USER QUESTION	ANSWER
What is eMMA?	eMaryland Marketplace Advantage (eMMA) is Maryland’s official procurement management tool for public buyers to solicit bids/proposals, house and manage contracts, and for vendors to seek and respond to public contracting opportunities. eMMA replaced a legacy tool and went live in July 2019 with Release 1.0 which enabled the publication of solicitations and allowed electronic receipt of bids and proposals. We are now in Release 1.1 which adds on additional functionality for contract award and management. Future releases (R1.2 and R2.0) will occur in 2021-2022 and will enhance vendor management, integrate with State financial systems, and enable invoicing and payment processes.
What are the benefits of using eMMA?	eMMA is designed to benefit all users, including State and local officials, procurement professionals, suppliers, government leaders, and citizens through increased transparency, enhanced eCommerce functionality,streamlined business processes and advanced analytical reporting tools.
What are the password requirements for eMMA?	NOTE: This only applies to users who do not access eMMA through connect.MD.gov. Your password must be a minimum of 12 characters in length and must contain at least one (1): • Uppercase letter • Lowercase letter •    Special character
Will my eMMA session “timeout” after a period of time?	Remember to click “SAVE” frequently as you work in eMMA. Your eMMA session will timeout after 20 minutes of inactivity. • If you logged in via emma.maryland.gov, return to that site and log-in with your username and password. • If you logged in via SSO, return to that site and click the eMMA logo.
Who can I contact with questions?	You can reach us at emma.helpdesk@maryland.gov or submit a ticket through this portal.
What commodity codes are used in eMMA?	The eMMA system uses the United Nations Standard Products and Services Codes (UNSPSC) structure which is a more universally accepted commodity code structure. The NIGP codes used in eMM have been mapped to the UNSPSC codes; if your commodity code is not found in eMMA, please contact us at emma.helpdesk@maryland.gov. You can learn more about UNSPSC codes by visiting www.unspsc.org.
My user account has been disabled and I'm locked out of my account. How do I get back into eMMA?	Contact emma.helpdesk@maryland.gov to reinstate your access.
Can Docusign still be used if the contract workflows are bypassed?	Yes, if the contract record is not yet Published.  Use the Documents tab in the Contract record to initiate a Signature Transaction.  Refer to our Docusign QRG here:  https://procurement.maryland.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/06/20-eMMA-QRG-DocuSign-eMMA.pdf
Any change, added visibility, or special guidance for teams in 1.1?	No special guidance.  The Teams tab is only in the Sourcing module.  The Contracts module has a Contacts tab where you can provide visibility to the PO, Contract Manager, Program SMEs, and Vendor.
When a contract is sent to an awardee in eMMA, which Vendor role gets the notice that the contract is there?	For manual signatures/acknowledgements, all vendor contacts in eMMA are notified and only one needs to sign/acknowledge to move the workflow forward.
If you want to use DocuSign to sign the contract, which role has the ability to do that?	DocuSign setup is administered by the Responsible Contact  user for the Contract record in question. The system defaults this label to the user initiating the contract record, typically the awarding Procurement Officer.
My approvers are not in eMMA so how do I get my contract posted?	Submit a ticket to us through this portal or email us at emma.helpdesk@maryland.gov to make the request.
Why does the alert message ask for a Certificate of Standing and Tax Clearance document?	In order to ensure compliance with State regulations and procurement policy, eMMA is configured with alerts which require evidence the Procurement Officer has performed checks to ensure the awardee vendor holds a good Certificate of Standing in the SDAT Business Express database and has passed a Tax Clearance check.
How do I get the Certificate of Standing document?	Please check the status of your apparent awardee's standing at the SDAT Business Express database:  https://egov.maryland.gov/businessexpress/entitysearch
How do I access eMMA?	There are two ways to access eMMA depending on your email address: If you have an email address that ends with “@maryland.gov”, you will access eMMA via the connect.md.gov secure portal (aka, SecureAuth or Single Sign-on). You will find a link to the eMMA system on that platform when you log into your account (for G Suite or HUB Training). (The password is the same as your computer and email log on.) MDOT users will access eMMA via their Azure SSO. If you do not have an “@maryland.gov” email address, you will access eMMA with a username and password directly from the emma.maryland.gov webpage.
How do I get my supervisor corrected on my profile?	Submit a ticket to us through this portal or email us at emma.helpdesk@maryland.gov to make the request.  Please ensure your supervisor is also a user in the system.
How do I get my approvers in the system?	Submit a ticket to us through this portal or email us at emma.helpdesk@maryland.gov to make the request.
What do I do if a PO leaves my organization and I need access to their work?	Submit a ticket to us through this portal or email us at emma.helpdesk@maryland.gov to make the request.
How do I skip the workflow?	Workflows are automated and designed to apply where applicable, including considering a user's organization and contract data inputs.  If you believe the workflow is not moving correctly for you, please submit a ticket to us through this portal or email us at emma.helpdesk@maryland.gov.
Why did the supervisor get notified for steps that belong to the Procurement officer?	Responsible parties get notifications and are expected to perform approval steps. If a PO's supervisor is made the responsible party they will get the notifications and must perform the steps.  In addition, unattended workflow steps will escalate to a supervisor after several days.
What happens if an amendment is made to a solicitation but the vendor does not update their response?	The response is not valid and will be deemed non-responsive.  Vendors MUST respond to the most current 'Round' or Amendment of a Solicitation.
How is the vendor notified that an amendment was made?  Do they receive an email?	The PO will click the 'Send to Vendors' and 'Notify Commodity Vendors' butons in eMMA as part of the Amendment process; this generates an email notification of the Round/Amendment to a Vendor's admin and primary contacts. If Vendors have added the project in question to their 'My Solicitations', then the Amended version will also be visible to them from the My Solicitations page.  Vendors will be asked to re-Acknowledge this new Round and will need to resubmit a response to this new Round version.
Can you tell me the difference between what the Reference Price vs. the Unit Price means under the Pricing tab?	Reference price is a field to capture any internal government estimates for the cost of the product/service being purchased (your line item). It is NOT visible to the vendors.  It allows the system to calculate savings of the vendor's proposed costs against your reference price. Vendors enter their bid/proposal response pricing in the Unit Price field for each line item you create.  If entering line items for vendors to propose pricing to, POs must define what each 'unit of measure' (UOM) your product/service will be calculated as - e.g. price 'per lot' or 'each' or any of the other dropdown options.
In preparing a new sourcing project in eMMA, regarding the Apparent Awardee selector fields at setup: Can these be changed at a later date if I were to enter NO into each of those categories now, as I'm preparing the IFB, not making an award yet? Is there a way to determine the approval path?	All buyers should have an estimate or general knowledge of the approximate value of their procurement and/or the agency-specific approvals required for the selection of an awardee.  This early understanding should be used to populate the apparent awardee selection fields when setting up a Sourcing Project.  The selections may be changed later, if needed.
How do I ensure Small Procurement Cat 1 and Small Procurement Cat 2&3 Solicitations are public?	Solicitations under Small Procurement Cat 1 and Small Procurement Cat 2&3 are not automatically defaulted to be visible on the public portal. To make the solicitation visible on the public portal, please follow these steps when creating the new solicitation: 1. Navigate to “Prepare Solicitation” tab and click the “Setup” sub-tab (left navigation). 2. Click “Advanced Options” and put a checkmark in “Solicitation Visible to Public”. 3. Click Save. NOTE: If your solicitation is already open, you will need to create an Amendment, follow the steps above, and re-publish your solicitation.
How do I get my solicitation in Open status?	Follow steps 57 onwards (Send, Notify and Publish) in this QRG: https://procurement.maryland.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/01/2a-eMMA-QRG-Creating-Large-Procurement-IFB-Sourcing-Solicitations-1.pdf
I need to delete a Round; what do I do?	Rounds in Draft status only may be deleted.  Use the Other Actions button to delete your round.
I can't access the financial proposals. How can I get to them and download them?	Financial proposals are only accessible to you once Technical envelopes have been opened, evaluated, and marked as susceptible or not.  Please refer to this QRG: https://procurement.maryland.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/05/OpenTechnical_FinancialEnvelopes_QRGBuyer.pdf
My vendor submitted a bid but it is showing in an older round.  How do I access it so it can be evaluated and awarded?	To access prior round submissions, use the Selected .Round drop-down field at the top of the Analyze & Award tab.
How do I enter pre-proposal conference information?	Please see this QRG to setup your solicitation with pre-proposal conference information:  https://procurement.maryland.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/01/8b-eMMA-QRG-Prepare-a-Solicitation-Project.pdf