Over the past two decades, advances in communication technology have changed the way people do business. Meetings once conducted over analog phone lines are now processed by fiber optic cables, allowing parties to connect visually and virtually between offices located anywhere in the world. Thanks to the widespread adoption of such technology, the number of public sector contracts available in the Information Technology (IT) field continues to increase, creating an unprecedented number of opportunities for third-party vendors.
Searching for Public Sector IT Contracts
Finding Information Technology contract opportunities with local, state and federal government agencies can be challenging and time consuming. If you’re looking for these types of bids in the State of Colorado, a good place to start is with the Governor's Office of Information Technology (OIT), which is tasked with ensuring the security and implementation of new technologies throughout the state.
On the ColoradoVSS website, third-party vendors can set up a free account to search for, review and respond to public solicitations. While setting up their account, vendors can select the NIGP commodity codes that are associated with the goods and services they provide; by doing so, ColoradoVSS can then send the registered vendor an email alert whenever a contract opportunity that matches the vendor’s chosen NIGP codes is published in the ColoradoVSS system.
Vendors should be aware that this type of email alert system is not offered by all government procurement websites. In many cases vendors have to manually search through hundreds or thousands of bid opportunities to find the ones that are right for their business.
Making Sure an Opportunity is Right for You
Once a vendor has identified a contract opportunity that appears to fit their service offer, they should take the time to closely review all the bid details to ensure that they have the capacity to provide the requested services. Vendors must be certain that they can meet and fulfill all the requirements listed in the opportunity, because if they win the bid they enter into a contract with that government agency and will be required to provide the goods and services at the price they submitted.
Looking for Bids in Multiple Places
Finding an IT bid through the Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology site is not always a sure thing; opportunities are only posted when specific goods or services are needed. To find the right opportunities for their business, vendors will have to search through solicitations posted by a wide variety of state and local government offices.
Some additional websites that publish government IT bids in Colorado are:
Vendors should keep in mind that the bid research process can be time consuming - it can be very difficult for vendors to find all the government entities posting opportunities, let alone review each one.
Managing Your Time
Many vendors participating in the government bidding process work with a bid intelligence company that searches through the hundreds of thousands of sources where government contracts are published, including newspapers and websites, on a daily basis. By partnering with a third party company to identify the opportunities that are right for their business, vendors can access bids from across the state and country in one convenient place and receive notifications about bids that meet the vendor’s criteria.
A bid intelligence company can be invaluable for vendors that are just starting out in public sector bidding, or are already experienced in government contracting. By simplifying their research processes vendors can save valuable time, allowing them to focus their efforts on the actual bidding process.
Kevin McClintock | BidNet.com