The Department of Enterprise Services (DES) and Washington's Electronic Business Solution (WEBS) User Group recognized that the Award Section in WEBS is not regularly completed. This is due to a system limitation.

The system is set up to allow you the ability to post solicitations. Once the solicitation is "Closed," you can mark the vendors who "Responded," and enter which vendor was "Awarded." Currently, the system only allows you to send notification at "Award," and then "Archive" the solicitation. A step for entering which vendor(s) are Apparent Successful Bidder(s) (ASB) is missing. If you have changes in which vendor is awarded during negotiations or the Debrief/Protest Process, there is no option to alter the final Awarded vendor information in WEBS as it has already been "Archived."

This new enhancement will include the ASB notification process in our bid notification system. RCW 39.26.160(7) requires, "The procuring agency must enter into the state's enterprise vendor registration and bid notification system the name of each bidder and an indication as to the successful bidder." This enhancement will comply with this part of the competitive procurement code. In addition, this inclusion of Apparent Successful Bidder in WEBS develops it further as the system of record, allowing staff to track notices of ASB and award in WEBS in compliance with the law.

We recognize this is a system gap (yellow box in the diagram above) for you. In order to remedy this, a suggestion was made to update the "Award Vendor" section by creating an ASB section in WEBS. In consideration of and preparation for One Washington, we want to provide tools to clean up the system records before migration will occur.

The enhancement is set to launch April 28. Please join us on April 15, from 11 a.m. - noon, for a conference call where DES will demonstrate how the new enhancements will work, as well as answer questions you may have. We will record the session to be viewed later if you are unable to attend.

How to join the conference call:

Zoom Meeting Information:
https://des-wa.zoom.us/j/98497640143?pwd=V1VTRDdQTnNGZUdVSlhSMUhycWVMUT09
Meeting ID: 984 9764 0143
Password: 007370

The Updated ASB Vendor Notification Process

1. Once a solicitation is closed, the organization selects responsive vendors on the "Solicitation Results Page."
   
   
   
2. There will be a new option to send an ASB notification. Between the "responded" and "awarded" checkboxes on the Record Solicitation Results page, there will be a new checkbox titled "Apparent Successful Bidder." You can alter the notification message comments, add email recipients, and link to documents. There will not be an option to send or mark "Awarded" at this step.
   
   Per Enterprise Services Complaint and Protest Policy, policy number POL-DES-170-00 (to go into effect April 2021), all competitive procurements must include an announcement of the ASB(s) using WEBS.
   
   
   A record of the sent ASB messages are kept in WEBS for record retention. The date the notification was sent will be recorded in WEBS as well. ASB messages are sent to all active contacts for the vendors, regardless of whether they receive bid notifications or not.
   
   There will be an option to send more than one ASB notification. Any time an ASB is made, the Protest Process begins. If you need to make more than one ASB, be prepared to go through the Protest Process each time. Each ASB notification will be stored in WEBS, and you can view any previous ASB notifications by using a drop down menu.
   
   (As a reminder, negotiations should happen prior to posting the ASB.)
   
   
3. After ASB has been sent, an option to select the final awarded vendors will be available in WEBS. An option to send an award notification will also be available. Like the ASB notification, you can alter the message, add email recipients, and link to documents.
   
   
4. Once the ASB section (new) and Awarded sections are completed, the option to archive will then become available.
   
   

Questions?

Contact WEBS Customer Service at (360) 902-7400 or webscustomerservice@des.wa.gov.