Name: Eric Mandell
Email: eric.mandell@dgs.ca.gov
Department: California Department of General Services
Areas: Customer Service and IT
Idea/Initiative Name: Small Business Online Certification
Description: An estimated 98 percent of all businesses in California are small businesses. They employ more than half of all California workers, and they contribute over 60 percent of the state's gross domestic product.
Governor Schwarzenegger signed Executive Order S-02-06 directing all departments of state government to achieve a goal of at least 25 percent small business participation in all state contracts and procurements. As a result, California is now committed to getting more SBs and DVBEs connected to the $9 billion in state contracts.
Certified businesses can receive contract bid preferences and email notifications of contracting opportunities. These can help businesses compete for state contracts and grow their local economies.
For SBs and DVBEs, certification is the first key step in gaining access to the bidding process for state contracts. Automated, online certification removes a major obstacle that had been delaying some small businesses from getting certified under the older, paper-intensive system. Businesses can get certified today and conduct business tomorrow - and start funneling dollars into their local economy. That stimulates the economy for all Californians.
Through a secure log-on, the "no-fee" online service allows businesses to apply for the following certifications with the State:
- Small Business (SB)
- Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE)
- Combined SB and DVBE
- Nonprofit registration
- Nonprofit
- Veteran
- Service Agency (NVSA)
Once certified, businesses can go online, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to update their business profile, renew their certifications and search for potential competitive bidding opportunities to grow their businesses. Since implementing online certification, the number of Certified SBs and DVBEs in the DGS data base has grown from just over 11,000 to just under 16,000 in a little over one year’s time.
Creating this new online system involved a core team of six DGS staff who, over a period of five months, developed, tested, and ultimately implemented this new process. This involved developing a simple to use application from what had been a twenty-plus page paper document. One that provided ample information to the user as well appropriate prompts which would allow applicants to quickly and easily answer required questions and complete the process successfully.
Results: As part of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's promise to give California's small businesses and disabled veteran business enterprises (DVBEs) better access to the $9 billion annually in state contracts, introduced online certification for state contracting on January 29, 2007. This online process has dramatically reduced the time needed to certify small businesses and DVBEs for access to the bidding process. Previously, the process could take as long as six months. Now, it typically takes twenty minutes for small businesses SBs to get certified.
DVBEs can take longer because of the need to validate veteran status, but the new online process speeds up the application process and reduces the amount of paperwork for them too. The online certification system is now easily accessible 24 hours a day via the DGS website at
www.getcertified.dgs.ca.gov