THESE STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS ARE BASED ON THE ...

THESE STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS ARE BASED ON THE SUPPOSITION THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY REGISTERED WITH PUBLIC PURCHASE
(www.publicpurchase.com). IF YOU HAVE NOT PREVIOUSLY REGISTERED WITH PUBLIC PURCHASE, SEE THE “PUBLIC PURCHASE
INSTRUCTIONS FOR VENDOR REGISTRATION” ON THE VENDORS PAGE AT www.mrpctexas.com.
Please note these instructions were made with the RFPs listed in the 2012-2013 year, so the RFP numbers for the current year will be
different but the same instructions apply.
When you log in to Public Purchase (www.publicpurchase.com), if you are already registered with the MRPC, you should see this on your screen:

If you do not see this, go back to the home page, and try clicking on the “Select Region” arrow and choose “Texas”, then click on the “Select
Agency” arrow and choose “Multi Regional Purchasing Cooperative” (it is an alphabetical list, but you will have to scroll down quite a ways!)

If you have not already registered with the MRPC, I believe at this point you will be taken through the
steps to register with us.

Click on the name of the RFP to which you wish to respond. (In the continuation of this example, I am using #2012-02 Instructional/General
Catalog, but the principles apply to any of the RFPs.)

The bid page containing the description (terms & conditions) of the bid, the first page of the list of items, and a list of the supporting documents
will open. This is basically a “view” page for you. To actually respond to the bid, click on the “Respond to bid” option in the green box on the
right-hand side of the screen

We have added the use of classification codes to help us with our notification process. If you did not set any classification codes when you
originally registered with Public Purchase, you will get the screen below. Click on “Continue.”

On the next screen, click on the “Search” tab to open the “Keyword” field, and regardless of your product line (or which bid you are responding
to), type in “Office Supplies” and click the Search button.

Office Supplies

A list of options will open. Click on the “Add” button next to the 615-60 code. The MRPC will always use this code on all bids in order to
ensure notification to all our vendors. You may then go back and add additional codes that are appropriate for your business as desired by
typing in a keyword and then selecting the appropriate classification code.

Once you’ve entered all the classification codes you wish to enter, click “Continue” at the bottom of the page. You will then see the screen
below, and can click “Done.”

If you have not already paid the $20 annual registration fee, you will next be prompted to do that. Just enter the appropriate information, then
click “Review Payment”. Once the payment has been processed, you can continue on to the next step. Remember this annual fee allows you to
respond to any of the RFPs issued by the MRPC that year (it is not $20 per response), so if you are responding to multiple RFPs, you should only
have this step on the first one to which you respond.
The next thing that should open up is a “Document Requiring Acceptance” screen that references a .pdf format of the terms & conditions page.
To read the RFP document and/or to print a copy for your files, click on the “download” option on the far right. Once you have read and agree
to the terms click on the “yes” button and enter your password at the bottom to indicate your acceptance. (If you have exceptions to your
acceptance, click on the “yes with exceptions” button, and a comment box will open for you to enter what your exceptions are.) If you click on
“no”, you will not be able to proceed with the response process since we require acceptance of our terms.

There will be a few other documents of a similar nature (the list of Participating Schools, a “Make Your Entries Carefully” instruction page) that don’t
require you to fill anything out, but do require you to “accept” them. (They may not open in this order.)
There will then be several mandatory forms to fill out (Propose to Provide, Certification Sheet, Felony Conviction Sheet). Again, if you want to keep
a copy for your records, you can “download” the form, but the actual completion of the form should be done online in the form that has opened
on your screen. (See example on next page.)

Company XYZ
John Smith, CEO
X

John Smith, CEO

Please note this form asks for a signature. It is
not necessary to enter a signature image or
something similar, just type the appropriate
name. Your acceptance and entering of your
password is considered your “signature”.

Once you have filled out all the mandatory forms, you should reach the page with the line items (categories for the catalog bids) that allow you
to enter your response. The unit price fields, notes for agency, etc. fields will be open for you to make entries. Make your entries on the
categories that apply to your company. If your discount rate is 0%, you still must make an entry of “0.00” in the price field for the category.
Use the “Notes for Agency” field to enter freight terms, additional discounts or exceptions to discounts, etc. If you do not wish to respond to a
category, you may click on the trash can icon to delete that category.

NOTE: There is a box at the left-hand side that shows you how many line items/categories there are on the particular bid, and how many on
which you have entered a response. This is a good way to double-check that you’ve made entries for all the categories or items you
intended.

PLEASE REMEMBER:
- On the catalog bids, you will enter a dollar amount that represents the discount percentage you wish to offer (i.e. unit price = 10.00 will

mean to us that you are offering a 10% discount on that category. If you have products in that category but cannot offer a discount off your
regular catalog prices, enter 0.00.) Enter the minimum discount that you can offer on all products.
- Do not make entries on line items/categories for which you do not wish to respond. (For example, if you don’t carry Office Furniture, just
ignore that line, or click on the trash can icon to delete it; only make entries in the categories for which you have products.)
- Note that the Instructional/General Catalog Bid has 2 pages of categories, so if your category is not on the first page, you will need to click
on the “2” or the “next” to proceed to the next page of categories. If you’ve made entries on the first page, it would be wise to hit the
“Save” button before you proceed to the next page.

You can add comments to the individual categories, and you are able to upload files to the categories. This would be useful for instance if you
can offer a minimum discount of 5% on all items, but there are other brands on which you can offer a larger percentage discount. You could
make that comment in the “Notes for Agency” field, and then upload your list of brands with higher discount rates. Additionally, you can make
general comments or upload general documents that would apply to the bid as a whole.
Once you are finished, you can click on “Print Your Submitted Response” to obtain documentation of your response. If you are interrupted
before you finish your response, click on “Save & Close” and you can come back to it later by following these same basic instructions, only now
instead of seeing “Respond to Bid” when you click on the bid title, you should see “Edit Response to bid”.

There are additional forms that may apply to you – the Conflict of Interest Form, the HUB Form, Lobbying Disclosure Form, Clean Air & Water –
Buy American Form. If any of these do apply to you, scroll to the bottom of the bid page when it opens, and click on the “Fill Out Form” option
beside the appropriate form. This will open the form for you to fill out and accept online, in the same manner as the mandatory forms.

I hope this has helped you with the process of responding to the bid. Please remember that the Public Purchase support staff is always willing to
help if you have any difficulties. You can contact them best by using the “Live Chat” feature on the website (www.publicpurchase.com), or by e-
mailing them at [email protected]. I have received comments from vendors that they have been impressed with how
responsive the Public Purchase support staff has been.

If you have questions about the bid itself (rather than the process of responding), please feel free to send your question through the Public
Purchase question board (this helps other vendors who may have the same question), or you can e-mail me directly at [email protected] or
call at 940.322.6928.

Thank you again for participating with the Multi Regional Purchasing Cooperative!