This document last reviewed/updated: 1/31/2013

APPEAL:  Action taken by a bidder, offeror (actual or prospective) or by a vendor to seek a hearing before a disinterested person or panel or in an appropriate circuit court challenging a decision.

BANNER: The financial software used by UWF.

BEST VALUE: The highest overall value to the UWF based on objective factors that include, but are not limited to price, quality, design, and workmanship.

BID: See INVITATION TO BID (ITB)

BID BOND: An insurance agreement in which a third party agrees to be liable to pay a certain amount of money in the event a selected bidder fails to accept the contract as bid.

BIDDER:  One who submits a competitively priced offer in response to an ITB.

CHANGE ORDER: Any change to a Purchase Order. All requests for a change to a Purchase Order must be in writing (email is acceptable) and directed to the Buyer who issued the Purchase Order.

COMMODITY:  Any of the various supplies, materials, goods, merchandise, food, equipment, and other personal property, including a mobile home, trailer, or other portable structure with floor space of less than 3,000 square feet, purchased, leased, or otherwise contracted for by the state and its agencies. "Commodity" also includes interest on deferred-payment commodity contracts approved pursuant to s. 287.063, F.S., entered into by an agency for the purchase of other commodities. However, commodities purchased for resale are excluded from this definition. Further, a prescribed drug, medical supply, or device required by a licensed health care provider as a part of providing health services involving examination, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, medical consultation, or administration for clients at the time the service is provided is not considered to be a "commodity." Printing of publications shall be considered a commodity when let upon contract pursuant to s. 283.33, F.S., whether purchased for resale or not.

COMPETITIVE BIDDING:  The offer of vendor bids by individuals or vendors competing for a contract privilege, or right to supply specified services or goods.

COMPETITIVE SEALED BID: A bid submitted in a sealed envelope to prevent disclosure of its contents before the deadline set for the receipt of all bids. Sealed bidding procedures are required on procurements of $50,000 or more.

COMPETITIVE NEGOTIATION:  A method for purchasing goods and services, usually of a highly complex and technical nature whereby qualified individuals or vendors are solicited by means of a Request For Proposal (RFP) or an Invitation to Negotiate (ITN). Negotiations are conducted with selected offerors and the best proposal, as judged against criteria contained in the RFP or ITN, is accepted and an award issued.

CONFIRMING PURCHASE ORDER:  A purchase order issued after the fact by a procuring agency to a vendor for goods or services ordered orally or by some other informal means (without a purchase order number). The order should be marked "CONFIRMING ORDER. DO NOT DUPLICATE".

CONSIDERATION:  Something of value given for a promise to make the promise binding; one of the essential elements of a legal contract.

CONSTRUCTION:  Construction shall mean building, altering, repairing, improving or demolishing any structure, building, or highway, and any drainage, dredging, excavation, grading or similar work upon real property.

CONSULTING SERVICE: Advice or assistance of a purely advisory nature provided for a predetermined fee to an agency by an outside individual, vendor, or organization under control to that agency.

CONTRACT: When used as a noun, contract refers to an agreement enforceable by law, between two or more competent parties, to do or not to do something not prohibited by law, for a consideration. Any type of  agreement or order for the procurement of goods or services. As a verb, contract has its usual legal sense, signifying the making of an agreement for consideration.

CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION: The management of all facets of a contract to assure the vendor's total performance is in accordance with the contractual commitments and that the obligations of the vendor under the terms and conditions of the contract are fulfilled.

CONTRACT, SERVICE: A contract for work to be performed by an independent vendor wherein the service rendered does not consist primarily of the acquisition of equipment or materials, or the rental of equipment, materials and supplies.

CONTRACTOR: An individual or vendor which has entered into an agreement to provide goods or services.

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS:  A purchase specification setting forth the essential physical characteristics that an item must possess to be considered for award.

EMERGENCY:  Circumstances in which there is an immediate danger or a threat of immediate danger to the public health, safety or welfare or of other substantial loss to the requiring emergency action.

ETHICS:  Pertaining to or relative to moral action, conduct, motive or character; as ethical emotion; professionally right or befitting; conforming to professional standards of conduct.

EVALUATION OF BIDS:  The process of examining a bid after opening to determine the bidder's responsiveness to requirements, responsibility, and other characteristics of the bid relating to selection for award.

EXPENSE:  The usual, ordinary, and incidental expenditures by an agency or the judicial branch, including, but not limited to, such items as contractual services, commodities, and supplies of a consumable nature, current obligations, and fixed charges, and excluding expenditures classified as operating capital outlay. Payments to other funds or local, state, or federal agencies are included in this budget classification of expenditures.

GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS: Standard clauses and requirements incorporated into all solicitations (ITB/RFP/ITN) and resulting contracts which are derived from laws or administrative procedures of the government agency (also called "boiler plate").

GOODS: Material, equipment, supplies, printing, and automated processing hardware and software.

INSPECTION: Examination and testing of goods and services to determine whether the goods and services furnished conform to contract requirements.

INVITATION TO BID (ITB): Typically, an ITB includes a description of the product or service to be acquired; instructions for preparing a bid response; the conditions for the purchase; packaging, delivery, shipping and payment; contract clauses to be included; and, the deadline for submitting the response. Each sealed bid response is opened at the Procurement and Contracts office at the time designated in the ITB. Responses are not accepted after the designated date and time. A contract is then awarded by The University of West Florida (UWF) to the lowest bidder who is determined to be responsive to UWF's needs.

INVITATION TO NEGOTIATE (ITN): Like an RFP, an ITN is typically used when it necessitates a highly technical product or service. However, an ITN is a solicitation for competitive sealed replies to select one or more vendors with which to commence negotiations. The ITN is used when The University of West Florida (UWF) determines that negotiations may be necessary to receive the best value. Cost may or may not be a consideration in the initial stages of negotiating.

LATE BID OR PROPOSAL: A bid or proposal which is received at the place designated in the ITB/RFP/ITN after the deadline established by the solicitation. These are returned unopened to the bidder.

LATENT DEFECT:  A deficiency or imperfection that impairs worth or utility that cannot be readily detected from visual examination of a product, examples would be the use of nonspecification materials in manufacture, or missing internal parts such as a gasket, gear, or electrical circuit, etc.

LIQUIDATED DAMAGES:  A sum stated in a contract, to be paid as ascertained damages for failure to perform in accordance with the contract. The damage figure stipulated must be a reasonable estimate of the probable loss to the agency and not calculated simply to impose a penalty on the vendor.

MULTIPLE AWARDS:  The award of contracts to more than one respondent. When a solicitation, in its terms and conditions, so provides, awards may be made to more than one vendor. Appropriate in situations where the award of a single contract would be impractical and awards are limited to the least number of suppliers necessary to satisfy program requirements.

NEGOTIATION:  A bargaining process between two or more parties, each with its own viewpoints and objectives, seeking to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement on, or settlement of common concern.

NON-COMPETITIVE NEGOTIATIONS: The process of arriving at an agreement through discussion and compromise when only one source is practically available.

NONPROFESSIONAL SERVICES:  Any services not specifically identified as professional services in the definition of professional services.

OCO (Operating Capital Outlay):  An appropriation category for the purchase of equipment, fixtures, and other tangible property of a nonconsumable and nonexpendable nature, the value or cost of which is $5,000 or more and the normal expected life of which is 1 year or more.

OFFEROR:  A person who makes an offer in response to a RFP or ITB.

PAYMENT BOND FOR LABOR AND MATERIAL:  A bond required of a vendor to assure fulfillment of the vendor's obligation to pay all persons supplying labor or materials in the performance of the work provided for in the contract.

PERFORMANCE BOND:  A bond executed in the full sum of the contract amount subsequent to award by a successful bidder to protect UWF from loss due to his/her inability to complete the contract in accordance with its terms and conditions.

PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS:  A specification setting forth performance requirements that have been determined necessary for the item involved to perform and last as required.

PREBID OR PREPROPOSAL CONFERENCE:  Meeting held with prospective bidders or offerors prior to submission of bids or proposals to review, discuss, and clarify technical considerations, specifications, and standards relative to the proposed procurement.

PROCUREMENT:  The procedure for obtaining goods or services, including all activities from the planning steps and preparation and processing of a requisition, through receipt and acceptance of delivery and processing of a final invoice for payment.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES: Infrequent, technical, or unique functions performed by independent contractors or consultants whose occupation is the rendering of such services. Examples of professional services contracts include: accountants, appraisers, architects, attorneys, business consultants, business development managers, copywriters, engineers, law firms. physicians, public relations, recruiters, researchers, real estate brokers, translators. software engineers and web designers. The selections of an independent contractor or consultant providing professional services is usually based on skill, knowledge, reputation, ethics, and creativity. Prices for services, even within the same field, vary greatly. Some professional service providers are able to give fixed rates for projects, while others define the price only after assessing the work involved. For this reason, it is common to hire professionals based upon an hourly fee and an estimated length of project (scope).

PROPOSAL:  See REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP).

PROPRIETARY SPECIFICATIONS:  One that restricts the acceptable products or services to those of one manufacturer or vendor. A common example would be a specification by brand name which excludes consideration of proposed "equals". Although all sole source specifications are propietary, all propietary specifications are not sole source. Proprietary items may be available from several distributors through competitive bidding.

PROTEST:  A written complaint about an administrative action brought by a bidder or offeror to the appropriate administrative section with the intention of receiving a remedial result.

PUBLIC BID OPENING:  The process of opening and reading bids at the time and place specified in the ITB and in the presence of anyone who wishes to attend.

PUBLIC POSTING:  The display of procurement notices on a website readily accessible to the public or on a board designated and regularly used for that purpose that is available to the public during normal working hours.

QUALIFIED BIDDER/RESPONSIBLE BIDDER/QUALIFIED OFFEROR/RESPONSIBLE OFFEROR:  A person who has the capability in all respects to perform fully the contract requirements and has the integrity and reliability which will assure good faith performance.

RENEWAL:  Contracting with the same contractor for an additional contract period after the initial contract period has expired, only if pursuant to contract terms specifically providing for such renewal.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP): An RFP is typically used when it necessitates a highly technical product or service. The University of West Florida (UWF) will request a product or service it needs and solicit proposals from prospective contractors on how they intend to carry out that request, and at what price. RFP responses can be subject to negotiation after they have been submitted and are evaluated on specific criteria by a committee made up of individuals who have a direct or indirect relationship with the product or service being solicited. RFP responses are not accepted after the designated date and time. A contract is then developed and fully executed before work begins.

RESPONSIVE BID/PROPOSAL:  A bid or proposal submitted by a responsive, and responsible or qualified, bidder or offeror which conforms in all material respects to the ITB/RFP/ITN.

RESPONSIVE BIDDER:  A person or vendor who has submitted a bid which conforms in all material respects to the ITB.

SEALED BID:  A bid which has been submitted in a sealed envelope to prevent its contents from being revealed or known before the deadline for submission and opening of all bids.

SERVICES:  Any work performed by an independent vendor wherein the service rendered does not consist primarily of acquisition of equipment or materials, or the rental of equipment, materials and supplies

SOFTWARE:  Includes all applications; whether packaged or requiring development, and all systems software such as assemblers, compilers, CPU performance measurement systems, data base management systems, file back-up and recovery, job accounting, operating systems, programming aids and development systems and soft-merge utilities.

SOLICITATION:  An ITB/RFP/ITN, telephone calls or any other documents issued to obtain bids, quotes or proposals for the purpose of entering into a contract.

SPECIAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS:  Special clauses pertaining to a specific procurement which may supplement or in some cases supersede one or more general terms and conditions, e.g., Award Clause, Extension of Contract.

SPLIT REQUISITIONS OR PCARD CHARGES: Splitting of purchases to intentionally circumvent competitive requirements or single limit are considered unacceptable and unlawful.

STANDING PURCHASE ORDER: An arrangement under which a purchaser contracts with a vendor to provide the purchaser's requirements for an item(s) or a service, on an as-required and over-the-counter basis. Properly prepared, such an arrangement sets a limit on the period of time it it valid and the maximum amount of money which may be spent at one time or within a specified period and specifically identifies those persons authorized to purchase goods.

SURPLUS PROPERTY:  Property which is in excess of the needs of an agency and which is not required for its foreseeable need. The property may be used or new, but possesses some usefulness for the prupose for which it wa sintended or for some other purpose. It includes scrap, which is material that is damaged, defective, or deteriorated to the extent that it has not value except for its basic material content.

SUSPENSION: The act by UWF's Chief Procurement Official prohibiting a vendor or contractor from doing further business with UWF due to its failure to perform as specified by contract. The Chief Procurement Official may reinstate vendor or contractor when satisfied that further instances of default will not occur.

TERM CONTRACTING:  A technique by which a source is established for a specific period of time. Term contracts are established based on indefinite quantities to be ordered "as needed", although such contracts can specify definite quantities with deliveries extended over the contract period.

TERMINATION FOR CONVENIENCE:  The termination by a Procurement Office, at its' discretion, of the performance of work in whole or in part and makes settlement of the vendor's claims in accordance with appropriate policy and procedures.

TERMINATION FOR DEFAULT:  Action taken by a Procurement Office to order a vendor to cease work under the contract, in whole or in part, because of the vendor's failure to perform in accordance with the contract's terms and conditions.

VENDOR:  One who sells goods or services.