AABE Directory
Bexar County’s UTSA AABE Survey most recently identified a gap in the availability and capacity of African American-owned businesses in the Alamo region. Because of the survey recommendations, the County’s Small Business and Entrepreneurship Department have created the African American Business Enterprise Initiative (AABEI) to help stimulate local outreach, economic growth, and development, included in this initiative is the AABE Directory.
The African American Business Enterprise Directory is a database built into the CDMS (Contract & Diversity Management System) that allows the user access to finding certified AABEs.
The African American Business Enterprise Listing is posted as a searchable excel spreadsheet. We ask any business listed to please provide us with your updated information or if you would like to be removed by sending an email to SMWBE@bexar.org. African American firms wishing to be added, please complete the AABEI Survey.
Whether you are in business, looking to start a business, or do business, this directory has you covered.
Key features include:
- Registration for Lawson Supplier Portal and if you register as a business you will automatically receive bid notifications based on the commodity codes that are selected by your company and attached to the supplier record during the registration process.
- Enhanced online S/M/W/D/DI/VBE Directory, with key-word search capabilities
- Tracking of S/M/W/D/DI/VBE certification applications from submission to completion
- Data mine search that is industry, zip code, gender, and/or ethnicity-specific.
Why Should You Check It Out?
- There are 16,246 businesses registered in the CDMS for our MSA
- 1,628 of those businesses are blacked owned
- 414 of the blacked owned businesses are certified as AABE
- The vendor side and customers, such as Bexar County, can bridge the information gap with better information and can build trust with better processes and information.
- Focus on the vendor as a participant and the public as an audience
- There are currently 2600 contracts on the CDMS monitoring 1.9 billion monetarily
- AABEs get leads/information on contracts/procurements from a wide range of sources, with the highest responses coming from online, other contractors, and other business owners- sources who they trust and who understand the vendor side. They can find you on the CDMS once you register
- To build bridges with AABEs that are looking to do business with you
Step 1: Accessing The System
To begin, go to the CDMS homepage at bexar.smwbe.com. Then, enter your username and password in the System Access Login page and click "Login." If you do not have an account, are unsure if you have one, or cannot remember the password, the options for "Account Lookup", "Forgot Password" and "Help / First Time Visitors" are to the right of the System Access Login box. If you are having issues logging in to the system or require assistance setting up an account, please contact us by clicking here.
Step 2: CDMS Dashboard
Once you are logged in, your dashboard will load. This page will show your account information, including current and past outreach efforts. To start searching, click on the "Search" tab on the left, then click "Vendors".
Step 3: Search Criteria & Setup
CDMS allows you to search as broad or as narrow as you would like based on a business name, location, phone area code, commodity code, and more. To view the AABE Directory, the two criteria we will focus on are certifications and ethnicity. To search the directory of businesses with an AABE certification, go to the box labeled "Certification Parameters" and click the drop-down menu in the "Certifications" box. To view certified AABE firms, scroll down to the South Central Texas Regional Certification Agency and check "African-American Business Enterprise (AABE)".
Alternatively, you can search based on ethnicity, allowing you to find firms that may not be certified currently or who are pending certification. This is performed under the "Advanced Search Parameters" box by choosing the drop-down menu option for Ethnicity and selecting "African American". Once you have all your search criteria entered in the sections, click "Search All Matches" at the bottom of the page to view results matching your request.
** Please note that this system and the process mentioned above can be utilized to identify any business registered in the system or that is certified as a SMWBE / DBE / HUB firm. It will return results that match your request and is not exclusive to African American businesses or any other group.
Step 4: Results
The results of your search are shown here. This page contains information about the businesses matching the search and will display information including the business name, contact information, certifications, and more. From here, you can build an outreach database to contact the firms that match your search.
If you have any questions or problems accessing or using the CDMS system or identifying businesses, please contact us by clicking here.