The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Crisis: What You as a Supplier Can Be Doing to Help

Though our entire nation is being challenged right now, state and local agencies are the ones leading response efforts. They’re coordinating healthcare programs, ensuring continuity in the delivery of essential goods and services, and implementing measures that are intended to protect our individual and collective well-being. But they’re not doing it alone. In fact, they can’t. Whether you’ve worked with the government as a supplier before or not, now is the time to step up and help. The public sector’s need for goods and services has become greater than ever.

As a supplier, here are a few things you can do to better help with the current situation whether your workforce is operating from home or still reporting to the front lines:

• Evaluate your product or service offerings. Is it an immediate public sector need for the healthcare or cleaning supplies you provide – or could obtain? If so, are there other customer orders that can be postponed until after the crisis, or at least rationed, so that you can reallocate those resources to the immediate needs at hand?
• If your company’s product or service offerings are not aligned with an immediate public sector need, can they be modified? Several companies and industries are shifting their strategies to help. Large automotive companies are assisting in the development of much needed ventilators. Fashion design companies have begun manufacturing face masks. And even those in the spirits industry have begun making hand sanitizer with their supply of alcohol, such as this Austin-area whiskey distillery.
• Make contact with agencies to let them know how you can help right now. Changing regulations and technology advancements have made it easier than ever to get your goods and services in front of the public sector. The Periscope Marketplace™, created exclusively for the public sector, is where state and local government officials can shop publicly sourced contracts and open market catalogs. This can help significantly reduce the lag time spent on RFPs and help get agencies the resources they need immediately. Learn more about how to upload your catalog today to enable public sector agencies to begin shopping your products and services.
• Ensure you have a bid notification service enabled. If you already receive bid notifications, reevaluate your key terms and location preferences. Periscope S2G offers free access to our exclusive network of 1,000+ public sector agencies as well as paid subscriptions expanding beyond the Periscope network to 100,000+ public sector agencies nationally. Explore plans here.

Remember: By enlisting your company’s products and services to help public sector agencies, you are helping to drive revenue and retain employees who might otherwise need to be laid off due to the current and evolving state of the economy. With an estimated 37 million U.S jobs at risk, any effort to retain employees can help boost the economy.

As always, the Periscope S2G team is available to assist with any supplier needs you may have such as signing up, adjusting your subscription, or even just modifying your key words to expand your notifications.