Transforming Your California Disadvantaged (DBE), Small or Local Business Inclusion Program:

Navigating New Challenges and Boosting Efficiency in 2024

From spurring local job growth to creating sustainable supply chains, today's business diversity and business inclusion program managers are well-versed in the magnitude and impact of equitable contracting on DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise), small and local businesses within communities across the US.

However, following the recent U.S. Supreme Court's Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) Affirmative Action ruling, business diversity and business inclusion programs are under increased scrutiny. Moreover, with the upcoming USDOT changes to the DBE and ACDBE programs, many program managers wonder how their programs will internally support these proposed requirements. Do they have resources and tools in place? Can their staff manage the proposed required process changes?

In 2024, efficiency, adaptability, and impact are the name of the game. Developing and managing a DBE, small, or local business inclusion program in California comes with challenges like limited supplier options, regulatory complexities, formulation and implementation of small, diverse, or local business objectives, and effective expenditure tracking. Achieving success requires actively supporting small, local, and DBE suppliers, enhancing outreach strategies, and instilling a firm commitment to diversity and inclusion among stakeholders within your organization. These measures are essential for promoting diversity, backing underrepresented businesses, fostering fair economic growth, and guaranteeing clear and transparent financial reporting.

As business diversity and inclusion teams across the US look to the new year to address these challenges head-on, they're more often than not troubled with multiple systems and manual processes to fulfill their objectives and monitor these significant goals, they're often finding themselves stuck in repetitive tasks and buried under paperwork. Moreover, they've become increasingly aware of the potential projects they could undertake, if not for spending hours manually tracking information – whether it involves vendor outreach, contract bidding, subcontractor payments, certification applications, or renewals. The persistent effort to create and submit essential reports at the last minute, coupled with multiple follow-ups with suppliers and concerns about data accuracy, raises operational concerns.

Leading state, local, education, transportation, healthcare, general contractors, and more are finding a better way to tackle efficiency, adaptability, and impact into 2024 and beyond. These organizations are relying on B2Gnow Business Diversity Software to seamlessly manage, track, and report on their business diversity and inclusion programs. The B2Gnow system offers a variety of tools that help DBE programs to easily build and maintain bidders lists, including modules that manage proposals, utilization plans, outreach, contract compliance, bid management, and more. Here are just a few of the reasons organizations choose B2Gnow:

The single largest searchable system of business diversity certifications in the U.S. – Over 120 certification agencies use the B2Gnow system to certify and track supplier diversity certifications (MBE, WBE, DBE, VBE, SBE, etc.) – this certification data is native and real-time in the B2Gnow system. Plus, B2Gnow imports over 100 other third-party directories into our system.

Unparalleled spend and utilization tracking  – Through different types of spend and utilization tracking modules in the B2Gnow system, organizations can choose to track spend from just their tier 1 vendors (spend analysis) to tier 10 (tracking through all levels of subcontractors on a project).

Powerful vendor outreach capabilities – Search, sort, group, and export vendors by a myriad of parameters such as certification type, certifying agency, race, gender, and work codes (i.e., NAICS, NOGP, etc.). Better yet, many organizations simply utilize the B2Gnow outreach engine to set up and manage communication campaigns and events to encourage wider participation.

Multiple options for output of results, reports, data, and data visualization– Choose from over 400 standard system reports, PowerBI access, and data libraries (license included), export options, and API/web services. B2Gnow allows organizations to report and visualize their business diversity and utilization data in the formats that best suit stakeholder needs.

Guaranteed compliance now and in the future - Manage complex small/diverse spend tracking compliance and regulatory requirements, including compliance with USDOT, 49 CFR Part 23, and CFR Part 26

Some of B2Gnow's most popular modules include:

Baseline Vendor Management – The core B2Gnow system module required for all systems: users/vendors, vendor search, reports, settings, support, connectivity, etc.

Contract Compliance – Manage the financial aspects of your program, including monitoring actual participation versus contract goals and capturing down to tier 10 awards and utilization.

Outreach & Events – Create “campaigns” to email blast crafted messages to a customized list of any type of vendors (certified, primes, sub, local, etc.). The module also facilitates event management and tracking.

Online Application– Allows vendors to submit certification applications online. The forms eliminate paper/email submissions and give organizations an option to eliminate hardcopy documentation completely. This efficiency reduces review time and ensures that only complete applications are received.

Certification Management – Supports your organization’s review of certification applications, including workflow and review checklists that are configured to support your process. The module helps programs increase standardization and improve the quality of certification application review.  Manages expiries and renewals.

Streamline your business inclusion program and procurement processes with B2Gnow, trusted by 400+ customers strong and growing, including 30+ state DOTs, 90+ airports and transits, 100+ cities and counties, and 100+ education, healthcare, general contractors, utilities, and more. We're standing by, ready to get you onboarded and in compliance, so you can seamlessly automate, manage, track, and report on the requirements of your DBE/ACDBE, small, diverse, or local program. Contact us to speak with an expert and learn more about B2Gnow Business Diversity Software.

CAPPO 2024 ANNUAL CONFERENCE - Please join Our Session: Inclusive Procurement Case Study, Featuring LA Metro - Monday, January 22, 1:30-2:30 pm, or visit us in booth 700.