News from North Texas Tollway Authority

August/2011

Welcome to NTTA's

DIVERSITY CONNECTION

Lo-Res Director Coleman

We are pleased to introduce the inaugural

e-newsletter from the North Texas Tollway Authority's Business Diversity Department. This new communication vehicle will highlight NTTA procurement opportunities with the business community in North Texas. Each quarterly edition will provide you with information including future procurement workshops, success stories and future outreach events.

The mission of the NTTA's Business Diversity Department is to "strengthen the Authority by the inclusion of disadvantaged, minority-owned, woman-owned business, and small business enterprises in the procurement of goods and services."A continuing goal of the department is to maximize the participation of D/M/W/SBEs in all phases of the NTTA's purchasing and contract activities, as the department remains an integral component of the NTTA.

Actively engaging the business community is of the utmost importance to the NTTA, as we seek to fulfill our mission to enhance mobility for all citizens of North Texas.

If you have questions or comments, we would be delighted to hear from you. Call our Vendor Outreach Hotline, (972) 447-3333, or send us an email at vendoroutreach@ntta.org. Or you can always contact me directly.

The NTTA is open for business.

Anthony Coleman

Director of Business Diversity

NTTA's ROAD Leads to Rome

ROAD Logo

When Benchmark Environmental Consultants and URS Corporation were selected by the North Texas Tollway Authority to participate in its Relationships and Opportunities Advancing Diversity Program, they did not know that this ROAD would literally lead to Rome.

In March 2011, the NTTA matched mentor firm URS with protégé firm Benchmark through NTTA's ROAD program, which seeks to promote and facilitate relationships between prime contractors and consultants to foster opportunities for disadvantaged, minority, and woman-owned business enterprises (D/M/WBEs). In only a few short months, the Benchmark and URS team had their first key win. Surprisingly, this first win wasn't located in Dallas, or Fort Worth, or Texas, or even the United States. It was located in Rome.

How did NTTA's ROAD Program lead them to Rome? After the initial kick-off meeting with the NTTA, key executives from Benchmark, including President Kelly Walker and Vice President Thomas Cincotta, met with key URS executives Vice President Wendy Lopez and Transportation Director Martin Rodin to discuss joint marketing strategies. Both firms agreed to share potential opportunities in service areas that augmented each firm's strengths and to pursue these projects together. In June 2011, one of Benchmark's existing clients, an international Fortune 500 telecommunications company, asked them to bid on a confidential, environmental consulting project near Rome. The project required a strong understanding of Italian regulations and experience negotiating with Italian regulators. Although Benchmark had previously conducted work in other countries in Europe and Asia, it did not have expertise specifically in Italy with the regulatory expertise required for this project. However, URS did.

Benchmark presented this opportunity to URS, and URS agreed to help support the project as a subcontractor using local URS environmental staff from Milan. The Benchmark/URS team submitted a proposal and was selected to perform the work. The NTTA's ROAD Program helped facilitate the relationship between Benchmark and URS and helped create the atmosphere of partnership necessary for both firms to team together on this international pursuit. In this instance, the protégé firm presented an opportunity to the mentor firm exemplifying a win-win strategy and proving that the ROAD to Rome is a two-way street.

Benchmark Environmental Consultants - Benchmark Environmental Consultants is a full-service environmental consulting firm headquartered in Dallas. They have won numerous national awards including the Environmental Business Journal's International Expansion Award in 2010, the Business Achievement Award in 2009 and the Consulting and Engineering Bronze Award in 2008. Benchmark is certified as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE), Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE), Historically Under-Utilized Business (HUB), and Small Business Enterprise (SBE). Contact Thomas Cincotta at (214) 363- 5996.www.benchmarkenviro.com

URS Corporation - URS Corporation is a leading provider of engineering, construction and technical services for public agencies and private sector companies around the world. The company offers a full range of program management; planning, design and engineering; systems engineering and technical assistance; construction and construction management; operations and maintenance; and decommissioning and closure services for power, infrastructure, industrial and commercial, and federal projects and programs. Contact Martin Rodin at (214) 672-2820. www.urscorp.com

NTTA and ROAD Program - The North Texas Tollway Authority is committed to increasing the participation of disadvantaged, minority-owned and woman-owned business enterprises in procurement contracts through the implementation of the Relationships and Opportunities Advancing Diversity Program. The ROAD Program seeks to promote and facilitate relationships between prime contractors and consultants to foster opportunities for D/M/WBEs to participate in large contracts with the NTTA. Contact Anthony Coleman at (214) 461-2007. www.ntta.org

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Tracking Software Strengthens Customer Service

The NTTA Business Diversity Department is constantly seeking to improve the efficiency of its operations and required compliance reporting for our vendors. Now, the department is taking the next step by implementing new contract compliance reporting software known as PRISM. This will replace the current manual subcontractor payment reporting process with a more efficient and less time consuming online reporting process.

Using the software removes tedious paperwork and report development to give the department added flexibility to spend more time reaching out to the community and facilitating the economic capacity of its vendors. The department also will benefit from electronic compliance management that streamlines compliance activities and creates greater efficiencies and responsiveness to vendors.

The new software provides a web-based, vendor-facing tool to efficiently gather information in each compliance stage of the process. Additionally, the monitoring program allows staff to review actual payments to vendors because the system integrates with the NTTA financial system to support efficient contract compliance.

The Business Diversity Department will launch the new system in the fall followed by a series of vendor compliance workshops in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties.

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Business Diversity Department Overview

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The NTTA's Business Diversity Department strives to strengthen the Authority through the inclusion of disadvantaged, minority, women-owned, and small business enterprises (D/M/W/SBEs) in the procurement of goods and services. The department focuses on four major areas:

Expanding outreach efforts and marketing initiatives
Aligning policies and procedures with the current business environment and industry best practices
Streamlining compliance and reporting processes
Building capacity of qualified D/M/W/SBEs

Learn more about these programs and other outreach initiatives, including:

Vendor Outreach Symposiums
Business Chat Sessions
Relationships and Opportunities Advancing Diversity (ROAD)
Business Diversity Advisory Council

Issue: 1

In This Issue

NTTA's ROAD Program

Tracking Software Strengthens Customer Service

Business Diversity Overview

VENDOR REGISTRATION

Stay apprised of NTTA opportunities by registering online at www.ntta.org. Registering online allows your firm to automatically receive emails for NTTA bid opportunities that match your company's registered skill sets by specific commodity codes.

UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES

Visit www.ntta.org to find upcoming opportunities for four industry-specific categories, as well as the construction letting schedule.

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CONTACT US

For questions regarding

vendor outreach, email VendorOutreach@ntta.org or call 972-447-3333.

For questions regarding business diversity, email BusinessDiversity@ntta.org or call 214-461-2007.

For questions regarding all procurements, email bidpurchasing@ntta.org.

Visit the Business Diversity Department online at www.ntta.org for direct access to the NTTA's Diversity Policy, Contractors Compliance Handbook, compliance report forms and other helpful links.

OUTREACH PROGRAMS

Your Business Diversity Team at the North Texas Tollway Authority