The Commodity Bidding Application is an Internet solution developed for the Southern Company Fuel Services organization that will allow Southern Company to more effectively administer the procurement process. The Commodity Bidding Application is available to vendors at all times in order for prospective bids to be collected and held in the Commodity Bidding Application repository in a real–time fashion.
Once a Request for Proposal (RFP) becomes available, vendors may utilize the Southern Company Fuel Service's Request for Proposals page to view the contract specifications of the RFP. Bids on the RFP may be placed using the Commodity Bidding Application Once a bid is entered and submitted for a given proposal, that entry is automatically saved into a repository, and an e-mail confirmation is sent out to verify receipt. This eliminates the need to depend on the express mail services to deliver bids. Vendors no longer have to worry about whether a bid is received before the RFP deadline. Vendors will know immediately that their bids have been received for consideration. This paperless system eliminates the need to send out pages of documentation. Everything needed will be available on the Commodity Bidding Application web site.
The requirements for using this system are:
- Internet Access
- Web Browser Updated to a Recent Version
- Mobile Device with a minimum screen width of 360px
- Valid E-mail address
- Authenticated Southern Company Identity (see Getting Started)
- Registered Commodity Bidding Application User (see Getting Started)
To use the Commodity Bidding Application , please ensure your computer is configured with the following settings:
Browser Configuration
- JavaScript must be enabled
- Cookies must be enabled
Firewall Configuration (where applicable)
- Cookies must be enabled
- HTTP and HTTPS traffic should be allowed
Southern Company Registration
In order to begin using the Commodity Bidding Application you must become a registered vendor. To do this, go to the Commodity Bidding Application and click on the link which reads "New user? Register here!" Please follow the instructions for obtaining a Username and Password. At the end of the process you will have created an identity for use on the Southern Company Network. Please DO NOT give your Southern Company password to anyone. A Southern Company employee will NEVER ask for your password.
Commodity Bidding Application Registration
Now that an identity has been created for use on the Southern Company Network gaining access to the Commodity Bidding Application is the next step. When you will see a page that reads "You have not been granted access to the Commodity Bidding Application. Please call Southern Company Fuel Services to complete the setup for your user profile." Do not be alarmed when you see this. At this time, you should send an E-Mail to the Procurement Agent and request access to the Commodity Bidding Application be granted to your account. The Procurement Agent will need your name, your Commodity Bidding Application username, title, phone number, fax number, e-mail address, company name, and company address. You DO NOT need to include your password. Access to the Commodity Bidding Application will then be set up for you, and you will be ready to use the Commodity Bidding Application!
How To Get There
To access the Commodity Bidding Application you will first want to do the following:
- Open up the Fuel Service Suppliers web site. Explore the site and see what information is available.
- For Coal in particular, you will want to review the Bid Procedures page. This page will provide you with links to the various specifications that should be reviewed for each Request for Proposal (RFP). Once you have reviewed the specifications for the RFP you are interested in, you will be ready to start the Commodity Bidding Application.
- For Fuel Oil in particular, use the Coal procedures as a general reference and ask the Procurement Agent if there are any specific questions.
- To invoke the application click on the link Commodity Bidding Application. You should be presented with the application log-in form.
Logging On
To log into or gain access to the Commodity Bidding Application; enter in the account name and password in the fields provided. If this account name has never been used with the Commodity Bidding Application before, click on the New User link and follow the instructions for creating a new Southern Company account. Once the new account has been created, Southern Company Fuel Agent will need to be contacted. The Fuel Agent will need to know the new account name in order to grant Commodity Bidding Application permissions to the Southern Company account (see Getting Started).
Please change the password the first time it is used to log in. To change the password, click the Forgot Password link and follow the instructions for changing the password. This link can also be used to regain a password if it is forgotten.
If the login is successful, the Commodity Bidding Application Rfp page will be presented. If a problem is experienced while logging in, contact Commodity Bidding Application Technical Support.
The Commodity Bidding Application currently supports creating Offers for two types of commodities or commodity Bid variations:
Rfp's and Offer's may have attached documents. These documents are normally one of the following document types
- MS Word
- MS Excel
- Plain Text