Publish details for government solicitations. Accept electronic submission of quotations, bids and proposals. Gather responses to questions about solicitations. All EC systems replace all or key parts of paper-based workflows with faster, cheaper, more efficient, and more reliable communications between machines. Through the use of EDI, transactions can be completed more cheaply and accurately than is possible through the exchange of paper documents.
VANs provide services where suppliers can retrieve the document.
If a supplier decides to submit a quote, then the information flow is reversed from the supplier back to the contracting office. With DOD's goal of getting all procurement offices on EC by 1997, the basic fact of the matter is that you participate in EC or you don't participate at all. This is available from the Electronic Commerce Office. DOD Electronic Commerce Info. Get help from a Small Business Specialist.