UAB And BPL Team Up To Aid Small Business Owners

BPL and the UAB Department of Supplier Diversity and the Department of Procurement are working together to help small business owners in the Birmingham area. To read more about this partnership, please read the UAB press release below.

New UAB Service Makes Vendor Applications More Accessible

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - More and more business today is conducted online, but not every business uses computers. So, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Supplier Diversity and the Department of Procurement have teamed up with the Birmingham Public Library to make vendor applications and notices of contracts more accessible to disadvantaged small business owners who don't have access to computers.

Through this new partnership, disadvantaged small business owners who are interested in doing business with UAB can now visit one of 20 Birmingham Public library locations to log onto a computer, where they can download the applications needed to enter their bids on contract opportunities at UAB. Disadvantaged businesses include businesses owned by women, minorities, veterans and the disabled.

The service is free. Librarians are on hand to help the business owners download and print copies of the forms.

This new offering is especially beneficial to small contractors in the construction industry who often do not use computers, said Albert D. Herbert, RT(R), Ph.D., executive director of the UAB Department of Supplier Diversity.

"This is a bold step in a positive direction to increase UAB's accessibility to business opportunities in procurement," said Terry W. Justice, executive director of the UAB Department of Procurement.

Access forms at http://www.minoritydev.uab.edu/VenderApp.asp. For more information, contact Ken Johnson in the UAB Department of Supplier Diversity at 205-934-8762.

The UAB Department of Supplier Diversity was established in 1987 to ensure that all suppliers have access to and knowledge of the university's procurement system.

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