Create a solicitation – Bid Express®

In this article:

Create from scratch | Create from template | General Info | Location designations | Invite vendors | Solicitation options | Solicitation components | NIGP codes |

Related resources:

Learn how to create a new solicitation in Bid Express. Click to expand the following sections and learn more.

Before you begin, check that your owner-agency team members have the appropriate roles assigned in the Bid Express service. Remember that the roles assigned on the My Profile page are not the same as the ones assigned on the Infotech® My Account page.

We recommend that you use a template when creating a new solicitation. This ensures that it has all of your agency's required components and saves you from having to enter the same information for each new posting.

Create a solicitation from scratch

Creating a solicitation from scratch is not recommended.

Because of the complexity of agency solicitations and the enormous variety of customizable solicitation components offered by the Bid Express service, we strongly recommend using one of the templates our Customer Success team helped your agency create during Onboarding. These templates should cover the majority of your agency's needs.

If you must create one from scratch, it's a good idea to contact Customer Success for help.

Create a solicitation from a template

There are two ways to create a new solicitation using a template:

Single solicitation | Create a new single, standalone solicitation
Project solicitation | Create a new solicitation within a new project grouping

Both actions can be taken from the Solicitations tab of the Our Solicitations page. You can also create a new solicitation from template and later associate it with a project.

Create a single solicitation

To create a single, standalone solicitation:

Navigate to the Solicitations tab of the Our Solicitations page.
Click New Solicitation to expand the Create menu.
Under Create from Template, select the name of the template you want to draft from. A copy of the template is created.
Draft your solicitation as usual (see the following sections).

Create a project solicitation

Projects are a way for owner-agencies to associate multiple solicitations, RFPs, or RFQs together as a single project grouping. It's an organizational tool to help your team keep track of related postings; vendors will not see that a solicitation is part of a project association.

Project groupings are particularly helpful when using a multi-solicitation or RFP phased project approach, but they can also be used to associate separate solicitations that are related to the same project umbrella.

There are two ways to create a solicitation within a project grouping:

Existing project | To create a new solicitation within an existing project, navigate to the Projects tab of the Our Solicitations page. For more information, see Project groupings.
New project | Create a new solicitation within a new project from the Solicitations tab.

To create a new project solicitation from the Solicitations tab:

Navigate to the Solicitations tab of the Our Solicitations page.
Click New Project.
The Create New Project window will open. Enter a name and optional description for the new project grouping.
Click Submit.
A new project page will open. Click New Solicitation to expand the Create menu.
Under Create from Template, select the name of the template you want to draft from. A copy of the template is created.
Draft your solicitation as usual (see the following sections).

General Info

Once you select your template from the list, you'll need to fill in the General Info to get started. See the following steps to learn how to fill in General Info.

In the Number field, enter the solicitation or project number.
In the Description field, enter the solicitation description.
- Tip: Add a detailed description to help vendors find (and bid on) your solicitation. Include an informative project overview and all relevant details and other information that may serve as keywords to assist vendors in finding your solicitation.
In the Deadline field, enter the time and date when bids are due.
Optional: Use the Auto Advertise field to schedule automatic publishing of your solicitation at the designated date and time.
Optional: If you have any project groupings created, use the Projects drop-down menu to select an existing project to associate with this solicitation.
Expand the Solicitation Options section and confirm that the options set in your template still apply to this particular solicitation.
Click Save.

After entering the General Info, save your work and scroll to the Locations section to enter location designations.

Location designations

Your vendor community are able to subscribe to personalized notifications, a service that lets them set a preferred location radius and get notified of jobs in their area. To make this work, we've required owner-agencies to designate at least one location where their project takes place in every solicitation advertised.

For projects spanning multiple counties, addresses, or occuring statewide, agencies can add additional locations to the solicitation.

The end goal is to help more vendors find your projects, widening your bidding pool and increasing competition.

How to designate project location(s)

First, you'll have to choose what type of location you'd like to add using the Location Type dropdown menu. Click on the Location Type dropdown and select whether you'd like to designate a state and county (which includes a statewide option) or a specific address.

State and County

There are two options for selecting a state/county designation. You can use either or both.

Dropdown menus: Select your state from the first dropdown and the service will auto-populate the second dropdown with your state's counties and a "statewide" option. Pick the county where your project will take place or select statewide. Click the Add another location button to designate multiple locations.
Interactive map: Use the interactive map to click and highlight the county or counties you want to designate. Selected counties will display as green on the map, and the counties will be listed in the text section.

Address

Want to get more specific? Use the Address option to enter a particular street address.

Enter a street address.
- Note that you cannot enter a descriptive location (e.g. "University of Florida" or "Canton, Ohio"), your address must have a street number.
Select the correct, matching address from the auto-populated dropdown list.
- The service will drop a pin on the map for that location.
Click Add another location or click Save when you are finished.

If you have added location(s) using one location type and then attempt to add a different location type, the service will warn you that your existing location entries will be deleted before you can enter locations in another format. Click OK to continue or Cancel to retain the existing location list.

Invite vendors

The Invited Vendors feature lets you find existing Bid Express vendors and directly promote your solicitation to them to encourage them to bid. If there are certain vendors you want to work with, consider inviting them to bid on your solicitation using the Invited Vendors component. While this component will always appear under the Locations section, it's always optional. It's strictly used to alert existing users of the service about your advertisement.

Unlike restricted bidding, which uses the same invitation feature to grant specific vendors access to an otherwise non-public solicitation, using the Invited Vendors feature on a non-restricted solicitation won't prevent non-invited vendors from finding and bidding on the solicitation.

There are two actions available in the Invited Vendors panel:

Invite Vendor | Search for vendors to invite, one business at a time.
Invite Shortlist | Invite multiple businesses at once using Shortlists. You must already have vendor shortlist(s) generated to use this function. Learn more about vendor shortlists.

Each of these options will let you promote your solicitation to your selected vendor(s).

Promote your solicitation by vendor

To invite a vendor to bid on your solicitation:

In the Invited Vendors panel, click Invite Vendor. A new window will appear.
In the Business Name field, begin entering a vendor business name. A drop-down menu will appear listing businesses that match your entry.
Select the appropriate vendor.
Click Add. Repeat as needed.

Promote your solicitation by shortlist

To invite a shortlist of vendors to bid on your solicitation:

In the Invited Vendors panel, click Invite Shortlist. A new window will appear.
The Invite Shortlist selection panel will display a list of all your solicitations that have shortlists associated with them. Select the shortlist you want to invite to bid.
Click Invite. Repeat as needed.

Solicitation options

For an owner-agency, solicitation options define the different aspects of each solicitation and add specific functionality to your solicitation. The options can be set after the solicitation is created. Some options will require an amendment if changed after the solicitation is advertised.

The options are listed at the bottom of the General Info section of your solicitation.

Click Edit in the General Info section of your solicitation and click Solicitation Options. To add an option to your solicitation, click the No toggle to change it to Yes.

Allow zero values for unit prices and labor in item lists	Allows a vendor to input a zero dollar value for unit prices, labor prices, or material prices in an item list.
Allow negative values for unit prices and labor in item lists	Allows a vendor to input negative dollar values, credits, or deductions for unit prices, labor prices, or material prices in an item list.
Use electronic signatures?	Enables the use of electronic signatures for your solicitation instead of an Infotech® Digital ID to authorize bid submission. Before you can use electronic signatures for your solicitation, your agency must be enabled by an Infotech representative, and the Allow Electronic Signatures option on your My Profile tab must be set to Yes.
Allow vendors to ask questions	Enables Q & A functionality in your solicitation or template. This generates a Q & A forum in your advertisement to publically answer questions directly through the Bid Express service. The Q & A functionality can be used to privately collect questions for posting via other means (addendum or otherwise) at a later time.
Restrict this solicitation to only those vendors who are invited	Allows only invited vendors to bid on a solicitation. Select the Publicly post check box to make the general information visible to all vendors and to enable the Public check box for each solicitation component. You can also set a restriction for all new solicitations on the My Profile page.
Mark solicitation as an RFP	Sets the solicitation as a request for proposal with sections for scoring and setting up report evaluations.
Enable evaluations for this RFP	Assign scoring criteria and evaluators to use the built-in evaluation function.
Enable shortlisting for this RFP	Removes the Award function and adds the Shortlist component. Select vendors from among submitted responses to create a shortlist that you can invite to future solicitations.

Solicitation components

If you created your solicitation using a template, check the components to make sure they fit with your solicitation.

If you started with a new solicitation, add the necessary components.

Learn more about solicitation components using these links:

Add NIGP codes

Your owner-agency can add National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP®) codes to your solicitation. Vendors who have selected the codes will be notified that a solicitation using their selected codes has been advertised.

Add codes

Open your solicitation if it's not already opened.
Select More above the components slider.
Select Codes. The Bid Express service adds a Codes section to your solicitation.
Click Manage Codes. The Bid Express service opens the Manage Codes window where you choose your class and then select the codes for items in that class.
Enter the class in the Choose a class field or click the arrow to select the class from the list.
Enter a code in the Choose a code field or click in the field to select the code from the list.
Keep entering codes for the selected class until you are finished.
Click Save when all codes have been added.

Repeat the process to add more classes and codes.

Remove codes

In the Codes section of your solicitation, click the red X for the code you wish to delete.
Click OK in the delete confirmation window.

The code will be deleted from your solicitation.