Publishing Standing Offers and Supply Arrangements on the SOSA App

Attention! We’ve Moved! The Supply Manual has moved to the CanadaBuys website. Check out the new landing page for the Supply Manual.

Attention! As part of the Acquisitions Program’s transformation agenda, PSPC is planning to archive and migrate the SACC manual to the CanadaBuys website. The SACC manual will continue to be available on the BuyandSell website to ensure continuity of service during this transition period. At this time, an initial version of the archived version of the SACC has been posted on CanadaBuys. We encourage you to go visit the site and get comfortable with the new format of the SACC at the following:

Archived - Standard Acquisition Clauses and Conditions Manual | CanadaBuys

We appreciate your continued feedback and cooperation during this transition.

Item Information

Policy Notification ID
PN-135
Associated SM version
2018-2
Associated SACC Manual version
No change
Effective date
2018-11-08
Pilot policy
No

Purpose

The purpose of Policy Notification 135 (PN-135) is to inform PWGSC Acquisitions Program (AP) contracting officers of the actions they must take to post information to the Standing Offers and Supply Arrangements Application (SOSA App), which officially replaced the Standing Offer Index (SOI) on October 11, 2018.

This PN should be read in conjunction with Policy Notification 131 – Canadian Collaborative Procurement Initiative for Standing Offers.

Effective date

This PN is effective immediately.

Background

The SOSA App is a secure, web based application that allows known and trusted users to manage and view federal Standing Offers (SOs) and Supply Arrangements (SAs).

The SOSA App was originally released in June 2016 to provide secure access to federal standing offers to authorized provincial and territorial users that had signed a Master User Agreement (MUA) with Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC). This was done in accordance with PWGSC’s Canadian Collaborative Procurement Initiative (CCPI) and further to an Order in Council approved in February 2015, permitting PWGSC to share its procurement instruments and services on a voluntary basis, at no additional cost to provinces and territories.

On October 11, 2018, Buyandsell.gc.ca launched the second phase of the SOSA App, making it the official source for Government of Canada SOs and SAs, replacing the SOI. All information about the SOs and SAs that was posted in SOI before the launch has already been exported to the SOSA App. Following the launch date, any SO, SA, or amendment that is issued must be posted directly into the SOSA App by a contracting officer. Otherwise, these SOs, SAs or amendments will not be visible to authorized federal, provincial and territorial users.

Posting Standing Offer and Supply Arrangement information on the SOSA App

Contracting officers must take the following actions to post their standing offers and supply arrangements to the SOSA App:

  1. Obtain a secure BuyandSell.gc.ca account: Contracting officers require a secure account on Buyandsell.gc.ca to be able to modify information on the SOSA App web application. To obtain a Buyandsell.gc.ca account, a contracting officer must first have a Government of Canada (GC) approved digital identity such as myKEY. A contracting officer may then obtain the necessary permissions to access SOSA App by sending a request to achatsetventes.buyingandselling@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca.
  2. Read the SOSA App user guide: As the following steps are a summary only, please consult the SOSA App user guide for complete instructions. Contracting officers can view the SOSA App user guide online, once they receive the necessary permissions.
  3. Review and edit the information regarding your standing offer or supply arrangement:
    1. Once logged into BuyandSell.gc.ca and in the SOSA App, review the tombstone information for your SO or SA. This tombstone information is uploaded automatically from the Automated Buyer Environment (ABE) system two days after issuance of the SO or SA. If the tombstone information needs to be revised, then you must revise it within ABE. See section 2.1 of the SOSA App user guide for more information.
    2. Review all other information, adding or editing information as necessary directly within the SOSA App. Relevant documents (e.g. price lists) can be attached, and pertinent web-links can be added.
    3. Ensure that the standing offer or supply arrangement information in SOSA App is in both official languages and complies with Canada’s Official Languages Act. Specific attention must be given to the SO or SA description which is uploaded from the SOs or SAs manually-entered "Document Title" field in ABE.
  4. Post the SO or SA to the SOSA App as detailed in the user guide.

Summary of revisions to the Supply Manual

The Supply Manual has been updated to reflect this PN.

Summary of revisions to the Standard Acquisition Clauses and Conditions (SACC) Manual

There are no changes to the SACC.

Contact information

For any request, email Buyandsell.gc.ca at the following address: achatsetventes.buyingandselling@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca

Affected Supply Manual sections

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