000 may be made directly by agencies and there is no requirement for them to seek competitive bids. For purchases valued between $2,000 and $10,000, the agencies are required to document that they have sought competitive bids. (Generally this means they will seek three or more quotes directly from vendors.) But for small businesses, this is bad news. The average small business would be delighted to sell $1,000 in goods to any agency, but how can they? The answer: It's not easy. The difficulty lies in finding the buying authority in each department or agency - the decision-maker who has the authority to make the purchases. The "buying authority" could be one or a number of people - and for the small business person for whom time is money, identifying that one person or persons can be a time-consuming and, thus expensive, task. It will require persistence, but it is possible for a business to target a few agencies and work at finding the person(s) who might be the decision maker for purchases. Then the small businessperson needs to follow-up with sales brochures and personal calls. One way to make yourself known to State of Nebraska purchasing authorities and to help them become familiar with your business is to register with the State of Nebraska as a vendor at the DAS website. There, you can download the vendor registration form, complete it, and submit it online. There is no charge to register with the State of Nebraska. (NOTE: Some states do require the payment of a fee when registering as a vendor.) Through Nebraska's DAS website, you also can view current bidding opportunities for goods and services for One-Time Purchases and Contracts as well s RFP's for services. (Road and building construction projects are under the jurisdiction of the Nebraska Department of Roads, and the Nebraska Department of Administrative Services, Building Division and so are not posted here.) By continuing to navigate through the site, you can find the names of companies that have existing contracts with the State of Nebraska. So you'll glean valuable information about who you might be bidding against on any future contracts. Some of the Nebraska departments that do their own centralized purchasing include: Roads, Corrections, National Guard, Game and Parks Commission, and the State Patrol. ^ |
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