Supplier Diversity Newsletter

Greetings Partners,

New OMWBE Certified Businesses

Every month we share a list of the most recent state certified businesses including the firm’s name, contact information, business description, etc. This list is best utilized regularly in combination with OMWBE's Directory of Certified Businesses.

Please contact our Supplier Diversity team for assistance using our online directory, or to schedule a virtual training for your procurement team.

Email: supplierdiversity@omwbe.wa.gov

Please join us for the Access Equity Open House!

The Office of Minority & Women's Business Enterprises (OMWBE) is hosting an Open House to introduce you to the Access Equity system. We are inviting all leaders, contracts and procurement staff, and DEI professionals at agencies and institutions of higher education to join us this November.

Learn how Access Equity will affect your agency or institution. There are important changes coming to the way Washington State tracks its diverse spending. These changes align with the Governor's focus on equity, and will allow us to track our spending more accurately, at a deeper level that includes subcontractors.

We are here to guide you through this process and answer any questions you have along the way. Two events are scheduled for your convenience.

• Wed, November 9th 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
• Wed, November 16th 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Several state agencies and universities are already working with us in Phase 1 of Access Equity implementation. Thank you to our trusted partners for your participation and commitment to equity in public spending.

We look forward to seeing you at the Open House!

Outreach Toolkit Workshop

Executive order 22-01 requires agencies to use the Tools for Equity in Public Spending, one of which is Outreach. But what does it really mean for an agency to “do outreach”? How can agencies track outreach efforts to show that they are meeting the expectations in the EO?

OMWBE and DES partnered to develop resources to assist agencies with developing a comprehensive outreach program. These updated resources will be published on the Outreach Page of the toolkit before our next workshop.

We will review those resources and introduce a web-based application to help with outreach during our workshop on November 17th at 10:00.

Please register for the Outreach Toolkit Workshop using the link below.

Toolkit Assessment Follow-Up

The OMWBE Supplier Diversity Team met with representatives from each agency at the beginning of the year to get an understanding of the agency’s readiness to use the tools as required by EO 22-01. We will be following up in November by email to ask about any changes to how your agency is working to diversify spending. Please look for that email if you are our designated point of contact, or be prepared to provide supporting information for the point of contact.

DES rolls out supplier diversity policy, training and handbook for procurement professionals

DES is introducing a new enterprise supplier diversity procurement policy that takes effect April 1, 2023. It requires state agencies to include supplier diversity considerations in all aspects of their goods and services procurements.

Required training:

• The WA State Supplier Diversity training course is available inside the Washington state Learning Center. You must complete the training by April 1, 2023.
  • If you have trouble finding the training, contact your agency’s training manager. Each agency has its own link to the Learning Center.

Other resources for procurement professionals:

• An interactive handbook that walks you step-by-step through the policy requirements and helps you learn and follow the policy.
• DES will soon announce an introductory session for the policy and handbook. DES policy and procurement equity experts will be available to answer your questions.
• DES will also offer virtual open office hours before the policy takes effect to help you with questions or technical assistance.

Policy objective

The goal of the supplier diversity policy is to give small, diverse and veteran-owned businesses equitable access to state contracts. DES will evaluate state agencies’ compliance with this policy during the risk assessment process that establishes their delegated authority.

Questions

If you have questions in the meantime, please reach out to the DES Policy team.

DES Contracts & Procurement | Enterprise Procurement Policy
(360) 407-2210| DESmiEnterpriseProcurementPolicy@des.wa.gov

FY22 Supplier Diversity Reporting Update

Every year we send a memo to leaders at agencies and institutions of higher education to request annual spending data (including subcontractors) for the last fiscal year. We are midway through the data collection period for FY 2022.

Several agencies and educational institutions reached out to inform us that they would prefer to handle annual spend reporting at the programmatic level, with contracts and procurement staff working directly with OMWBE. In order to accommodate this, we have extended the deadline to submit your annual reporting data to the end of the month on October 31^st.

Please contact supplierdiversity@omwbe.wa.gov if you have any questions.

If you would like to include others on our distribution list to receive these monthly supplier diversity emails, please let us know at supplierdiversity@omwbe.wa.gov.