"Doing Business Texas Style" Spot Bid Fair

"Doing Business Texas Style" Spot Bid Fair (DBTS) is an event that is held annually and is hosted by Department of Information (DIR). It is attended by all state agencies and colleges/universities in the state of Texas. The purpose of the event is to provide procurement opportunities for HUBs wherein HUBs can place bids on these opportunities and an announcement of awards occurs at the end of the event. 

History:

 In 2004 the "Doing Business Texas Style” (DBTS) Spot Bid Fair was created to provide procurement opportunities for Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs) throughout the State of Texas. The event has continued annually as a success and only grows from year to year. The unique format of the DBTS Spot Bid Fair allows Small and Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs) allows opportunity to submit bid proposals on-site (or virtually when event is held virtually) attend educational workshops, meet with purchasers from state agencies and institutions of higher education, and build business-to-business relationships. There has been over 1.5 million dollars awarded in a single spot bid fair in the past.

General Timeline of Events:

•  Official dates for are announced by DIR. 
•  HUB/SB office confirms our marketing strategy.
  
  • HUB/SB office gathers potential procurement opportunities.
  • These opportunities should aim to be awarded during the event.
•  HUB/SB attends the event.
  • We participate in panels and workshops. 
  • We announce the potential opportunities.
  • We organize and analyze the bids.
  • We announce the winners.

Marketing

Our marketing strategy is aimed internally at CSUs. The HUB/SB office will meet to determine the marketing strategy. After the marketing strategy is confirmed, HUB/SB director and/or the VP of PPS will make an announcement at the Council of University Business Officers (CUBO) meeting. An official email will be sent to the Purchasing Updates listserv from EMMA that includes a link to a Qualtrics Survey that allows CSUs to input potential bids. Announcements will also be made on the HUB/SB website and the UT Market site. FAS Communications must be contacted to update the website (fascommweb@austin.utexas.edu). Enterprise Business Information Technology Solutions must be contacted to update UT Market and our contact person in 2020 was Lauren J. Pahnke. The HUB/SB Staff Associate in charge of Outreach will make appointments with departments. The HUB/SB Staff Associate working with Procurement will gather all these bids input them into the official DBTS database (link is sent by DIR via email). The potential bids should be able to be awarded during the event. 

Official Email to CUBO for DBTS 2020

Official Email to Purchasing Updates Listserv for DBTS 2020

Microsoft Forms Survey for DBTS 2023

           HUB/SB Website Announcement

UT Market Website Announcement

The Event

DBTS is generally a two day event. On the first day, there are workshops and panel discussions to educate and train HUBs on how to do business with state agencies and universities. The HUB/SB director generally participates as a panelist. HUB/SB Associates participates in the workshops and panel discussions to learn about any new updates or processes with other state agencies and universities. The opportunities are announced on the first day and we meet with vendors to answer any questions they have about the opportunities. HUBs must place the bid before the deadline on the second day. On the second day, the HUB/SB team organizes and analyzes the bids and then we announce the winners. The winner is determined by the best value or lowest cost. 

After the Event

We send the bid information and the bid winners to the CSU to confirm.