Alright, so today
we're going to talk a little

bit about the mini bid process
and some of the specifics of

how that many bid process
applies to the cats contracts.

The mini bid process is a
process of narrowing down from.

As many as potentially six
different contracts of cats with

the original equipment
manufacturers of the networking

contracts, we may end up with as
many as six of them, and then of

course, as you know, many of
those, if not all of them are

identifying at least one, if not
a multiple resellers. So

basically from A&E rate point of
view, any of those resellers is

eligible to. Sell to you under
the contract, so we've never you

know, the state's contract has
narrowed down the worldwide pool

to this much smaller group based
upon the architectural standards

committee and all the work that
they do, and everything that

goes into determining.

The various functions and
features and whatnot that have

to be included in there in the
in the networking equipment that

goes into the state network. So
with that in mind, obviously we

then have. Well, we may have as
many as six different

manufacturers to choose from, so
because there are six and it

wasn't just narrowed down to one
and then everybody has to use

the same one, we use this mini
bid process to narrow it down to

the one that's going to actually
be providing service or.

Equipment to you
as the applicant.

In this mini bid process ahead
of it, you know when when the

cats contracts or when the RFP
for the cats contracts went

out to bid the state filed its
own form 470. That is the form

470 that you as the applicant
will ultimately reference.

Two to make your 471
eligible for commitment

for funding commitment.

The.

I was gonna say next. I hate
it when my mind just goes

completely blank.

Never happens to you
guys, right? Never.

So essentially that many bid
process. This is where I was

going to say that many bid
process is in is a reflection

of what you would do if it was
your own form 470 that you put

out on the street.

There are a couple of different
you know couple of different

things about that, however, that
separate it from the form 471 is

obviously you don't have to fill
out the form for 70 yourself any

it right from the outset, so
that's off your plate. You have

some narrowing down of the
field, so your need to contact

the whole world in terms of
potential bidders has been

narrowed down as I mentioned.

And then we're going to
then use this process to

come down to the one so.

In getting this process started
you will need to request a quote

from all of the resellers
available on the various

contracts, so that could be if
my understanding is correct,

that could be as many as.

Uh, 36 I think the the cats
contracts allow up to six

resellers from what I've seen so
far. Not. I don't think anybody

is actually identified. Six, I
think we're sitting at right

around 12 or 14 right now.

In terms of the available
resellers, I don't have the

exact numbers for for you now,
but those will be going out in

the with the contract matrix
when it's released, which I'm

hoping will be by the end of
this week because obviously

once we get into next weekend,
further folks will be needing

that data and that
information, so that will be a

critical piece.

But that will be coming out
and that will have a whole

host of information on it
that you will need in order

to file your your forms for
71 later on down the road.

So I'm.

You request a quote from all
your all the available

resellers, no matter what OEM
they are dealing with. You are

ultimately ending up. Not only
are you narrowing down which

manufacturer you're going to
select, but you're also neri

narrowing down the reseller,
so you need to ask for all

four. A quote for the
equipment that you're seeking

for from all of them. When you
do that, you basically want to

tell them that you need.

If there's if there's a specific
model number of equipment that

you're looking for because
you're dealing with different

manufacturers, you need to make
sure that you remain.

Vendor neutral even in your mini
bid process. So if you identify

this, let's say that you have
widget company XYZ and are there

there's router number XYZ 123.

I need to say in my request for
quote that I want that or

equivalent and those two words
are of critical importance. So

make sure that you say you know
we are looking for access points

from from the widget company and
we're looking for model number

XYZ123 or equivalent. Always re
include those words or

equivalent otherwise your.

Funding request could be denied
because you weren't expressing a

willingness to entertain
possible other alternatives and

that creates an unfair bidding
situation between the different

resellers so. That's really,
really important to note as

you send those out.

The next thing you need to be
aware of with respect to the

mini bid is that unlike a form
470, there is not a specific

waiting period that you have to
allow to pass prior to filing

your form 471.

Now that having been said, you
do still have to provide a

reasonable amount of time, and
that's the word that you SAC is

used over and over again in
terms of of.

You know requesting quotes under
a mini bids process is that you

have to allow a reasonable
amount of time for those vendors

to respond to your request for

quote. Now, what does
reasonable mean?

Usak has stated in their
trainings face to face and

online that they generally

consider. 7 to 10 days to be.

Reasonable, and when I say days
I mean business days so you

know, be aware that that's what
we're talking about is 7 to 10

business days if at all
possible, I think you could

probably, under the
circumstances. This year you may

have to, depending on how things
play out, you may need to only

give 5 to 7 because obviously
we're getting close to the end

of the funding window or the
filing window. Excuse me. And so

if you know you don't want to
make sure you don't back

yourself into a corner of being.

Too late to file your form 471
in a timely fashion.

But I think if you allow
seven to 10 days, you're

going to be in a safe
situation there. So

Fortunately we're still in a
period right now where you

can be meeting those seven
to 10 business days and

still and still not have to
worry about any kind of time

related constraints that
might pose a challenge to

any of the potential vendors
that would be bidding on

your on your mini bid.

A question came up earlier today
actually about providing

walkthroughs. This is something
that some vendors like to have,

and in fact I heard yesterday I
had a question come up from

bubble up from from a district
who told me that they actually

had a vendor that in response to
their mini bid, the vendor

wanted to come out for a walk

through. Of their own so
that they could bid on

the on the project now.

There's there's a couple of
different things at play here.

One is you still are bound to
competitive bidding rules and

and you are still having to
operate within the constraints

of making sure that you are
conducting a fair and impartial

bidding process. Even though
you're only choosing from the

available cats contracts.

If you were to allow a
walk through to one vendor.

And not make the same
opportunity available to all of

them. You are committing a a
competitive bidding violation,

so you need to be sure that if
you offer if one requests it for

example, and you say OK. Sure,
come on in, you need to make

sure that you contact everybody
else and let them come in and do

the same thing. And in that
process you would need to be

making sure that you are
providing each of those vendors

the same. Information you have
to make sure that there is no

competitive advantage gained by
any one of the vendors by their

site visit. Obviously.

From from a, an ease of process.

The easiest thing to do is just
simply to say if a vendor works,

you ask for that. Walk through.
The easiest thing to say is,

well, I'm sorry we can't afford
it to you and to everyone, and

because we can't afford it to
everyone at this time, everybody

is going to operate from the
same level playing field.

And you're well within your
rights to do that. You don't

have to provide them with
additional information, and in

fact you know. Obviously that's
exactly what they are seeking

in those kinds of situations,
so you want to be really,

really careful and tread
lightly as far as that's

concerned.

That having been said, you may

also. You can require if you
so choose for all of them to

be an in attendance for a walk
through that you will provide

to all of them all at the same
time. So a walkthrough is

something that you can do if
you choose to. You are not

required to if it is requested
of you. If it is requested of

you, highly recommend that you
provide it to everyone, not

just to one of the vendors.

So you wanna keep those
competitive bidding you want to

keep in your mind?

At the floor of your mind in
this process, making sure that

you are not giving a competitive
advantage to one vendor over

another when it comes to the
information that you are

providing for them to be able to
respond to your bid request.

Now.

That said.

Once you send out those requests
for quote to all of your

vendors, then I think what you
want to be doing is during those

perhaps 5, seven, 10 days you
want to be putting together your

bid evaluation criteria. You
want to build a abid evaluation

matrix if you will, and you SAC
actually has a couple of really

nice examples, and so I think
you can see, Oh no, I'm not

sharing my screen yet. Let me do
that first, because you won't be

able to see it.

Until I do that.

Silly maysilee me.

Share

screen OK, so in a moment you
should be able to see that.

Close my other windows bring
this to the four. There we go.

OK, so you should be able to see
now if my indications are

correct you should be able to
see my web browser and see that

we are looking at you sex

website. I did a
quick search on.

Evaluation matrix and this is
this was one of this page is

one of them that that comes
up. You can also see that it's

under Step 2 in the applicant
process how to construct an

evaluation. So if you needed
to search on this.

If you don't have a link you you
can just do constructability

valuation in the search criteria
and that will bring up this page

as one of your options.

But this page has a really a
couple of really nice examples

of evaluation matrices.

In both of these examples.

The the. You can see that.

Price continues to be the.

The the most heavily weighted
factor in evaluating the bids.

Price continues to be that most
heavily weighted factor even in

a mini bid, so whether or not
you know we've got pricing that

essentially you would expect to
be at least from you know if

let's say that.

One of the manufacturers has
four resellers you would expect

if they're all following the
state contract that those four

resellers will be coming back to
you with the same price. On this

on the same equipment.

So you would expect that on your
bid evaluation that for those

four they would receive the same
amount of points as.

As.

All of the others that provide
that same piece of equipment

that exact same piece of
equipment, because that's the

way it should should be coming
down in in the.

Based on the state contract and
and the fact that the pricing

really should be the same from
one reseller to the next, or

you would expect so for each
piece of similar equipment.

So that really means then that
price being essentially being

the same across the board, at
least for the ones that are

are sharing the same options,
it's going to come down to the

other criteria that you choose
to evaluate the bid on that is

going to be basically the
thing that decides who wins

and who doesn't, and you'll
notice that this particular.

This these both of these.

Examples talk about prior
experience factors of ineligible

costs or personnel
qualifications is at a local

vendor. You are they Kentucky
based. That might be another

one, or they locally based. Do
you have you know there's a? Do

you have experience with them?

Those kinds of things, um,
compatibility, that's going to

be a huge thing, you know, is
what they are, is what the.

Vendor is proposing going to
actually function properly

within your network. You know
if you asked for the widget

company and somebody comes
back and they they give you a

quote from the ball bearing
company. Well the ball

bearing company might have a
piece of equipment that will

do what you know, similar
something similar to what the

widget company's equipment
will do, but.

But you know that the ball
bearing company has software

that's going to conflict with
something that already exists

within your network. Well,
then, obviously that needs to

be some sort of mitigating
factor as to whether you

choose the ball bearing
company's equipment, so you

know that that that
particular.

That particular qualification or
criteria excuse me should be or

will be a really important one
for you probably to include.

In your bid evaluation.

So we've got our examples here.
You'll note that.

Here we go. Here's the
PDF I was looking for.

There we go. So when this is,
this is kind of an example of

what will you would have
probably in an Excel cell as an

Excel spreadsheet or similar
type type document that breaks

down how the.

Individual proposals were
scored, spreadsheets probably

going to be the best way to do
that, just to be able to see all

of your vendors and their scores
all basically in one place. This

example with only three vendors
is, you know, fits all kind of

conveniently on one page, but
you can see then that you list

your points, allow allow are
available for that particular

criteria. For each one, a total
number of points available.

And then the actual scores that
were given based upon the

responses that were provided by
the vendors that that that

submitted quotes to this product
to you in this process.

You then take your totals and
whoever gets the highest total

is going to be the winning

vendor. These this process
really is no different than what

you should be doing every time
you put your own form 470 out to

bid. So this process really
shouldn't be, at least for folks

who are accustomed to the E rate
process. This shouldn't be too

much in terms of different. That
should look very similar.

Once you have received all
your bids, you've gone

through the process of
scoring them. You've

identified your winning
vendor. Then you want to make

sure that you can move well
once you move on, you can

move on to filing your form
471. Make sure that you

referenced the correct
reseller or vendor that wins.

We will be sending out
documentation that will

include this pin number for
each of those.

For each of those resellers so
that you can make sure that you

correctly identify who that
winner is, and then make sure

that you retain all of your
documentation, because at some

point it is quite possible that
you will be asked to provide

this information during a Pi
review. It is not uncommon in a

mini bid situation for a PII
reviewer to say hey you have a

multiple award schedule.

That you know the state awarded
six different contracts, and

there's 3030 or so different
potential bidders. Let's see

your mini bid so that we can
make sure from you sex POV that

you've been following the rules
the way you need to. All of this

documentation falls under the
irrate documentation retention

schedule of 10 years. And
remember that that is 10 years

from the end of the funding

year. From in which you
started this process. So for

example, what we're doing
right now is for the 2122

funding year, which means that
you would have to hold it at

least through the end of 2032.

Wow, I can't believe I'm talking
bout the twenty 30s already.

Um?

That I think should cover most
of the bits and pieces of a mini

bid process enough so that folks
could can navigate their way

through it. Um, I've got a
couple of folks online with me.

Are there any questions that you
all might have at this point?

I am not hearing any. Needless
to say, if anyone does have

questions going forward, you can
certainly feel free to.

To give me a call to give
Caprice a call or drop us an

email or ping us on teams or
while we're at it, I'll put in

a little plug for our irrate
open houses. We are holding

them on Thursdays for the last
four Thursdays of the filing

window, which means that we
start our first one tomorrow.

We have 1:00 tomorrow at.

At 1:00 o'clock we have one on
the 11th at 10:00 o'clock. These

times are eastern by the way,
for those who might not be in

the Eastern Time zone, we have
one on the 18th at 1:00 PM, and

then we have one on the 25th.

At.

10 PM 10:00 AM as well, so
feel free to drop into those.

Those are just sort of like
it's almost like a you know,

we call it office hours. Just
walk in kind of thing we sent

out invitations to those, so
you should have received those

in your inbox. If you didn't
feel, please, you know, give

me a shout and we will forward
those to you so that you can

have those as well.

Beyond that, I don't believe
there is anything else that.

That needs to be covered if we
are done with any questions

that might be out there, but
we didn't hear any before, so

unless there are any, I think
we have come to the end of

this short little session.