Get Started with SOSA

With Standing Offers and Supply Arrangements (SOSA), you can find out what the Government of Canada buys in your industry or find a partner to help bid on opportunities aligned to your industry.

SOSA is information on businesses that are currently pre-qualified by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) to supply goods and services to the Government of Canada.

Standing offers and supply arrangements are two methods frequently used by government departments and agencies to buy goods or services. Visit the following Web pages to read more About Standing Offers and About Supply Arrangements.

This page will explain:

Table of contents

How to use SOSA

On Buyandsell.gc.ca, SOSA data is available by downloading it as bilingual open data on the Download SOSA Data page or you can Search Standing Offers and Supply Arrangements (SOSA) with keywords aligned to your industry, such as Janitorial Services or specific agreement number, such as EV394-113714/001/STN, or a supplier name.

On the search results page, SOSA records can be further filtered using search facets, such as Good or Service, Location, Department or Supplier Name.

Find SOSA data by category

Narrow your search to the various types of SOSA procurement instruments, such as:

Use GSIN codes to find SOSA data

GSIN codes connect all of the procurement data on Buyandsell.gc.ca, including Tenders, Standing Offers and Supply Arrangements, and Contract History. Therefore, it is helpful to know what GSIN codes align to your industry. (Browse GSIN Codes to find a code related to your industry or learn how to find GSIN codes in the Get Started with GSIN codes page.)

Knowing your GSIN code(s) can help you narrow down to information related to your industry and find the most relevant standing offer or supply arrangement.

Search SOSA data by goods and services commodity type, broken down by:

UNSPSC to replace GSIN codes

Coming in 2017, the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC) will replace the GSIN codes. There is no immediate impact to businesses or government buyers. As the transition to UNSPSC is implemented, all of the GSIN codes will be mapped to UNSPSC. This mapping between the GSIN and UNSPSC will be shared by PWGSC on Buyandsell.gc.ca as open data.

For businesses - Why use SOSA

Standing offers and supply arrangements are two methods frequently used by government departments and agencies to buy goods or services.

With SOSA, you can find potential partners from a pool of pre-qualified suppliers to fulfill requirements in Government of Canada opportunities. For instance, businesses new to selling to government can identify pre-qualified suppliers to contact about exploring possible partnerships.

You can enhance your planning by knowing the end dates of standing offers and supply arrangements in your industry to prepare for possible future opportunities. As well, you can use the listed regions of delivery to understand regional opportunities. You can also find out the department or agency PWGSC issued the standing offer or supply arrangement to understand who is buying your good or service.

For government - Why use SOSA

With SOSA, buyers have a tool to find, filter and search for information on businesses holding PWGSC standing offers and supply arrangements.

SOSA uses the information obtained from the Standing Offer Index (SOI), a government-only tool for procurement professionals. The SOI contains the full standing offer or supply arrangement procurement documents, whereas SOSA lists the tombstone data, such as supplier name, description, GSIN code, agreement number, etc.

Use SOSA before the Standing Offer Index

Some procurement professionals use SOSA before using SOI because it is easy to search, and helps them do preliminary work to find suppliers. From there, they use SOI to get the actual documentation for the standing offer or supply arrangement.

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