Submitting a Quote on a Solicitation

You can submit a quote on an open solicitation, including a solicitation reopened for Onboarding; the quote submittal process is the same for open solicitations and reopened solicitations for Onboarding. When submitting (or resubmitting a quote), you should be aware of the business rules that will be applied.

IMPORTANT Solicitations reopened for Onboarding may be done once each fiscal year if the Contracting Officer determines there is a need for Onboarding. What is Onboarding? - Onboarding is not a new procurement and operates differently than a new solicitation. Onboarding is a result of the provisions established in the original solicitation and is issued as a solicitation amendment to the original solicitation. - The terms and conditions of the original solicitation require that 'The award decision under the open season solicitation is based upon the same evaluation factors/sub-factors as the original solicitation.' Additionally, the terms and conditions of the original solicitation require that, 'The terms and conditions of any resulting new IBPA awards are identical to the original awards and solicitation, to include period of performance.' - Accordingly, while the Government will entertain suggestions and Industry input regarding the Onboarding amendment, the Government anticipates very little change to result from this input, especially as it regards any potential changes to the evaluation factors or resulting terms and conditions.

Business Rules for Submitting a Quote

• If you start a new quote and get past Step 3 in the Quote Submittal wizard, but do not finish the quote process, your quote will be saved and considered a "new submission in progress," and you will be able to edit it, complete it, or delete it. If you start a new quote, but do not get past Step 2 in the Quote Submittal wizard, your quote will not be saved as a "new submission in progress," and you will need to restart the quote through the Open Solicitations tab.

• Your quote will NOT be considered as "submitted" until you complete the Quote a Solicitation wizard to fully submit the quote. Only one response can be submitted for a solicitation. VIPR will use the vendor’s last response submitted as the response on record and will override any previous responses. If you are resubmitting a quote, you MUST still include ALL of the resources that you want on your quote—even if you only have updates to a few of your resources.

• NOTES: Although you will be able to start the Quote a Solicitation wizard and proceed through most of the steps, you will need to complete your company information before you will be able to complete (sign and submit) the quote.
  
  
  
  - Also, you will need to add your resources into the vendor application in order for submitting quotes, but you can add the new resources during the Quote a Solicitation process or add the new resources ahead of time through the My Resources tab > Add New Resources.

• VIPR will not do a VIPR/SAM validation check at the time when you submit or re-submit a quote, but VIPR will do a validation check at the time of award to ensure (1) your SAM record is active and (2) your company name, company DBA, company address, and mailing address in VIPR matches the company information in SAM. If these two criteria are not met, then you will be ineligible for receiving an award. For more information, see "The VIPR/SAM Interconnection".
• If you update your resource information after you have submitted a quote, you will need to resubmit the quote to include those changes in the quote.
  • If you have used the same resource on more than one quote and make updates to the resource, then you will need to resubmit the quote for each solicitation.
  • You can update your resource information and resubmit at any time until the solicitation close date. Once the solicitation closes, the CO will need to put you "In Negotiations" in order to allow you to resubmit your quote if you have changes you want included in your quote.
• If you update your company information after you have submitted a quote, you will NOT need to resubmit the quote. The updates will automatically be added to your offer until the solicitation is awarded, just click on the View Quote.PDF to regenerate the quote and see your changes.
  
  HOWEVER, if you made updates to company name, company DBA, company address, and mailing address in your SAM record, you MUST first use the "View/Import from SAM" button to get your VIPR information in sync with SAM or you will be ineligible to receive an award. Once you import the information, you will not need to resubmit your quote, because the changes will automatically be added to your offer—just click on the View Quote.PDF to regenerate the quote and see your changes. Remember that it takes SAM several business days to process your changes before those changes will be available to import from SAM into VIPR
• If you have not completed your Reps & Certs information online in the System for Agreement Management (SAM) at https://www.sam.gov, then you MUST do so in order for your quote to be considered complete.
• Only one response can be submitted for a solicitation. VIPR will use the vendor’s last response submitted as the response on record and will override any previous responses.
• You can submit/resubmit a quote on an open solicitation that is under protest. You follow the same process for the solicitation that is under protest that you would for a solicitation that is not under protest. One difference between the two types of solicitations is that awards for a solicitation under protest will not occur until AFTER the protest is lifted. For information about a solicitation under protest, contact the Contracting Officer.
• If you wish to associate an EFT with a quote, you can do so in the Submit a Quote wizard.
• If you did not originally include an EFT on your quote, you can associate a EFT to your quote in the Submit a Quote wizard during a resubmittal of the quote.
• You cannot enter a new EFT values through the Submit a Quote wizard; for any new EFT values, you must first enter them in the Edit Company Information wizard before they will be available to select during the quote submittal process.

To submit a quote on an open or reopened solicitation:

1. From the Home page, click on the Open Solicitations tab to find a list of open or reopened solicitations.
2. In the table, in the Action column for the solicitation you wish to submit a quote on, click on the Play icon () to start the Quote a Solicitation wizard.
3. In the View Solicitation step, view a summary of the solicitation. To view more detailed information about the solicitation, click on the View Complete Solicitation button. To proceed to the next step in the wizard, click the Continue button.
4. In the Select Resources step, click on the check box(es) to select the resources you wish to use for submitting a quote on the solicitation.

NOTES:
- You will receive a warning message if you do not have any resources that qualify for the solicitation. If this is the case, you can either click the Update button to review your resource data for your current resources or click the Add New Resource button to add a new resource that may qualify for the solicitation.

- If you have a resource that may seem like it should qualify for the solicitation, but the resource is suspended on an agreement for a different solicitation, then the resource is considered to be associated with that agreement and will NOT be available to submit on a quote for another solicitation.

Special Note for Generic resources:
A generic resource will qualify for ALL generic solicitations.

• If you click the Update button to view your resource information:

1. The Manage Your Resources wizard opens and you can view and/or edit your resource information. You must complete this wizard to save any changes you make to your resource.
2. From this wizard, click the Go Back to Quote button to go back to the Quote a Solicitation wizard.
3. Go to Step 5.

• If you click the Add New Resource button to add a new resource for the solicitation quote:

1. The Manage Your Resources wizard opens and you can add your resource information. You must complete this wizard to save the new resource you added.
2. From this wizard, click the Go Back to Quote button to go back to the Quote a Solicitation wizard.
3. Go to Step 5.

5. In the Select Resources step, click on the check box(es) to select the resources you wish to use for submitting a quote on the solicitation.
6. Click the Save and Continue button.
7. In the Add Rates step, click on the Set Rates button to select the dispatch center and set the rates for each resource.

IMPORTANT If your resource qualifies for more than one resource category type within the same resource group (i.e. VIN ABC123 qualifies as both an Engine Type 3 and an Engine Type 4) and you wish to submit both resource category types in your quote to the same solicitation, you MUST select the same Dispatch Center for both types.

Special Note for Generic resources:
For information about the Optional Rate fields, refer to D2 in the generic solicitation PDF.

8. Once you have set the rates and the dispatch center for each resource, click the Continue button.

NOTE: Notice the counter at the bottom of the wizard in this step, which indicates how many of the resources you have completed the rates and dispatch center information for.

9. In the Review Quote step, view the information you entered for your quote, and then click the Continue button.

NOTE: Also in this step, you can click on the View PDF button to view a PDF containing all of the information for your quote.

10. Click the Continue button.
11. In the Sign Quote step, read the quote signature statement and if you agree to the statement, select the 'I Agree' check box.

NOTE: If you have not completed your company information, you will be unable to sign and submit the quote until you complete your company information first (see "Editing Your Company Information").

12. Click the Submit button. A confirmation message appears asking you if you are sure about the number of resources you wish to submit with your quote. If you wish to proceed, then click the OK button and your signed quote will be submitted. If you wish to make changes, click the Cancel button and use the Previous button to go back to the step to add or remove your resources and then proceed through the wizard.

Your quote is submitted to VIPR. In addition to the confirmation you receive in the wizard, you will receive an e-mail notification of the successful submittal, as well. The confirmation email will include the number of resources you submitted on your quote. Also, you will see your quote in the My Quotes table in the vendor application.

NOTE: If you have submitted a quote for a Heavy Equipment with Water or Water Handling solicitation, then your e-mail confirmation will include a zip file with inspection forms for each of your resources. Some of the fields on the inspection forms will be pre-populated with VIPR data for your resources as captured through your quote. You will need WinZip to open the InspectionForms.zip. It is recommended that you print the inspection forms and take them to your scheduled inspection.

 

IMPORTANT Only one response can be submitted for a solicitation. VIPR will use the vendor’s last response submitted as the response on record and will overwrite any previous responses.

 

IMPORTANT If you have completed your representations and certifications online using SAM, then your quote is complete.

 

What's Next? - Use the table on the My Quotes tab to keep track of the status of your quotes. - If the solicitation is amended and you submitted a quote on the open solicitation, you will see an Alert notice on the Home page and if you choose to respond to the amendment, you can resubmit your quote (see "Resubmitting a Quote").

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