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| State of Louisiana Procurement And Contract Network Tips |
L
ouisiana Procurement And Contract NetworkNavigating through the Site
Welcome to the Louisiana Procurement and Contract Network. We want your visit to this site to be as productive as possible and have developed some useful tips to help you navigate through this system. The information is stored in Word, Excel or PDF files (Portable Document Format). You will need some specific software (Adobe Acrobat Reader) to view the PDF documents. If you do not already have this free software, you can click here to Download the Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you have not done so we strongly recommend that you do this step now. All bid opening times are Central Time Zone. Louisiana does observe Daylight-Saving Time. For the current time in Louisiana, you may visit http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/louisiana/index.htm.
It is suggested that you print a copy of these instructions so you may follow the various topics as you navigate through this system.
Navigating through LaPAC is relatively simple. To move around the site simply click on any active link (any text that is in color and underlined). The top of each screen contains links to all other sections within the Main Menu, so it is easy to go from one section to another. The Main Menu, furthermore, contains a brief description of what is in each section.
Before starting, it is important to note that certain terms are used for brevity and are not intended to be exclusive. "Bid" and "Solicitation" are used interchangeably. These terms refer to any type of document that may be posted on LaPAC, including, but not limited to an ITB (Invitation To Bid), RFP (Request For Proposal), RFQ (Request For Quotation), and Construction Projects. The term "Addenda" or "Addendum" may refer to different types of amendments to the original document posted. It is your responsibility to view the documents and any addenda.
Many of you will be interested in the Bids by Category section. Clicking on this description will take you to the Bids by Category menu. It contains all of the solicitations by specific commodity groups. These may change from time to time depending on the needs of our customers. Simply click on the desired category to view all solicitations in that category. Note that the link is only active if there are solicitations available in that category. (An active link is also underlined). The number of solicitations is listed next to the commodity description. Initially, this section will contain solicitations issued by the Office of State Purchasing. As our system expands, agencies, departments, community colleges, universities and public schools may also list their solicitation documents in this manner. When you click on a specific commodity group, you will see the Bid number, Description, Date Issued, Bid Opening Date and Bid Opening Time. Statewide Term Contracts are listed in
red, and Agency Specific Term Contracts are in green. In addition, information on any addenda will be shown, where applicable, in this section. If a particular solicitation is canceled before bid opening date, the document will remain in the system until the original bid opening date. If a solicitation is canceled after the bid opening date, the bid will remain in the system for a period of thirty days after the cancellation date.Just as useful is the Bids by Department section. Here you will find all of the solicitations for a specific agency. Only active links will be underlined and the number of solicitations by agency listed beside the agency name.
The Search for Open Bids section allows a system search by various methods. You may select an individual department or all departments. Likewise you may select a specific category or all categories. For example, you may search to find all solicitations for the Office of State Purchasing for Food and Food Service Equipment with key words sugar, rice, eggs. If there are solicitations that fit these criteria they will be returned. If you know specific date information on a solicitation, you may search a specified date range on Open Date, Cancel Date, Issue Date or Last Change Date. You must specify a date range and not a single date. The date, furthermore, must be a valid date and cannot be a date prior to today’s date, if searching on Open Date. It is best to review all possible categories for solicitations of interest to you, because the specific key word may not be listed, and the search may not find the information you seek. If, for example, a key word is listed as "ship" it will not return a response for "boat." The key word search is limited to five words.
If you Search by Bid Number, the search will return any open solicitations, solicitations under evaluation or awarded solicitations for a period of thirty days beyond the award date. It will also show canceled solicitations until the original bid open date, if it is canceled prior to the bid opening date or until thirty days after the cancellation date if canceled after the bid opening date.
To view a listing of solicitations that have already been opened and see the current status, go to Check Status. Check Status will display all solicitations past the bid opening date which are awarded, cancelled or for which award information is not yet available.Browser Information
The Louisiana Procurement and Contract Network requires the use of specific browsers. The system has been designed and tested to run using Internet Explorer 5.0 and above or Netscape 4.73 and above, both of which are available for free download via the Internet.