In partnership with El Paso Community College/DOD/DLA

Promoting Business Expansion, Job Creation and Economic Growth through active pursuit of government and commercial sector contracts and purchase orders.

Mission
The mission of the El Paso Contract Opportunities Center (COC) is to promote business development by providing bidding/contracting opportunities and technical assistance throughout the County of El Paso. The Center motivates and assists businesses toward expansion and job creation through active pursuit of government, state, county, city, municipal, educational and commercial contracting opportunities.

We provide consulting and technical assistance in purchasing and procurement to businesses, with special focus and emphasis on small, minority, and/or women owned businesses. Major services and support functions include: outreach, counseling, marketing, bid-matching, technical and reference, and our latest development, electronic commerce/electronic data interchange.

The COC was awarded its first Cooperative Agreement to operate as a Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) program in 1986. Currently, the El Paso Community College is the sole recipient/participant of the DOD/DLA agreement funded by the Defense Logistics Agency. To meet our vision in cooperation with a variety of agencies.

KEY CENTER SERVICES

• Outreach Support: Includes conferences, networking, seminars/workshops, on-site visits, newsletters, a weekly radio program on KXCR 98.5 FM and a Sunday bid information on the El Paso Times.
• Counseling Support: Includes Clients Needs Assessments, New Client Program Orientation, and Resources Referrals.
• Marketing Support: Includes research, strategies to access federal, state, & municipal markets and various electronic registrations: CCR, Pro-Net, Postal Services.
• Technical support: Includes pre-award technical bid-preparation assistance, and post-award assistance.
• Computerized Bid-matching support: Includes Bids sent custom-coded to each business and client, from the Federal Commerce Business Daily & Texas Bid Net Announcements by first class mail, fax or online. International Trade leads are also available.
• Reference Support: Includes: Federal Acquisition Regulations, Texas State Procurement Information, including Historically Underutilized Business certification assistance, Municipal purchasing systems, Procurement Automated Source and Military Specifications.

For more information regarding the services offered by the COC or bidding and contracting opportunities, please call Julie Suarez at the Contract Opportunities Center at

(915) 831-7753, (915) 566-4066 or e-mail at jsuarez@epcc.edu.