City of Boston
Procurement Process Overview
Last updated: October 2024
2
Is this a grant to support or stimulate the community,
OR
a contract to deliver supplies or services for the benefit or use of the City?
Is this a construction project (or design services for a construction project)?
Is this a good (commodity) or a service?
(Ch. 30B)
grants@boston.gov
procurement@boston.gov
procurement@boston.gov
GRANT
CONTRACT
CH. 30B
CONSTRUCTION
Procurement Process Selection
REMINDER: Talk to your department’s finance staff before starting the procurement process!
GOOD
SERVICE
Last updated: October 2024
3
What’s the expected total cost?
Do you need to consider more than just price in your evaluation?
Will the total cost�be less than $250K?
Invitation for Bids (IFB)*
Written Quote Contract (WQC)
Are there 3 certified businesses that do this type of work?
Inclusive Quote Contract (IQC)
Request for Proposals (RFP)*
< $10,000
$10,000 - $50,000
Procurement Method Selection: Ch. 30B Services
REMINDER: There may be a statewide contract that is relevant to your procurement. �Check out the City's Procurement & State Contract User Guide to learn more about this process.
>$50,000
NO
YES
YES
*May be eligible for the Sheltered Market Program (SMP)
YES
NO
NO
Last updated: October 2024
Procurements Process Maps:
MGL Chapter 30B
Last updated: October 2024
5
The requester creates a requisition in BAIS FN*, following the guidelines in the Procurement User Guide.
MGL Chapter 30B: Goods and Services
Is the procurement a good or a service?*
The request is routed to the appropriate Procurement Department buyer based on the category code in the requisition.
The buyer manages the full procurement life cycle.
Services
Identify appropriate procurement method
(Go to slides 6-7)
*Software may be treated as a good or a service depending on the context.
**Drinking water (for internal use) is managed by the Procurement Department. Departments should use this form to make changes to delivery quantities, �request a new water cooler, etc and do not need to create requisitions, track purchase orders or create receipts. For more information, see the Procurement Goods User Guide
MGL Chapter 30B regulates the procurement of non-construction goods and services by cities and towns in Massachusetts. The City has created standard procedures to ensure departments are compliant with the law and receive products that meet their needs at the lowest possible price. These procedures apply to all procurements, regardless of cost.
Goods
Conduct procurement
(Go to slides 8-11)
Create a requisition in BAIS FN** following the submission instructions outlined in the Procurement & State Contract User Guide
The request is routed to the appropriate Procurement Department buyer based on the category code in the requisition.
The buyer in Procurement Dept. manages the full procurement life cycle.
Last updated: October 2024
6
MGL Chapter 30B: Dollar Threshold of Procurement Methods
Written Quote Contract
$50k
$10k
$250k
Inclusive Quote Contract*
Invitation for Bids**
Request for Proposals
Sound Business Practices
Dollar thresholds are calculated over the lifetime of the contract (e.g. if a department anticipates paying $5,000 each year for three years, the expected value of the contract is $15,000). Depending on the value of the procurement, departments may have multiple options to choose from and should carefully weigh the rules associated with each one.
*The Inclusive Quote Contract process is codified in the Acts of 2022, a Boston-specific addendum to Chapter 30B, known as Chapter 334.
**Departments may choose to follow the Invitation for Bids process for procurements less than $50k, but this is uncommon. This is most likely to occur when the expected cost of a procurement is close to the $50k threshold and the department is unsure whether the lowest bid will end up being above or below it.
Statewide contracts are exempt from Chapter 30B and can be used at any price threshold! Consult the City’s Procurement & State Contract User Guide to learn more.
Procurement Methods
Last updated: October 2024
7
MGL Chapter 30B: Description of Procurement Methods
Dollar thresholds are calculated over the lifetime of the contract (e.g. if a department anticipates paying $5,000 each year for three years, the expected value of the contract is $15,000). Depending on the value of the procurement, departments may have multiple options to choose from and should carefully weigh the rules associated with each one.
Last updated: October 2024
8
Chapter 30B: Sound Business Practices
* If an individual purchase is under $10,000, but you plan to procure the same services multiple times during the fiscal year, causing the total cost to exceed $10,000, check-in with Procurement about the best procurement method.
The requester creates a requisition in BAIS Financials.
The requester identifies the vendor that is able to provide the needed service at a reasonable price.
The department identifies a need for services and the appropriate procurement method.*
The requester conducts market research and contacts multiple vendors (phone or email) for pricing and availability to provide needed deliverables.
The requester creates the Purchase Order and dispatches it to the supplier. Work cannot be performed with a purchase order.
For procurements below $10,000, departments are required to conduct market research and consider multiple vendors to ensure the City is getting a fair price. For recurring purchases, departments should periodically check if there are more cost effective alternatives that meet their needs.
SERVICES ONLY
Solicitation
Award
Planning
Evaluation
Key:
Last updated: October 2024
9
Chapter 30B: Written & Inclusive Quote Contracts (WQC) / (IQC)
* Departments are only required to request quotes. If a supplier doesn’t respond or says they cannot complete the work as scoped, it still counts as one of the three solicitations required by Massachusetts General Law.
** The Inclusive Quote Contract process is codified in the Acts of 2022, a Boston-specific addendum to Chapter 30B, known as Chapter 334
*** When using the WQC process, at least one of the suppliers the requester solicits a quote from must be a certified business.
**** If the department cannot solicit quotes through the supplier portal and receives email or paper quotes instead, copies of the correspondence must be uploaded to BAIS Financials with date and time stamps.
For quote contracts, the requester identifies a set of minimum criteria, framed as yes/no questions with no room for subjective analysis, and awards the contract to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder that meets those criteria.
The department drafts the project scope of services and minimum evaluation criteria using WQC/IQC template.
The requester creates a requisition and bid event in BAIS Financials.
The requester identifies at least three suppliers***
(and certified if using the IQC process).
The requester solicits quotes through the supplier portal.****
The requester fills out the Equitable Procurement form.
+5 days for Supplier Diversity review if one certified supplier wasn’t found
The requester awards the work and notifies the suppliers. Work cannot be performed without a purchase order.
The requester identifies the lowest bid that meets their minimum criteria and project scope.
The department identifies a need for services and the appropriate procurement method.
Solicitation
Award
Planning
Evaluation
Key:
SERVICES ONLY
Last updated: October 2024
10
Chapter 30B: Invitation for Bids (IFB)
For procurements over $50,000,* departments must publicly advertise bids through the supplier portal. The requester identifies a set of minimum criteria, framed as yes/no questions with no room for subjective analysis, and awards the contract to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder that meets those criteria.
The department drafts the project scope of services and minimum supplier criteria using IFB template.
The requester creates a requisition and bid event in BAIS Financials.
The department creates an advertisement for the bid event and submits to cityrecord@boston.gov**
The department posts the advertisement in the Goods and Services Bulletin if the procurement is over $50k.
The Procurement Department posts the advertisement on COMMBUYS, the City Record and boston.gov
20 days*
The department submits their bid documents to the Law Department for legal review.
~14 days for review
The requester fills out the Equitable Procurement form.
+5 days for Supplier Diversity review if one certified supplier wasn’t found
The requester posts the bid event; the event moves into supervisor’s work queue and goes live when approved.
The bid event closes. The requester opens the bids at the time and place identified in the ad.
The requester awards the work and notifies the suppliers. Work cannot be performed without a purchase order.
*Departments may choose to follow the Invitation for Bids process for procurements less than $50k, but this is uncommon. This is most likely to occur when the expected cost of a procurement is close to the $50k threshold and the department is unsure whether the lowest bid will end up being above or below it. �**Ads are published on Mondays. An ad request must be received by the Procurement Department by noon the Monday (7 days) before it is published and must remain posted for at least 10 days. Requesters can amend
bid events while they’re live, but cannot make changes after a bid event has closed.
The department identifies a need for services and the appropriate procurement method.
Solicitation
Award
Planning
Evaluation
Key:
The requester identifies the lowest bid that meets their minimum criteria and project scope.
SERVICES ONLY
Last updated: October 2024
11
Chapter 30B: Request For Proposals (RFP) - Part I
The department drafts the project scope of services and minimum supplier criteria using RFP template.
The requester creates a requisition and bid event in BAIS Financials.
The department creates an advertisement for the bid event and submits to cityrecord@boston.gov*
The department posts the advertisement in the Goods and Services Bulletin if the procurement is over $50k.
The Procurement Department posts the advertisement on COMMBUYS, the City Record and boston.gov�20 days**
The department submits the bid document to the Law Department for legal review.
~14 days
The requester fills out the Equitable Procurement form.
+5 days for Supplier Diversity review if one certified supplier wasn’t found
The requester posts the bid event*; the event moves into supervisor’s work queue and goes live when approved.
For procurements over $50,000, where the city needs to consider factors in addition to price, departments can issue requests for proposals. The requester identifies two sets of evaluation criteria: minimum evaluation criteria and comparative evaluation criteria. Unlike other procurement methods, the RFP process allows departments to evaluate price and non-price factors separately and award the contract to the supplier with the “most advantageous” proposal.
The requester completes the CB-04 (delegation of CPO authority form) and submits for review.
~10 days
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page…
The bid event closes. The evaluation committee opens the non-price proposals at the time identified in the ad**.
*Ads are published on Mondays. An ad request must be received by the Procurement Department by noon the Monday (7 days) before it is published and must remain posted for at least 10 days. Requesters can amend bid events while they’re live, but cannot make changes after a bid event has closed. �**Non-price proposals must be opened in the presence of witnesses and entered into the Register of Proposals, which is public record on request.
Solicitation
Award
Planning
Evaluation
Key:
SERVICES ONLY
The department identifies a need for services and the appropriate procurement method.
Last updated: October 2024
12
Chapter 30B: Request For Proposals (RFP) - Part II
For procurements over $50,000, where the city needs to consider factors in addition to price, departments can issue requests for proposals. The department identifies two sets of evaluation criteria: minimum evaluation criteria and comparative evaluation criteria. Unlike other procurement methods, the RFP process allows departments to evaluate price and non-price factors separately and award the contract to the supplier with the “most advantageous” proposal.
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The evaluation committee opens the price proposals.
The evaluation committee identifies the most advantageous proposal based on price and non-price factors.
The evaluation committee sends its recommendation to the delegated CPO for final approval*.
The requester awards the work and notifies the suppliers**. Work cannot be performed with a purchase order.
*The evaluation committee may consist solely of the delegated CPO or of individuals they have identified. The delegated CPO reserves the right to reject the committee’s recommendations and come to their own determination of who submitted the most advantageous proposal.
**Proposals are confidential until an award decision is rendered.
The evaluation committee provides written justification for its decision and adds it to the procurement file.
If the evaluation committee does not select the lowest-priced proposal…
The evaluation committee scores each proposal on predetermined evaluative criteria.
Solicitation
Award
Planning
Evaluation
Key:
SERVICES ONLY
Last updated: October 2024
After Procurement Award: Additional Resources
If you have any questions or need additional support, contact procurement@boston.gov
For more information about the overall procurement process, including purchase orders, invoicing, and payments, review the Procurement & Accounts Payable 101 training slides. For a comprehensive list of finance forms and guidance, visit the City of Boston Finance Academy.
Last updated: October 2024