What is MERX U.S. Tenders? Why consider doing business in the U.S.? What is the difference between MERX U.S. Tenders and the International Opportunities available through the Public Tenders service? Why are opportunity notices available only in English? What services are offered? Can I order documents and receive amendments? What is an Opportunity Matching Profile? What are Closed Opportunities? How do I find out which company has been awarded a contract?
How do I subscribe to MERX U.S. Tenders? I am a MERX U.S. Tenders monthly subscriber. Does my subscription renew automatically?
Can I search for opportunities without being registered to MERX U.S. Tenders? How do I search for opportunities on MERX U.S. Tenders?
How do I update my contact or organization profile?
Are the U.S. Tenders subscription rates posted on the MERX site in Canadian or U.S. dollars? How do I pay my bill? How do I change my credit card information? How do I obtain my statements online?
How do I access online help? As a subscriber to MERX U.S. Tenders, will I receive a newsletter or other information? How do I change my password online? What do I do if I have received a warning that my account has been locked out? Is there someone I can call for technical support? What Internet browsers are compatible with MERX? What does encryption do?
MERX U.S. Tenders Service is for Canadian businesses who want to expand their revenue base by taking advantage of the thousands of federal, state, and local opportunities posted in the United States. MERX U.S. Tenders is a valuable addition to the overall MERX product offering, providing Canadian business a comprehensive source for tender information for U.S. federal, state, and local organizations. Unlike many e-tendering resources, MERX U.S. Tenders is Canadian based, provides 100% American content, and is an accurate, cost-effective source for small, medium and large businesses to access tender information for U.S. opportunities.
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The relationship between the U.S. and Canada is probably the closest and most extensive in the world. It is reflected in the staggering volume of bilateral trade--the equivalent of $1.2 billion a day in goods, services, and investment income*. In 2005, total merchandise trade between the two countries (FOB basis) was $483 billion**, and in 2004, Canada exported more than $267 billion dollars of goods and services to the U.S.* The U.S. is the world's largest single national economy and consumer of a wide variety of goods and services.*
*U.S. Chamber of Commerce**Trade Map Canada
There are several differences:
MERX receives all U.S. Federal and State & Local opportunity notices in English only. To ensure that the text, content and information remain consistent with the original documentation, MERX does not translate opportunities. The U.S. Tenders service is only available in English.
As a MERX U.S. Tenders subscriber, your business can benefit tremendously by accessing government tender opportunities. Click here to access a detailed list of our services
MERX U.S. Tenders includes free download delivery of tender documents and amendments (also known as updates or addenda). No other delivery methods are available. There is no concept of ‘ordering’ in MERX U.S. Tenders. You simply download the tender documents. Because there is no ‘ordering’, downloads do not appear in your Account Activity and do not appear on your MERX statements. An amendment is a piece of documentation that is issued after an opportunity has become active on MERX U.S. Tenders. To receive notification of amendments, you must create a U.S. Tenders Opportunity Matching profile. Each business day, U.S. Tenders Opportunity Matching will match all new, amended, and awarded opportunities in the U.S. Tenders service with the criteria entered in your U.S. Tenders Opportunity Matching profile. Please refer to "What is an Opportunity Matching Profile" below for more information. Note: There is no ability to receive amendments automatically through MERX U.S. Tenders.
Included in your monthly or annual pre-paid subscription is one free profile for the MERX Opportunity Matching service.
Opportunity Matching is designed to look for opportunities of interest to your business and send them to you via email Monday through Friday at no additional charge. You create the search criteria profile and we'll do the rest. As a MERX U.S. Tenders subscriber you can create a profile for this valuable service by selecting the Opportunity Matching Profile link in the navigation bar under the U.S. Tenders tab. Don't forget to test your new profile before saving it to make sure that you are receiving the opportunities that are relevant to your business. Please refer to the associated Help Page for more information.
Closed Opportunities are notices that have passed their closing date but are still accessible on MERX U.S. Tenders. When the closing date for an opportunity notice has passed, the closed notice is stored separately from active notices. Users may search through the Closed Opportunities database to research and track buying patterns of the U.S. Federal agencies and State & Local buyers.
Subscribers can use the MERX U.S. Tenders Award search feature to find contract award notices. You can find out which organizations were awarded which contracts and in some cases for what dollar value. This can be useful information when preparing bids. MERX U.S. Tenders will post Federal awarded contract information only, pending availability.
If you are already subscribed to MERX, login to your account, click on the Customer Profile link on the Supplier Home, then click on Service Details and add the U.S. Tenders package of your choice.
If you are not registered to MERX, you can begin by clicking on the Register Now button located on the MERX home page. You will then be prompted to read and accept the MERX Terms and Conditions and then will be directed to complete an online registration wizard. The last page of the registration process will present you with a Supplier Confirmation Letter which will include your User Id and password. We recommend that you print and store this page in a secure location.
You will be brought to the MERX Login page. Once you log in, you may immediately use MERX U.S. Tenders by clicking on the U.S. Tenders tab and benefit from all of its services.
If you are a monthly subscriber, each month your subscription will be renewed automatically and will be charged directly to your credit card. If you are an annual pre-paid subscriber, each year your subscription will be renewed automatically and will be charged directly to your credit card.
MERX provides this option in order to provide you with uninterrupted service.
If you are not registered to a MERX service, or are registered to MERX but not to the U.S. Tenders service, you can still search for opportunities in the U.S. Tenders service. However, you will only be able to access your search results. You will not be able to view the opportunity abstracts. To view opportunity abstracts, you must be registered to MERX U.S. Tenders.
From the MERX U.S. Tenders page, you can easily find the opportunities relevant to your business through a list of opportunities sorted by high-level categories. This page displays the number of open tender opportunities by industry category and the number of new opportunities published that day, last week and the total listed.
Performing a search on MERX U.S. Tenders is easy. From the MERX U.S. Tenders home page, simply enter one or more keywords in the search box. Once you have performed a search, you can filter your search results by Category and/or by Region. Please refer to the associated Help Page for more information.
It is important that both your contact and organization profiles be up to date. Updating your profiles is simple. From the Supplier Home page (under the Public Tenders tab), click on the Customer Profile link to open the View Organization Information page; from this page select the View Own Contact Information page depending on your role (Supplier or Supplier Coordinator). Click the Update button located at the bottom of the profile pages and then update the profile as required. Click the Submit button to complete the update process.
Alternatively, you can click on the Customer Profile link under the U.S. Tenders tab, and follow the same steps.
All rates posted on the MERX site are advertised in Canadian dollars. All subscription fees will be charged to your credit card in Canadian dollars.
With the exception of any annual pre-paid subscriptions, chargeable MERX services are charged automatically each month to your VISA, MasterCard or American Express card. Your credit card information was provided to MERX when you registered.
Login to MERX and click the Customer Profile link, and then click the Credit Card Information link. Update your credit card information as required. This can only be done if your role is that of a Supplier Coordinator for the account.
MERX statements are available online to Supplier Coordinators. To access your statements online, login to MERX and click the Account Activity link located on the Supplier Home page. Under the Online Statements title, click the View link and then select the MERX statement you wish to view. There you will find detailed information from the last 12 months.
If there is a balance on the account, we will mail you an account statement at the end of the month.
For more information on how to use MERX U.S. Tenders, access our online help pages by clicking on ‘Help’ in the top right-hand corner of most pages. Alternatively, you can click on ‘Contact Us’ in the top right-hand corner to find contact information for reaching MERX Customer Support.
MERX U.S. Tenders communicates all necessary information to its supplier community on an ongoing basis through various announcements in the Announcements Section of the website. MERX will also distribute other information such as service and product updates, special offers, news and events and other information of interest to U.S. Tenders Suppliers. There is no extra charge to receive this information.
Log in to MERX and click on Customer Profile, click on View Own Profile and then select the link titled Change Password.
A MERX Password security feature limits the number of failed login attempts. After 10 consecutive failed attempts your account will be locked out. You will have to contact MERX Customer Support to unlock your account.
MERX Customer Support will answer any technical questions you may have. Some questions may require escalation thus slightly delaying a response. You can call 1-800-964-MERX (6379) or (613) 727-4900, fax 1-888-235-5800 or email merx@merx.com.
MERX supports all new browsers. When a new browser version is released, we make every effort to ensure that MERX is upgraded so that it is compatible.
Encryption is a sophisticated scrambling technique used to guard private information while it is transmitted through the Internet. To recognize that your transmission is encrypted, some browsers will display a small icon on your screen that looks like a lock or a key. MERX uses 128-bit encryption, which is currently the highest form of encryption available commercially.
