Specifications include, but are not limited to: Preliminary Market Assessment The consultant team will lead the Preliminary Market Assessment which includes the following sub-tasks: 1. Framework. Creation of an assessment framework to guide and structure the research. a. The framework should include definitions, research approach, and methods used. The framework should also address how the project approach will achieve project goals. 2. Baseline Assessment. a. Baseline analysis to determine the current state of the diversity of Washington County vendors. 1. What elements are currently being evaluated to establish if a supplier is diverse and how are those elements currently being collected/verified across vendors? 2. If they are not being tracked/collected, what processes are underway internally? b. Challenges and Barriers 1. What do we know are the barriers preventing BIPOC owned businesses from accessing contracting opportunities with the County? 2. What is the nature of these challenges? 3. This assessment will provide an opportunity for deeper engagement with community through the Washington County Small Business Support Network and beyond. Project staff will support consultant in engagement efforts and ensure previous feedback received from contractors is reflected in assessment. c. Summary of public sector supplier market trends including identification of primary and relevant sources for market assessment. 3. Market and Peer Comparative Analysis. An assessment of how peer agencies approach supplier diversity. This work is driven by select research questions to be decided on by staff and the consultant team including: 1. What are other agencies doing to diversify their contractor pools? 2. What methods and actions are they using to track this data? 3. How is it funded? 4. How are they tracking progress? (Among others: consultant would interview – Prosper Portland, Port of Portland, City of Hillsboro, City of Beaverton, Metro Regional Government, and Business Oregon). 5. How successful are they? What are current or “best” practices that have been impactful 4. Supply Assessment and Engagement. This task is focused on understanding the “supply” of potential contractors that could contract with the County. 1. Specifically, we are interested in understanding more about businesses within marginalized communities including communities of color and others that have not had the opportunity or have been unable to contract with the County in the past. 2. We are interested in a supply assessment that provides a landscape of: a. BIPOC owned businesses in Washington County. b. Comparisons of business ownership in other geographies (e.g. at the region and state levels). c. Business and industry characteristic assessments, etc. d. Note: We understand that demographic data about businesses owners and workers is hard to find and most datasets are incomplete or out of date. If the consultant team also finds this to be the case, we request to pivot this task to identification of methods to acquire and track these data. 5. Tracking Success. The Preliminary Market Assessment should include recommendations for how Washington County can track progress for diversifying the pool of contractors that work with the County. Recommendations should include a detailed list of potential metrics and a proposed process and/or system to track key performance metrics. 1. Final Deliverable: Preliminary Market Assessment Report. This task will culminate into a final technical memorandum that provides a detailed summary, discussion of findings, and recommendations for next steps. a. Assessment of Actions. From findings of previous tasks, what actions (interventions) could the County and partners take to help BIPOC owned companies overcome challenges to contract with the County? b. Contact list of subject matter experts from industries and workforce within Washington County and surrounding Portland Metro area that could serve as a network of advisers, evaluators, and partners in providing recommendations to Washington County workforce development, procurement and contracting.
