Green Book Is Here
Prince George’s County Business Highway, “Green Book Opportunities Guide”
Jonathan Butler, Office of Central Services
Prince Georges County’s Office of Central Service (OCS) recently launched the new “Business Highway”. It is an online portal to engage and connect small, local, and diverse suppliers to business development and expansion opportunities in Prince Georges. Business Highway also allows access to a comprehensive suite of online business capacity building platforms for the County’s small and diverse suppliers such as the Green Book opportunities guide, Strategic Purchasing Efficient and Evaluation Domain (SPEED), and Contract Certification and Compliance System (CCS). The Business Highway contains the county’s online vendor certification system, CCS, and a toolkit with key documents and training modules to support County small businesses.
To expand small and disadvantaged business development and respond to concerns regarding access to procurement opportunities in Prince George’s County, the Green Book Pilot was launched under the Business Highway. According to the press release from the Director of the Office of Central Services, Jonathan R. Butler, released back in March, Green Book Pilot provides an online guide for County-based Small Businesses (CBSBs) and County-based Minority Business Enterprises (CBMBEs). It allows them the ability to connect to procurement opportunities within the County’s government.
Within the Green Book Pilot, eleven of the County’s top spending agencies were selected to participate. There are a variety of resources and information that may be beneficial for business owners to learn about in the areas of focus from the agencies such as, how to register to do business with Prince George’s County Government, how to become certified, and how to locate current and forecasted contract opportunities. Business owners can also, learn what types of services and products agencies have not been able to find for CBSBs and CBMBEs, or needed services, as a potential growth opportunity for businesses.
When speaking with the Public Information Officer of the Office of Central Services, Eboni Blair, she stated that Business Highway is a “one-stop shop”, which is also an advantage to gaining access to the Business Highway portal. “It offers videos, forms, and anything you need, in one location” in relation to providing tools and resources for businesses to effectively conduct in Prince George’s County. She mentioned, “the Office of Central Services site allows anyone to view the Green Book for free”, as well as Business Highway. Blair said that “any kind of business can register and become certified within the Business Highway portal”.
With Green Book taking effect, the Office of Central Service is still on a grind in focusing on the next phase of the Business Highway. Blair stated, “upcoming is SPEED, Strategic Purchasing Efficient and Evaluation Domain, which will be launching next month and is in the test pilot phase right now”.
If you are interested in Business Highway, Green Book, and/or any upcoming phases within Business Highway, visit https://www.princegeorgescountymd.gov/807/Central-Services or contact the Office of Central Service at 301-883-6450.
