AGENCY UPDATES
Recent Enhancements
The following enhancements were deployed to OhioBuys on the evening of Wednesday, December 6, and are now available to users. The following have updated training materials available. See details on the Latest Enhancements webpage.
Competitive Selection Enhancements
The following competitive selection enhancements were documented in the latest House Bill 33 for the Fiscal Year 24-25 budget bill. Please see this document for more details.
- Specified that a purchase, by DAS or a state agency through the electronic procurement system established by DAS, constitutes a competitive selection procedure.
- Authorized a state agency that has been granted a release and permit to make the purchase by utilizing the electronic procurement system.
These changes were deployed to OhioBuys on the evening of Wednesday, December 6th.
 |
|
Amazon Activity
If you are an Amazon shopper on the Amazon site over 30 minutes when you click submit, Amazon will say the order is pending approval, but the req will never be created in Ohio Buys. As a result, you will have to cancel the pending order in Amazon and re select each item.
To avoid this, you must add all desired items to your cart, close the Amazon window (your items will be saved to the cart). Then open Ohio Buys and launch Amazon. This will start the new 30-minute period of the timeout security.
|
Solicitation Zip File Naming Conventions
When adding documents or zip files to a sourcing event, make sure to keep the file names short (i.e., no more than 128 characters). Do not use special characters in the file names (e.g., no double quote, question mark, pipe, colon). Dashes and underscores are acceptable.
Boards & Commissions Go Live
The following boards and commissions will go live in OhioBuys on Monday, December 18th.
SUPPLIER UPDATES
Supplier Status in OhioBuys
If talking to a supplier about their status in OhioBuys, please remind them to complete the following.
 In addition, users should provide their company's demographic information to aid the agencies with the information needed for the Controlling Board submissions and approvals. This can be completed in the Addition Information Tab.
2023 Supplier Webinars
OhioBuys supplier training webinars walk through how to take advantage of OhioBuys. See the webinar schedule below.
TRAINING TIPS
 |
|
Opus Training Tool
Epilogue Opus, the new OhioBuys training tool, went live on April 17th for all OhioBuys users. If you have not already, please use this job aid for account setup and browser extension installation to access the enhanced materials.
|
To start this process, you will need to open the email you received on April 17th from Epilogue Administrator. If you cannot find the email from Epilogue Administrator, please follow these steps:
- Navigate to https://ohio.opuseps.com/, click on “Forgot password?”
- Enter your OH|ID email address (e.g., 12345678@id.ohio.gov) to have a password reset email sent to you
- Use the information in this email to set up your Opus account
If you require additional assistance setting up your Opus account, please email OBM Contact Center (OBM.ContactCenter@obm.ohio.gov) or sign up for Opus Office Hours with the OhioBuys team.
 |
|
Training Calendar 2023 - June 2024
OhioBuys ongoing training will be available virtually and on-site starting in 2024. Users can register for these sessions directly in OhioLearn. 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 can 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.
We encourage you to take advantage of this resource as you acclimate to OhioBuys. To sign up for office hours, please follow the prompts on the Office Hours Booking page.
You will receive direct help on a specific transaction as you work 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 Contact Center at 614-338-4781 or 1-877-644-6771 OR OBM.ContactCenter@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
|
