The Hillsborough County Public Schools Office of Supplier Diversity (OSD) recently conducted the second in a series of outreach efforts to engage dozens of registered vendors with District buyers who have the ability to spend up to $5,000 without bid and up to $10,000 with three (3) quotes, along with buyers from prime (large) companies that do business with the District.<\/p>\n
These outreach efforts, called the OSD Mini – Trade Show, brought together several businesses and vendors to display goods and to provide the opportunity to explain their service menu.<\/p>\n
Acting as second-tier vendors \u2013 defined as suppliers of products or services directly or indirectly in support of District requirements \u2013 the strategy seeks to position OSD registered businesses to do direct business with prime (large) companies or District staff that have a history of discretionary purchasing of the specific product or services.<\/p>\n
One such business that has reported an increase is Exclusively Yours<\/em><\/strong> Professional Services,<\/em><\/strong> a company that provides process services such as fingerprinting, private investigation and legal document delivery.<\/p>\n According to owner Sandra Nelson,<\/strong> the OSD support has been invaluable to her business. \u201cFrom the beginning my relationship with the OSD has been very positive, professional and beneficial,\u201d she says. \u201cThey have helped my business thrive and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n Nelson<\/strong> joined the OSD in 2006 and got her first District contract in 2007.<\/p>\n The OSD currently has more than 600 registered vendors that offer services that include as examples air conditioning, IT software development, temporary staffing and upholstery.<\/p>\n Ben Moore (pictured above),<\/strong> HCPS Supplier Diversity Officer, says the second-tier connections are part of the outreach goals of the OSD. \u201cWe want all of our prime buyers and vendors to come together and exchange information so both parties may benefit,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a win-win situation for the vendors to garner more business, as well as for the buyers to further utilize registered vendors thereby reinvesting in our local community.\u201d<\/p>\n The benefits of the second-tier contracts are echoed by Glen Lathers,<\/strong> Manager, Safety and Risk Management Programs. \u201cBen<\/strong> and I realized that many of the services that are needed by the District are too large for OSD vendors, so we developed this method as a way to include District vendors at the table.\u201d<\/p>\n For additional information regarding the OSD or how to register, contact the OSD at (813) 635-1240 or visit the website at http:\/\/www.sdhc.k12.fl.us\/OSD\/index.asp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Hillsborough County Public Schools Office of Supplier Diversity (OSD) recently conducted the second in a series of outreach efforts to engage dozens of registered vendors with District buyers who have the ability to spend up to $5,000 without bid and up to $10,000 with three (3) quotes, along with buyers from prime (large) companies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}