Mary Lynn Fowler, Editor
Phone - (803) 737-0686
Email

When building a solicitation in SCEIS, the buyer must choose a SCBO specific category in order to have an advertisement of his solicitation sent to SCBO. If your solicitation is UNDER $10,000, you either need to leave the category blank or choose "No Ad" and no ad will be sent to SCBO.

A program has been created for the purpose of getting ads for solicitations created in SCEIS to SCBO. When you publish an over-$10,000 solicitation to the internet for which you have chosen a category, an ad is generated and sent to SCBO on the next hour (i.e. If you publish a solicitation at 10:45am, the ad will be sent to SCBO at 11:00am) You will receive confirmation of this fact from SCEIS and from SCBO. Once you publish your ad, you should look for both of these confirmations.

The ad in your confirmation from SCEIS is the same one SCBO is sent. It is a good idea to check the confirmation ad for accuracy. Also, if there is any additional information you want included in your ad or if you would like SCBO to use an improved description, email the information to Mary Lynn Fowler.

In considering a date for an opening or other mandatory event, a buyer should think about when the ad will be received by SCBO, as well as when the next SCBO will be published:

• SCBO comes out on Mondays and Thursdays.
• The deadline for ads is Noon Wednesday for Thursday's publication and Noon Friday for Monday's publication.
• To be in compliance with the SC Procurement Code there must be a minimum of 7 days between advertisement of a solicitation in SCBO and the" Submit By" date or mandatory site visit, pre-bid or pre-proposal conference.
• If an ad appears in the Monday SCBO, the solicitation it advertises can be due the next Monday or after, and if an ad appears in the Thursday SCBO, the solicitation can be due the next Thursday or after.

Example: If your ad arrives in SCBO's email after Noon on Wednesday, it is not guaranteed to run until the following Monday, so the opening date would have to be the Monday after that. Please note that a mandatory site, pre-bid or pre-proposal conference must be advertised for 7 days since a vendor cannot bid on the solicitation if he does not attend the mandatory event.

If you amend a solicitation, you are not required to re-advertise in SCBO. You can re-advertise, if you wish, if you are changing information contained in the original ad. You do this in the Buyer's Main Menu in ECC. There is a U-perform on the SCEIS website that will walk you though how to re-advertise in SCBO.

Words to the wise: Consider your dates carefully before publishing your solicitation. Look for your confirmation from SCBO to be sure your ad arrived in SCBO's email. Check the SCBO your ad was to run in to make sure it is there and that it is accurate.