How to Submit an Online Response - March 2023.pdf

COMMONWEALTH OF

KENTUCKY HOW TO SUBMIT

AN ONLINE RESPONSE

THROUGH THE KENTUCKY

VENDOR SELF SERVICE (VSS)

Online bid submission through Kentucky’s VSS (March 2023)

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY HOW TO SUBMIT AN ONLINE RESPONSE THROUGH THE KENTUCKY VENDOR SELF

SERVICE (VSS)

How to Submit an Online Response for a Business Opportunity The Commonwealth of Kentucky has many business opportunities. These business opportunities or solicitations are posted on Kentucky’s Vendor Self Service (VSS) application.

All online responses to Kentucky’s solicitations must be submitted through VSS. To respond to a solicitation, vendors must have a VSS account. To register for an account, refer to the KY Vendor Self Service Registration Guide (available on the VSS website from Download Vendor Forms and Quick Reference Guides).

This guide covers the following topics:

• Solicitation Types

• Submitting a Response

• View Solicitation Responses

1 Solicitation Types Five (5) types of solicitations may be available in VSS:

• P3 – Public, Private, Partnership Notice

• RFB – Request for Bid

• RFI – Request for Information

• RFP – Request for Proposal

• RFQ – Request for Quote

The Submitting a Response section details how to respond to a solicitation.

2 Submitting a Response

The following steps outline how to submit an online response to a solicitation on Kentucky’s VSS.

How to Submit a Response:

Enter User ID and Password. Click Sign In.

You must have a VSS account to submit a response. If you do not have an VSS account, click Sign Up and refer to the KY Vendor Self Service Registration Guide for more information on how to register.

From the Home page, navigate to the Published Solicitations in one of the following ways:

i) Click the Published Solicitations icon.

ii) On the left-hand navigation menu, click the Business Opportunities icon. Click Business Opportunities then click Solicitations.

Locate the desired solicitation.

• You may search by the following fields o Show Me (Open, Closing Soon, Recently Published, Recent Amendments, Recent Awards) o Category (Agricultural, Animal Related, Clothing, etc.) – this is not required and may not always be available o Type (P3 Notice, Request for Bids, Request for Information, Request for Proposals, Request for

Quotes) o Keyword Search (can search by Solicitation ID, Solicitation Description, Agency, and Buyer) o Status (Awarded, Closed, Amended, Open, Reopened, Cancelled)

In the Solicitation Number / Type / Category column, click the solicitation number link to view the details of the solicitation.

Review the solicitation details. Make certain to review each tab, especially the Attachments tab, and check the requirements and documentation associated with the bid requirements. There may be documents that must be completed and uploaded in order for your bid to be deemed responsive.

Click Respond Online to create a Solicitation Response.

These six steps must be completed on the Solicitation Response (SR) page:

(1) Select Lines – used to select the lines for which you want to submit a response.

(2) Respond to Lines – used to respond to each line on the solicitation.

(3) Checklist/Scoring Criteria – used to respond to Evaluation Criteria defined on the solicitation.

(4) Enter General Comments – used to add any overall comments for the response.

(5) Add Attachments – used to upload files and attachments to support the response.

(6) Review & Submit – used to review your response before submission.

To save your work at any time, Click Save & Close.

Click Exit to leave page without saving recent changes.

Step 1. Select Lines

On the Select Lines step, select applicable line(s) for your response.

• For selected lines, you will enter the bid price on the Respond to Lines step.

• Lines that are not selected on this step will default a Response Type of No Bid on the Respond to

Lines step.

o Some solicitations may require that you bid each line item. Check Terms and

Conditions/Attachment A for each solicitation to determine if you are required to bid each line. Selecting No Bid for some solicitations may deem you non-responsive.

• ALL commodity lines require a response.

Click Continue.

Step 2. Respond to Lines All lines appear on the Respond To Lines step.

• Lines that are selected on the Select Lines step, the Response Type infers to Bid. For lines that were not selected, the Response Type defaults to No Bid.

• In the Response Type drop-down field, select Bid, Bid with Condition, or No Bid.

For Bid with Condition or No Bid, the Comments field must be completed.

On the top right, click the page 3-dot menu for additional options. For example, you may click Hide No Bid Lines to display only the lines that have a Response Type of Bid.

For a Line type requesting a Unit Price, Delivery Days must also be entered.

• If Delivery is not applicable, but the line type is an item, enter 0.

• Enter Comments, as appropriate. There are 1500 characters available

• For an RFP, enter $0.00 o Attach your Cost, Technical, Proprietary, or any other required documentation in Step 5 (Add Attachments)

For a line Type requesting a Contract Amount:

• For an RFB or RFQ, enter your bid amount

• For an RFP, enter $0.00 o Attach your Cost, Technical, Proprietary, or any other required documentation in Step 5 (Add Attachments)

Click the Additional Specs button to enter additional commodity specifications.

Enter product specifications on the Additional Product Specs page, if applicable. If alternative specifications are not permitted, the Alternate fields will be grayed out.

Step 3. Checklist/Scoring Criteria

The Checklist/Scoring Criteria section shows all criteria for the solicitation. Some criteria may show default information.

• For criteria that require a response, review the Description and enter or select a value in the My

Response column.

• If “Response Type Expected” is None, or there is not any Criteria listed, click Continue or move on to 4 (Enter General Comments)

If Responses are required, respond to each question and click Continue to proceed to the next step.

Step 4. Enter General Comments

The Overall Response Comment field may be used to enter text for the entire response. There are 1500 characters available. You can make the field larger by clicking and dragging the bottom right corner of the field.

Click Continue to advance to the next step.

Step 5. Add Attachments

On the Add Attachments step, documents may be uploaded to support the response.

• Click the Add Attachments button.

• Maximum Attachment Size per file is 65000 KB

Click browse on the Attachments page to locate the file to upload. You may also drag and drop the file onto the page.

Search and select the file from your computer or local network on the Open page.

Click Open to select the file.

Click Browse on the Attachments page to search and select additional files. Once all files are selected, click Upload. You can also “drag” and “drop” files in the center of this page.

• Documents are limited to ten (10) at one time.

Verify the “Successfully uploaded 1 file” message displays.

You may “drag” and “drop” files if you choose.

Click Close.

Review the attached file(s). Click Add Attachments to add a new file. Click Delete to remove a file.

If all files are attached, click Continue to proceed to the next step.

Step 6. Review & Submit

Review all information entered.

If all information is correct, click Submit Response.

Errors are indicated with a red x. Errors must be resolved in order to submit the response. Warnings are indicated with an orange triangle.

Note: You can submit a response with warnings. Click Submit Response again to submit with warnings.

Click the icon to view all errors and warnings or use the arrow icons to view one at a time.

Verify the “Thank you for your response. It has been successfully submitted.” message displays.

All responses will be listed. If you do not see your solicitation ID listed, you may enter the solicitation ID in the Keyword Search.

A successful submission will have a Response Status of Accepted.

An email notification will be sent to verify that your response was accepted.

If you do not receive an email notification, you may still check the status of your bid submission by following the steps as listed in the following section, “Solicitation Responses.”

If your submission was not successfully submitted, you may reach out to the Customer Resource Center help desk for assistance by email at Finance.CRCGroup@ky.gov or by phone at 502-564-9641 or toll-free at 877-973-4357.

mailto:Finance.CRCGroup@ky.gov

3 Solicitation Responses

Responses may be viewed on the My Responses section. Additional information may be found in the How to Locate a Response for a Business Opportunity guide (available on the VSS website under Download Vendor Forms).

How to View Your Responses Log in to VSS.

From the Home page, use one of the following methods to access the My Responses page:

i) On the Home page, click My Reponses.

ii) On the left-hand navigation menu, click the Business Opportunities icon. Click Solicitation Response then click My Responses.

The My Responses page displays all the responses for your vendor code.

The Link to Response column has a link to view the response. Click the link to view.

The Response Status column shows the status of your responses. Only Accepted statuses are successfully submitted responses.