Work Smart with the SCA McGraw-Hill Supplement - 21

A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO NEW YORK CONSTRUCTION OPENING DOORS QUALIFYING & CERTIFYING WITH THE SCA JUST GOT EASIER T he SCA is always looking for companies with which to partner in building and renovating schools. In order to make it as easy as possible for " rms to do so, the SCA developed the Vendor Access System (VAS), a webbased application that makes it simple and ef" cient to apply for prequali" cation and MWLBE certi" cation. According to Michael van Biema, Vice President of Administration, VAS was developed to provide " rms with a ‘one-stop shopping’ portal for initiating a business relationship with the SCA, and will soon be expanded to automate many other procurementrelated processes on which " rms rely in doing business with the Authority. “VAS was developed to be user-friendly, organized and accessible —a smart system that provides users with a checklist of what they need before beginning the prequali" cation and MWLBE certi" cation application process,” says Barbara Gavosto, Director of Contractor Quali" cation. “Our goal is to attract good " rms, large and small, to be our building partners,” she says, emphasizing the importance of the SCA’s efforts to attract new " rms and retain existing ones that perform well. “Every system upgrade or procedural change at the SCA is designed to ensure safe, successful and timely job delivery.” According to van Biema, “VAS is an easy-to-use application that looks and feels similar to technology used on many retail e-commerce sites. It was designed to be intuitive, eliminate unnecessary and redundant documentation requirements and minimize paperwork. VAS is dynamic —it adjusts the application based on a " rm’s previous answers, allows users to view their progress in completing their application, and lets them respond to requests for additional information in real time.” SOLVING LONG-STANDING PROBLEMS According to Gavosto, one challenge with the paper-intensive application process that VAS replaced was that applicants frequently submitted incomplete forms, which led to a great deal of back-and-forth between the SCA and these " rms regarding the submission of missing information and documentation. VAS remedies this problem by ensuring that all required information is provided by users prior to submission. Like many e-commerce sites, VAS checks each section of the application for completeness and prompts the user to provide missing information. Additionally, VAS allows users to upload or fax documentation such as " nancial statements and résumés directly into the system, ensuring that the application and supporting materials are present when the SCA begins the review process. VAS was designed to put a premium on customer service. Comprehensive instructions and tool tips are available everywhere, hotline numbers are provided for technical, prequali" cation and certi" cation questions, and users can save their work and return to the application at another time. “We tried to make the site as ef" cient as possible,” says Suzanne Veira, Senior Director of Business Development. “Our major concern prior to launch was that small vendors, particularly MWLBEs, might not have the capacity to submit all of the necessary information in an online process, but that concern turned out to be unwarranted,” says Veira. “MWLBE " rms are effectively navigating the process, and we are seeing an increase in submissions.” Module I: Prequaliﬁcation and Certiﬁcation The " rst VAS module to launch was Prequali" cation/ Certi" cation. The biggest improvement is that two separate paper applications which required " rms to provide redundant information were combined into a single application tailored to each applying " rm. When SCA staff have questions regarding a submission, they can now generate a single, consolidated email with a link to a place on the site where the " rm can respond immediately. “Firms no longer get questions from Contractor Quali" cation and Business Development reviewers about the same missing information,” says Veira, “It is important for MWLBE " rms to both certify and prequalify; by combining the applications, we’re making it easier for them to bid and work with the SCA.” Firms wishing to certify are now clearly informed that they must also be prequali" ed in order to conduct business with the SCA. In the past, Veira says, many " rms certi" ed but never quali" ed, not understanding that prequali" cation was also necessary in order to compete for nearly all work on SCA projects. Another major advantage of the system for previously quali" ed " rms is that once they enter their information into VAS, they will not have to reenter the majority of it when they return to requalify as required every three years. The system is designed to present all relevant information entered
Work Smart with the SCA McGraw-Hill Supplement

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