36C78619R0001-054.pdf

eCMS v4.22 Vendor’s Guide April 2011

GUIDE FOR VENDORS

ON

HOW TO USE THE VAECMS VENDOR PORTAL

VAeCMS Vendor Portal (the production version):

https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov

This document includes data that shall not be disclosed outside the Government and shall not be duplicated, used, or disclosed -- in whole or in part -- for any purpose other than its intended purpose. This restriction does not limit the Government’s right to use information contained in this data if it is obtained from another source without restriction. The data subject to this restriction are contained in sheets herein.

ATTACHMENT 4

SOURCES SOUGHT/REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

VA701-13-I-0251

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The VA Electronic Contract Management System (VAeCMS) is a comprehensive tool used by VA Acquisition staff to create and manage VA acquisitions. VAeCMS is used to manage the full acquisition lifecycle, including the announcement of solicitations to vendors and the receipt of vendor responses. There are three announcement mechanisms in VAeCMS: 1) VA Acquisition staff will continue to announce solicitations for full and open competition to FedBizOpps; 2) Solicitations against Federal Supply Schedule contracts and GWAC contracts can be posted through e-Buy; and 3) Solicitations against Multi-Agency Contracts (MAC), IDIQ contracts and other limited competition situations can be announced via the new VAeCMS Vendor Portal. Vendors can respond to solicitations posted through any of these means via the VAeCMS Vendor Portal, with the exception of solicitations posted via e-BUY. e-BUY postings do not appear in the Vendor Portal for vendor viewing.

This guide provides vendors with instructions on how to view and respond to solicitations and amendments via the VAeCMS Vendor Portal. Additionally, this guide includes instructions for viewing the Forecast of Contracting Opportunities reports. If you have any questions or need further assistance using the VAeCMS Vendor Portal, please do the following:

Contact the VA Acquisition Systems Helpdesk via email at VA.Acquisition.Systems@va.gov or via phone at (877) 634-3739

Access the New User Help Documents link on the Login Page

Access the tab after logging into the Vendor Portal

Page

Editing Your Account Profile 1

Password Reset 2

Viewing Solicitations 4

Web-Based Q and A 7

Submitting Responses 9

Responding to Amendments 14

Viewing FCO Reports 16

Frequently Asked Questions 18

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As a user of the VAeCMS Vendor Portal, you have the ability to update certain information in your user account profile. It is suggested that you access your account profile to at least confirm that the email address is correct, as this is the address to which notifications about solicitations will be sent. This process steps you through how to access and update your VAeCMS Vendor Portal user account profile.

Step 1:

Log on to the VAeCMS Vendor Portal (via https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov);

Click on the tab.

Step 2:

Confirm/Update the information.

NOTE: The red asterisks denote required fields;

Click on to save any changes or back out of the user profile screen by hitting the to close without saving changes.

NOTE: Be sure to confirm your email address. VAeCMS will use the email address in your account profile to send notifications of solicitations to which your company has been invited to respond.

Congratulations! You have successfully updated your VAeCMS Vendor Portal account profile.

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In the event that you have forgotten your Vendor Portal password, you have the ability to reset your on password, by selecting the Forgot your Password link.

Step 1:

From the Vendor Portal login screen, Click on the “Forgot your Password?” link.

Step 2:

Enter your Vendor Portal User Name and click the “Submit”.

Step 3:

Enter the answer to the selected security question below, and then click the “Submit” button.

Step 4:

Once you have entered your answer to the selected security question, click “Done” to continue.

An email will be sent to your email address with instruction.

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Step 5:

Within the email that you have received, there will be a link for you to click on to reset your password.

Step 6:

Enter your New Password, which must be between 8 and 16 characters and contains at least one upper-case letter, one lower-case letter, and one number. No parts of your login ID can be in your password.

Click Submit

Congratulations! You have successfully submitted a request for a password reset.

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Once a solicitation has been posted to the VAeCMS Vendor Portal, you can view the solicitation if your company has been invited to respond. This process steps you through how to access and view a solicitation via the VAeCMS Vendor Portal.

Step 1:

Log on to the VAeCMS Vendor portal (via https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov), you will enter at the Solicitation Listing Page.

Step 2:

(Optional) If desired, you can filter the list of solicitations by status, using the following steps:

Select a solicitation status from the dropdown list. NOTE

: Please refer to the FAQs section of this guide for an explanation of each solicitation status;

Click on .

NOTE: To clear a filter, click on .

Step 3:

From the Solicitation Listing Page, you can see summary level information about the solicitation, including:

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Solicitation Name – name/subject of solicitation

Status – status of the solicitation

Start Time – date and time at which vendors can begin to submit responses

Stop Time – date and time after which responses cannot be submitted

Response Submitted – indication of whether or not a response has been submitted by your company

Q&A – indication of how many questions and answers available about the solicitation

Interested – indication of whether or not you have requested to receive updates about the solicitation

Needs Attention – A “yes” indicates that there was an amendment issued since your last response was submitted. See the “Responding to an Amendment” section of this guide

Leading Response – in a Reverse Auction, this column will display the lowest response submitted by any vendor thus far. See the “FAQs” section of this guide for additional information on Reverse Auctions.

Total Responses – in a Reverse Auction, this column will list the total number of vendors that have submitted a response thus far. See the “FAQs” section of this guide for additional information on Reverse Auctions.

Click on the button.

Step 4:

On the Solicitation Details page, under the Solicitation Documents section, click on the link for the associated file to open the solicitation document or any listed attachments. NOTE: After clicking on the file link, you may receive a File Download prompt. Click on “Open” to open the file or “Save” to save the file. Once opened, you can print the file(s), if desired;

If you would like to be notified of any changes made to the soliciation, such as an amendment, click on the link next to the “Interested” label.

On the next screen click on to be added to the list of interested vendors.

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NOTE: The “Interested” vendor link only shows for Full and Open solicitations.

Congratulations! You have successfully viewed the solicitation including any attachments.

Once the solicitation period begins (i.e. the solicitation has a status of “Current”), you can submit a response. See the Submitting Responses section of this guide for assistance with submitting a solicitation response.

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Often times, as vendors, you may have questions regarding a solicitation that you are responding to via the Vendor Portal. Questions and answers can now be submitted via the Vendor Portal. Once you access the solicitation, you have the ability to submit your questions for which the VA will provide a response. Below are the steps to submitting question(s) within the Vendor Portal.

Step 1:

Log on to the Vendor Portal (via https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov);

Locate the prerequisite solicitation and click on the Link located under the Q&A column.

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Step 2:

On the Question and Answer Listing Page, click on the button to access the Questions and Answers Detail Scree n to submit a new questio n.

Step 3:

From the Questions and Answers Detail Page, enter a Question

Title, a Question, and click .

Congratulations! You have successfully conducted a web-based Q & A session.

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Once the solicitation period begins, you can submit a response for the solicitation to which your company has been invited to respond. You can submit as many responses as desired; however, the VA Contracting Officer will only see the last finalized response submitted by your company. This process steps you through how to respond to a solicitation via the VAeCMS Vendor Portal.

Step 1:

Log on to the VAeCMS Vendor portal (via https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov), you will enter at the Solicitation Listing Page.

Step 2:

(Optional) If desired, you can filter the list of solicitations by status, using the following steps:

Select a solicitation status from the dropdown list.

NOTE: Please refer to the FAQs section of this guide for an explanation of each solicitation status;

Click on . NOTE: To clear a filter click on

Step 3:

From the Solicitation Listing Page, you can see summary level information about the solicitation, including

Solicitation Name – name/subject of solicitation

Status – status of the solicitation

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Start Time – date and time at which vendors can begin to submit responses

Stop Time – date and time after which responses cannot be submitted

Response Submitted – indication of whether or not a response has been submitted by your company

Needs Attention – A “yes” indicates that there was an amendment issued since your last response was submitted. See the “Responding to an Amendment” section of this guide Leading Response – in a Reverse Auction, this column will display the lowest response submitted by any vendor thus far. See the “FAQs” section of this guide for additional information on Reverse Auctions.

Total Responses – in a Reverse Auction, this column will list the total number of vendors that have submitted a response thus far. See the “FAQs” section of this guide for additional information on Reverse Auctions;

Click on the button.

Step 4:

Follow steps 5a - 7a to submit a new response;

Follow Step 5a – 7a to submit a revised response from scratch;

Follow steps 5b – 7b to submit a revised response by copying the previously submitted response; or

Follow step 5c to submit a No Offer response.

Step 4a:

Optional: If you want to ask the soliciation owner a question about the soliciation prior to placing your response:

Click on the link next to the “Questions” label

On the Question and Answer listing page you may ask a question by clicking

Enter a title and the details of your question and click

To see answers to questions submitted, you can click on the link from the solicitation listing page under Q&A or you may click either the question or answers link on the solicitation details page.

Step 5a:

To submit a new response or a revised response from scratch:

On the Solicitation Details Page, click on .

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Step 6a:

To enter pricing and comments:

Enter a Response Name;

Enter Vendor Comments, if desired;

Enter the unit price for each line item NOTE: If you are responding to a solicitation posted to FBO, the Line Items will not be displayed on the screen. You will need to include your pricing in your attachments;

Enter Vendor Comments at the Line Item level, if desired.

Step 7a:

To add attachments:

Under the Response Attachments section, click ;

For each attachment, browse to locate the file, double-click on it and click

To submit the finalized response:

Click ; and

Click on the alert window.

NOTE: To save the response as a draft without submitting it, click on instead.

Step 5b:

To submit a revised response by copying a previously submitted response:

On the Solicitation Details Page, click on the link next to the previously submitted response;

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Step 6b:

Edit the Response Name, if desired;

Edit the Vendor Comments, if desired;

Edit the unit pricing for the line Item(s), if desired; and Edit the Item Level Vendor Comments, if desired

NOTE: When copying a previous response, the attachments to the response are also copied, so be sure to update them as necessary by following step 7b.

Step 7b:

To remove attachments:

Under the Response Attachments section, check the box under Remove; and Click on the link;

To add attachments:

Under the Response Attachments section, click ;

For each attachment, browse to locate the file, double-click on it and click

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Step 5c:

To submit a No Offer response (NOTE: Submitting “No Offer” informs VA that your company has made an intentional decision not to submit a response to the solicitation.):

On the Solicitation Details Page, click on

Enter Vendor Comments, if desired.

NOTE: You may wish to indicate why you are submitting a “No Offer” (e.g. you are unable to supply the product or service being requested);

Click ;

Congratulations! You have successfully submitted a solicitation response(s). Once the solicitation period closes, the VA Contracting Officer will see the last finalized response submitted by your company.

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Should a VA Contracting Officer submit an amendment to a solicitation that is still current, you will receive an email notification alerting you to the fact that an amendment has been released. You will want to logon to the VAeCMS Vendor Portal, view the amendment and submit a revised response if appropriate. This process steps you through how to respond to a solicitation amendment via the VAeCMS Vendor Portal.

Step 1:

From the Solicitation Listings Page, locate the solicitation; and

Click on the link.

NOTE: If a solicitation is amended after your company has submitted a response, the “Needs Attention” column with indicate “Yes”, which means you need to view the amendment and respond.

Step 2:

Any amendments will be listed under the Associated Files column on the Solicitation Details Page. Each amendment and any attachments should be closely inspected to determine the exact modifications that it includes.

Submitting a revised response based on the amendment(s) automatically ackowledges the amendment(s) released since your last response was submitted.

If a new amendment modifies the line items of the solicitation, any previously submitted responses will no longer be line item compliant. Thus a new response will need to be submitted that matches the updated cost structure of the solicitation.

Step 3:

To view the amendment(s) and any attachment(s):

Click on the link for the associated file to open it; and

Click on “Open” or “Save” when prompted.

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Step 4:

To submit a revised response (NOTE: If the amendment impacts the line items, you need to submit a revised response. ):

Follow steps 5a & 7a in the “Submit a Response” section of this guide to submit a revised quote from scratch;

-or-

Follow steps 5b & 6b in the “Submit a Response” section of this guide to copy the last submitted response.

Congratulations! You have successfully responded to a solicitation amendment(s) via the VAeCMS Vendor Portal.

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You will be able to review the current fiscal year’s Forecast of Contracting Opportunities reports by clicking on the FCO Reports Link. The FCO Reports are filterable in a variety of different ways. This process steps you through how to view the FCO Reports via the VAeCMS Vendor Portal.

Note: These are the same reports viewable to the general public via the Office of Small Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) website.

Step 1:

Go to the VAeCMS Vendor Portal Login screen (via https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov);

Step 2:

Click the link under Other Applications on the lower left hand corner of the Vendor Portal homepage.

Step 3:

Select the desired query from the links on the left Navigation Pane.

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Step 4:

Based on the Query selected in step 3, enter additional filtering details.

Click on .

Note: Once it generates You may save the report in a variety of file formats and/or print the report.

Congratulations! You have successfully executed a VA Forecast of Contracting Opportunities report.

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We have provided responses to some of the questions frequently asked with respect to using the VAeCMS Vendor Portal.

How do I obtain a VAeCMS Vendor Portal account?

Contact the VA Acquisition Systems Helpdesk at VA.Acquisition.Systems@va.gov or (877) 634-3739.

What do the different solicitation statuses mean?

There are four possible solicitation statuses.

Current – means that the solicitation period has started and vendor responses can be submited.

Future – means that the solicitation has been released by the Contracting Officer but the solicitation period has not yet started and responses cannot yet be entered.

Past – means that the solicitation period has ended and responses can no longer be submitted.

Cancelled – means that the solicitation has been cancelled by the Contracting Officer and responses cannot be submitted.

Awarded – means that at least one award has been made from the solicitation.

Can more that one person from my company submit responses?

Yes. Anyone from your compnay with a VAeCMS Vendor Portal account may submit responses on behalf of your company. So, it is important to coordinate the submission of solicitation responses, so that the appropriate person is submitting the final response.

Are all solicitations submitted via the VAeCMS Vendor Portal?

No. The VAeCMS Vendor Portal is only used for solicitations for limited competitions (e.g. against Multiagency Contracts (MAC) and IDIQ Contracts).

Solicitations posted to FedBizOpps are available in the VAeCMS Vendor Portal for viewing and response submittal.

Can I respond to any solicitation that I can view via the VAeCMS Vendor Portal?

No. You can only respond to those solicitations with a “Current” status.

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On the Solicitation Listing Page, under “Response Submitted” it indicates “Yes” but I have not yet submitted a response. Is this a mistake?

No. Remember that anyone in your company with a VAeCMS Vendor Portal account can submit responses on behalf of your company. So check with the other users to determine who has already submitted a response. Also, clicking “View Details” will allow you to view the details of the response that has already been submitted.

Can I see how my response compares to other vendors’ responses?

It depends. In VAeCMS, VA Contracting Officers can choose between two different types of postings: a “Standard Solicitation” or a “Reverse Auction”.

With a “Reverse Auction”, you will be able to see the amount of the lowest response submitted by any vendor thus far under the “Leading Quote” column.

You cannot see which vendor supplied the lowest amount but you can see what the amout is. You will also be able to see how many vendors have submitted a response thus far under the “Total Quotes” column. For a “Standard Solicitation”, you will not be able to see the lowest response submitted nor the number of vendors who have responded.

What is the purpose of a “No Offer” response?

Submitting a “No Offer” informs VA that your company has decided not to submit a response to the solicitation. In the comments section, you have the ability to supply information that will go back to the VA Contracting Officer, for example an explanation for why you are submitting a “No Offer” response (e.g. your company cannot provide the product or service being requested.)

How do I acknowledge an amendment?

Submitting a revised response after an amendment has been posted automatically acknowledges the amendment.

NOTE: If a new amendment modifies the line items of the solicitation, any previously submitted responses will no longer be line item compliant. In this case a revised response must be submitted that matches the updated cost structure of the solicitation.

Who will see my question once I submit it?

Once you submit a question, the Contracting Officer has visbility of your question and may submit a response. Any vendor who has access to the solicitation will be able to see the list of questions and answers; however, the author of each question will remain anonymous.

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VAeCMS Vendor Guide prepared by:

Department of Veterans Affairs

Office of Acquisition, Logistics and Construction Enterprise Acquisition Systems Service (001AI-E)

Please send comments to VA.Acquisition.Systems@va.gov