The California Department of General Services, which oversees procurement across the state, offered some insights and guidance to vendors Thursday about the many contracting vehicles that are available to procure goods and services.
“That’s why contracting with the state gets so complicated — because there are all these different procurement methods,” said Matt Zweier, outreach liaison for DGS. He was at the small-business event held by the Sacramento Public Agency Consortium (SacPAC) and sponsored by DGS. The state entity is also trying to push for departments to change policies so small businesses and those run by disabled veterans have first shot at new contracts.
Zweier estimated that there are more than 30 methods throughout state business.
“But contracts that are exempt from advertising don’t go on Cal eProcure,” Zweier said.
For smaller vendors, fair and reasonable contracts may be easier to pursue, but buyers must know about that vendor’s existence.
“The worst thing is when someone in the state is trying to buy your service or product and they can’t find your business,” Zweier said.
But there will be a push toward using small businesses and veteran-owned companies in the future, according to Zweier.
Emergency contracting can also be lucrative for vendors, but only if businesses are responsive.
While those three contracting options are the most common advertising-exempt options, there are also Leveraged Procurement Agreements (LPAs), which apply to things that are bought over and over, making a full procurement process burdensome.
“It doesn’t make sense every single time to create an entirely new contract, put it out to bid, get the bids in, make an evaluation and make a decision,” Zweier said. “It’s not efficient to do it that way.”
LPAs include California Multiple Awards Schedules program (CMAS), the National Association of State Procurement Officials, Master Service Agreements (MSA), statewide commodity contracts, state price schedules and software licensing programs.
Vendors have to pay attention to the timelines of MSAs, but CMAS agreements can be applied at any time.
“Because they can be somewhat tedious, it’s important to do your research ahead of time to see if their viable for you,” Zweier said.
