Bid Portals: Vendor Registration SOP

Overview and goal

Thanks to Aya's research, many solicitations are not picked up by GovNavigator. Registering directly in as many vendor portals as possible closes that gap and gets us bid notifications we'd otherwise miss.

• Our #1 goal: register in as many new vendor portals as possible, in order to sign up for bid notifications when new bids are posted.
• If Coquina is already registered in a given portal, do not re-register. We will update the registration name to "Concourse" at a later date.
• All current registration logins are stored in 1Pass.
• Source of truth for portal links: FOIA Airtable, Bid Portal Submissions view. The "Vendor Portal URL" column is pre-populated, with a "Procurement Site URL" helper column in case the portal link doesn't work or isn't clear.
• For bid portal submission info, use the Airtable Concourse Info tab. We submit under the Concourse name.

Performance expectations

At the end of every day, complete the Daily Reporter with the number of hours worked and the number of bid portals completed.

Registration instructions

1. In the FOIA DB Airtable, make sure you're in the "Bid Portal Submissions" view.
2. Click the "Vendor Portal URL" link first. If that doesn't lead to a portal where we can register, click the "Procurement Site URL" link and investigate further.
3. Follow the Registration Steps below. Our goals: register in as many portals as possible, and receive as many bid notifications for our categories as possible. If we're already registered as Coquina, log in and quickly check that notifications are set up, then move on. Updating the name to Concourse is not the priority right now; that happens later as bids come through.
4. Track the outcome in Airtable.

Registration steps

1. Follow the link(s) and find the Supplier or Vendor Registration process.
2. Attempt to log in using 1Pass.
3. If the credentials exist but aren't working, follow the Reset Protocol below.
4. If unsuccessful, proceed with registering as a new vendor.
5. Fill out the registration form with the Concourse key info (see reference table below).
6. Save the password in 1Pass: name it clearly with the buyer and portal name, save both username and password (use "sales@concoursetech.com" as username when we can choose), and save under Our Family: Procurement Portals.
7. Make sure we're signed up for bid notifications for our specific categories: NAICS codes, eSupplier categories, NIGP codes, UNSPSC codes, and perhaps others. There will often be an option to receive notifications for specific codes; sign up for as many relevant codes as possible.

Reset protocol

Vendor registration status

Track the outcome of each portal in Airtable using one of these statuses:

Registered as Concourse Registered as Coquina Already Registered, Coquina Signed up for email updates only No Available Registration

• Use Already Registered, Coquina if we already have a login.
• Use Signed up for email updates only if there's only an email option, no full portal registration.

Tips for finding the registration page

• Try the Vendor Portal URL first. If the link doesn't work, delete and/or replace it.
• Then try the Procurement Site URL. If that's broken too, look under "Departments" (or a similar tab) for Procurement, Purchasing, Administration, Information Technology, or similar.
• Quickly scan the website for any notification sign-up links.

Key info reference

Use this information when filling out registration forms.

Codes and categories

When a portal offers category or commodity code selection, sign up for as many relevant codes as possible so we catch every bid opportunity we could bid on.

NAICS Codes

eSupplier Categories

NIGP Commodity Codes

Core codes, use these first:

Secondary codes, only use if you can select all easily:

UNSPSC Codes

Portal-specific notes

Bonfire

Vendor Type: Information Technology.

Public Purchase

To add an agency on Public Purchase:

1. Go to the Public Purchase agency search page.
2. Search for the agency, using both the simplest version of its name and the full name.
3. Click "Register."
4. Click "Continue."
5. If offered a Classifications selection, verify that our selections show up. A large set of NIGP and NAICS codes has already been entered on the backend, but there may be other codes still needed, flag it if you see gaps.
6. Click "Continue."

Bonfire, Ionwave, BidNet, COMMBuys

Our EIN may match our entity to a previous "Coquina" registration on these four providers. That's fine, proceed registering as "Coquina." We'll submit one comprehensive customer service ticket later to change all the names at once.

Misc legal questions

Some registration forms include a "Legal Information" section with yes/no questions. Unless something has changed, the answer to each of these is No: