Table of Contents
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Agency Updates: OhioBuys Outages | Procurement Website Update | Grant Agreements and Purchases in OhioBuys | Purchases State Printing and Mail Services via OhioBuys | IT Release and Permit Workflow
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Supplier Updates: Supplier Webinars
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Training Tips: Integration Error Job Aid | Submitting Tickets | Training Calendar | Office Hours
Please share this newsletter with your agency users!
Remember to check the OhioBuys website for the latest user tips and information.
Agency Updates
OHIOBUYS OUTAGES
As a reminder, you will receive a notification when OhioBuys comes back online. Thank you in advance for your patience.
There will also be a planned maintenance outage beginning at 8 AM EST on Sunday, July 3rd, through 12 PM EST Sunday, July 3rd, to coincide with the OAKS MSP Maintenance outage.
PROCUREMENT WEBSITE UPDATE
This week, the Office of Procurement Services has added a ‘Public Catalog’ tile to the top row of tiles for easier access on procure.ohio.gov. The ‘Public Solicitations’ and ‘Current Contracts’ sections are now combined into ‘Public Solicitations and Contracts’ with the same information and links to OhioBuys.
The updated homepage of procure.ohio.gov
Direct link to the Public Solicitations and Contracts page: https://procure.ohio.gov/solicitationsandcontracts
Direct link to the Public Catalog page: https://procure.ohio.gov/publiccatalog
GRANT AGREEMENTS AND PURCHASES IN OHIOBUYS
Recently, the OhioBuys team released a new enhancement that allows users to set up and manage Grant Agreements in OhioBuys as a type of Agency Administered contract.
Agencies are highly encouraged to utilize OhioBuys to manage these types of agreements, which provides the following benefits:
- Ability to create and negotiate agreements; this includes the ability to upload documents associated with the agreement
- Flexible workflow to accommodate for agency-specific approval workflows/requirements, as well as transparency to view workflow status
- Ability to electronically sign agreements through the enterprise eSignature solution (OneSpan Sign)
- Ability to maintain and amend agreements
- Seamless integration with other OhioBuys modules, to allow for the association of the agreement with other related objects (e.g., requisitions and purchase orders)
You can find more information on using the contracting module in the Creating and Managing Contracts in OhioBuys Learner Guide.
While OhioBuys is not a full grants management solution, it does allow for agencies to conduct the procurement activities related to grants. In other words, if an agency needs to create an encumbrance for purchases that will use grant funding, those requisitions can be created in OhioBuys. OhioBuys can also be used to create encumbrances that will be used to disburse grant funds to recipients.
PURCHASES FROM STATE PRINTING & MAIL SERVICES VIA OHIOBUYS
As previously announced, agencies can now order from State Printing and Mail Services through OhioBuys. We have updated our training materials and instructions on how place an order can be found in the How to Create a Purchase Requisition with a Requite Commodity Job Aid.
IT RELEASE AND PERMIT WORKFLOW
Please remember that agencies should not manually add an IT R&P to their purchase requisitions. The only time a user should add an IT R&P is when they are creating a PR for Staff Aug renewals.
When an end-user is making an IT purchase below $25,000 and the purchase requisition (PR) contains line items with governance commodity codes, it will go through IT Strategic Investment Management (SIM) review prior to being assigned its Blanket R&P number. The PR workflow will then automatically assign the agency’s blanket IT R&P after it has completed the applicable steps in IT R&P portion of the workflow. Each agency’s Blanket IT R&P is entered in OhioBuys prior to the beginning of a biennium. Use of the blanket IT R&P is unlimited.
If an IT purchase is greater than $25,000, the PR route through the full IT release and permit workflow unless it is referencing a pre-governed contract. A standard release and permit will be applied for purchases over $25,000 not referencing an enterprise and/or pre-governed contract. The R&P Amount will equal the total of the approved PO (sum of the line items per contract or Supplier).
Supplier Updates
SUPPLIER WEBINARS
We have added new OhioBuys supplier/bidder webinar dates through the end of September 2022.
Each supplier/bidder training webinar will be one hour and held on the dates listed below. Please download the webinar meeting invitation file, unzip it, and click the .ics file to add to your calendar.
In addition, a revised Supplier Fact Sheet & Quick Start Guide is available to learn more about the Supplier log-in process and share with your suppliers. Agency representatives are also welcome to join these webinars to learn more about how suppliers access and use OhioBuys.
Anyone interested in attending Supplier webinars can download the meeting invites from the Supplier Webinar page of the OhioBuys website.
Training Tips
INTEGRATION ERROR JOB AID
As processing begins in fiscal year 2023, the Review PO Integration Messages job aid can be helpful if an integration error occurs and should be referenced before opening a helpdesk ticket.
SUBMITTING TICKETS
As a reminder, when submitting tickets related to OhioBuys, please make sure you are submitting them to OBM.SharedServices@obm.ohio.gov and not to CSC@Ohio.gov.
TRAINING CALENDAR
Ongoing OhioBuys training sessions are now scheduled through September 2022. For the complete list, see the below schedule of upcoming sessions or visit the Ongoing Training page.
Users can register for these sessions directly in OhioLearn if they could not previously attend OhioBuys training or if they would like a refresher course on a particular topic. If your agency has a topic request for training or needs solicitation and/or contract training, please notify the project at: OPS.TrainingAcademy@das.ohio.gov.
OFFICE HOURS
One of the resources available to assist your use of OhioBuys is the option to sign up for Office Hours. Users sign up for either 30 or 60-minute Office Hour sessions wherein a dedicated OhioBuys trainer will be available to assist you with OhioBuys functionality.
Office Hours have been expanded with slots available Monday - Thursday from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM, and 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM pending availability. Same day scheduling is now available.
We encourage you to advantage of this resource as you get acclimated to OhioBuys. To sign up for office hours, please follow the prompts on the Office Hours bookings page.
You will receive direct help on a specific transaction as you are working through it!
These Office hours are available for your training-related questions (i.e., how to do something in OhioBuys). If your question(s) is regarding policy or system issues (e.g., why a purchase order is In Progress), users should submit a helpdesk ticket. In addition, anything that substantially involves R&Ps, OAKS, or OneSpan Sign will also need to go to the helpdesk. If you have not attended any OhioBuys training course, you will be redirected to training, and your office hours appointment will be canceled.
Remember, if it's a question of "how," then office hours are the way to go. If it's a question of "why," it needs a helpdesk ticket.
Support
For log-in or system issues, please contact OBM Shared Services Center at 614-338-4781 or 1-877-644-6771 OR OBM.SharedServices@OBM.Ohio.Gov Remember to put “OhioBuys” in the subject line!
If you have questions about the project itself, please email: ohiobuys@das.ohio.gov.
Mike DeWine, Governor
Jon Husted, Lt. Governor
Kathleen C. Madden, Director
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