Supplier Diversity Newsletter

New OMWBE Certified Businesses

Greetings Partners,

Every month we share a list of the most recent state certified businesses including the business 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

Goal Plan 2027 Reporting

As we prepare for the end of the current fiscal year, we know many of you are working hard to close out your books and report on your FY 2026 contract data. This is a courtesy reminder, that state agencies are required to have a goal plan posted on our website under Agency Reports and Plans.

State Agency Goals from FY 2025-2026 will be maintained for FY 2027. Your Business Diversity Spending Goals will remain the same as the last two years.

FY 2027 Agency Goal Plans may be carried over from FY 2026. You are welcome to update your goal plan from last year. If your agency did not submit a goal plan for FY 2026, we will contact you in June.

Starting in FY 2027, we will begin introducing institutions of higher education to the Business Diversity Spending Goal Plan process. This is a ramp up period, to prepare universities and colleges to have goals assigned in FY 2028.

If you represent an institution of higher education, we encourage you to review your reporting requirements with OMWBE:

• RCW 39.19.250 - Participation in contracts by qualified minority and women-owned and controlled businesses—Data—Contact people—Reports.
• RCW 39.19.060 - Compliance with public works and procurement goals—Plan to maximize opportunity for minority and women-owned businesses.
• WAC 326-40-040 - Contents of state agency and educational institution's plan.

If you have questions, please reach out to supplierdiversity@omwbe.wa.gov.

Access Equity Update

We had an overarching theme at the last Supplier Diversity Office Hours – Vendor Management.

As a commitment to our agency partners and in our efforts to implement EO 25-06 we are exploring ideas within our current capacity to extend more support directly to vendors. When we implemented Access Equity, the idea was for us to support the account administrators at each agency and institutions of higher education and for those administrators to support their system users and the system users to support the vendors. That method has unfortunately not worked as planned, so we’re committed to finding alternative solutions to assist with vendor onboarding and technical support. Stay tuned for updates!

Please join us on Wednesday, June 3 at 2pm for the next meeting. To request an invitation, please email supplierdiversity@omwbe.wa.gov.

Here are a few questions we received at our last Office Hours:

Q: What were agencies identifying as their biggest pain points with Access Equity?

A: Agencies discussed several operational pain points, including manually walking Prime Contractors through payment entry, contractors requiring extensive handholding, difficulty understanding different user permissions and views, agencies not being able to see the same screens contractors see, contractors not completing tasks unless guided live, and agencies needing to manually add subcontractors/vendors into the system before work can proceed. 

Q: Are agencies seeing improvement in contractor participation? 

A: Yes. Agencies stated that participation and engagement are improving compared to the previous year, although onboarding and training still require significant support efforts. 

Q: How should agencies document supplier diversity outreach efforts for DES reviews or risk assessments? 

A: Recommendations included exporting search results from the OMWBE directory and/or WEBS, using the outreach communication template from the DES Procurement Manual, saving outreach documentation within the contract file, including a brief summary of outreach efforts and responses received, and utilizing Access Equity Outreach Campaigns as supporting documentation. The outreach module in Access Equity can help you target certified firms to view and bid on your RFPs and you can pull your own report out of the system when DES asks for proof of your outreach efforts. The training video is in The Learning Center – search for Access Equity Outreach – if you need a refresher on how to use it.

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.