If you have questions or concerns specific to your agency, please contact the SSC Customer Engagement team 877-340-5577 or email help@ssc.vccs.edu with the subject line "eVA/iValua transition". Copy and paste for ease: eVA/iValua Transition Related Topic
→ eVA Training for the New Platform is here! ←
Procurement Process During Conversion Guidance
As you know, the Commonwealth of Virginia will be migrating to a new Procurement system. Please note, the dates in the chart below, that the SSC and Department of General Services (DGS) will be going offline to support this conversion for the Commonwealth. We appreciate your support and efforts in ensuring a smooth transition!
As we all eagerly look forward to the new procurement software platform, which is set to go live in early January 2022, the VCCS eVA Transition Team will be assisting Colleges and the System Office to navigate the conversion. Specifically:
- The VCCS (all Colleges, the SO and the SSC) will manage the eVA conversion like our fiscal yearend Our deadlines are designed to support the needed integration shutdown and blackout periods.
- Any requisition that is not fully converted to a purchase order will be purged and will NOT convert to the new
- Any requisition left in the current system in “composing status” will be purged and lost. Therefore, the deadlines below are FIRM as queues must be empty before the yearend Holiday break (December 22, 2021).
Please use this guide to plan your procurements carefully over the next few months.
If you are unsure of which deadline is associated with your procurement or have any questions on this topic, please contact SSC Customer Engagement at 1-877-340-5577 or help@ssc.vccs.edu.
| Requisition Thresholds | Procurement Method | FIRM SSC Submission Deadline | Details |
| Any amount | A VCCS, State or Approved Cooperative Contract, Micro Source, Single Quote | December 3, 2021 | This deadline includes change order. Note: ad hoc functionality is going to be permanently disabled by DGS on October 15, 2021. Please plan to use SSC’s vendor registration. |
| $10,000 - $100,000 | Sole Source, New Cooperative Justifications, Quick Quote Solicitations | October 29, 2021 | Quick quote functionality is going to be temporarily disabled by DGS on December 15, 2021. |
| Over $100,000 | Sealed Solicitations | NA | |
| Receipts | NA | December 17, 2021 | Receiving in eVA is available through December 17, 2021. Invoices received after this date must be received in the new system. Note: this is not a deadline for receiving all open orders. |
| For urgent procurement request that cannot delayed until after the system conversion: Contact a small purchase charge card holder to complete an urgent procurement. Keep all documentation and records then complete a confirming order in the new platform, if necessary. |
Go Live Overview
Once the new system is operational (end of the Blackout Period), there will be a period of “acceptance testing” with the SSC Procurement team, A/P team and designated College users. The system will be made available to the Colleges after we have completed a live test for each college. An SSC Communication will be sent to announce each college’s authorization to begin processing in the new eVA platform.
Emergencies
If you should experience a situation that requires an emergency procurement as defined by the Commonwealth, then you should follow the emergency procurement method (refer to APSPM 9.1 for details).
Glossary
| Terms | Definition |
| Acceptance Testing | Completion of live testing in the production environment through all transaction steps in order to ensure that all functionality is operating as intended. |
| (DGS) Blackout Period | The period of time in which the system is unavailable to login. This will be December 31, 2021 – January 3, 2022. |
| Composing State | The status in which a purchase requisition is in draft status visible only to the requestor. |
| Conversion | All of the activities associated with migrating from one system to another |
| Cooperative Justification | The review and authorization process required to utilize another public entity’s contract to procure our needs. |
| Emergencies | An occurrence of a serious and urgent nature that demands immediate action. Emergencies aredefined as those involving the protecting of personal safety or property. |
| Integration Shutdown Date | The date in which a purchase order will no longer be sent to our financial system (AIS) to encumber funds. This will be December 22, 2021 at 12:00 PM (Noon). |
| Micro Source, Single Quote | For purchases of $10,000 or less, we are required to procure from a “Micro Business.” A Micro Business is one that meets the requirements and is certified as a Micro Business by the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity (DSBSD). Although, competition is alwaysencouraged, these purchases may be completed with a single quote. |
| Procurement Method | There are seven allowable methods for procurement in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The following are tools we shall use to procure purchasing requirements for colleges that are within the allowable methods and contained within this guide: Micro source, single quote, Quick QuoteSolicitation, Sealed Solicitation, Cooperative, Sole Source and emergency. |
| Quick Quote Solicitation | A procurement need that is expected to total less than $100,000 may be procured using an unsealed bidding process that generally can be completed more quickly than a sealed process. |
| Sealed Solicitation | A procurement need that is estimated to total over $100,000 for the life of the entire procurementneed that shall be procured using an open competitive process. |
| Sole Source Justification | The review and authorization process to procure on the basis that a product or service is practicably available from only one source. |
| Submission Deadlines | The final date in which requisitions can arrive at the SSC’s inbox and every attempt will be made tocomplete the request to a purchase order. |
| Submitted Status | eVA PR status immediately following draft status and prior to an awarded status. |
| Urgencies | A purchase requirement that has arisen that is mission critical to the operation of the institution; however, does not fit the state definition of emergency. |
| VCCS, State or Approved Cooperative Contract | A purchase that is being procured under an existing contract solicited by the VCCS, the State or a Cooperative Contract that SSC procurement has approval to use (cooperative contracts and thecollege is authorized to use the contract are listed in the Master List of Contracts). |
To: Management Council Members, VPs of Finance, and all eVA end-users
Reason: eVA Conversion news
Date: November 19, 2021
Colleagues,
We’d like to take this opportunity to remind our community about the upcoming changes to eVA, the Commonwealth’s procurement platform. The Department of General Services (DGS) is leading the upgrade project that is replacing the underlying platform that supports eVA in early January. The new platform, Ivalua, provides a modern and robust environment and boasts wide adoption amongst public sector and business organizations.
A VCCS project team has been working for several months to help prepare for our adoption of the new system. This has included working with representatives across the VCCS to share training materials, assess needs, and help each agency prepare for its use of the new system.
DGS is leading this project and has been working diligently to configure, test, and convert the software and data involved in this transition. Also, DGS has been providing sample training materials and other support to help ease adoption. This project is a major effort and being delivered in a highly compressed timeframe. As such, there have been challenges and some delays in receiving the system access, training materials, and technical information we need to fully conduct our user acceptance testing and other necessary VCCS preparatory work. However, we are working closely with DGS in partnership to ensure that we can be as prepared and proactive as possible. We are keeping the VCCS community informed on DGS progress, including any potential delays that may affect our VCCS implementation plans.
As part of this project, we have assembled a few collaborate VCCS sub-teams made up of members of your colleges along with the SSC to address training and acceptance testing. For training, we are a 45-member strong VCCS team identified as eVA trainers. This group has received DGS train the trainer information and has been meeting to review needs and plans. We ask that each institution work with its representative trainer(s) to help prepare your user community for adoption of the new eVA system. In addition, the SSC will be hosting training activities in December and January to supplement this effort. With over 1,800 eVA users across the VCCS, it will require a collective effort to ensure that our community is ready to take advantage of all that the new eVA platform can offer!
DGS projects a “go live” of the new system on January 3rd, 2022 (43 days) at which point we’ll be completing final acceptance testing from a VCCS perspective. Together, designated subject matter experts at SSC and colleges will rapidly work through this process to return to ‘business as usual’ as quickly after January 3rd as possible. We ask that each institution be prepared to support this team and we will be in close communication with you as we relaunch eVA.
We’d like to remind you of several key project dates:
| Date | Activity |
| December 3, 2021 | All requisitions due to SSC Procurement including change orders. |
| December 13 & 14, 2021 | Early introductory view of the new system lead by SSC |
| December 17, 2021 | All receiving complete for payments needed prior to conversion. |
| December 22, 2021 | eVA will be going down for the VCCS! |
| January 3-5, 10 & 11, 2022 | New system training sessions lead by SSC available to all users |
| Early January 2022 | Watch for VCCS Communication signaling the commencement of the new system for all users. |
You can also refer to the SSC eVA Transition Project page for key dates and helpful information as you continue to prepare. Additional communications will be sent as we approach the upcoming training dates.
We wish to thank you again for your collaboration and contributions to this effort. The new eVA platform promises to offer improved ease of use and functionality and should be a great step forward in support of VCCS’s procurement needs. The next several weeks will be hectic and, certainly, there will be challenges to address. Together, our teams are making a collective effort to support this major implementation project and we are all looking forward to an optimized procurement environment in the new year.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions, suggestions, or concerns.
Thanks, Dennis
Dennis Moynihan, Director
Shared Services Center
dmoynihan
M: 802-829-2329