North Carolina spends billions a year on goods, services, and construction, and the state runs almost all of it through a single front door now. That's the part most first-time vendors get wrong. They go hunting for the right office, the right list, the right form, when the state consolidated all of it into one portal in 2023. Register once, get certified in the same place, and watch for bids in the same place.
Here's the order to do it in, what certification actually unlocks, and the rules that tilt the field toward small and diverse firms.
Start with eVP, the state's one vendor portal
The system you need is the electronic Vendor Portal (eVP) at evp.nc.gov. The North Carolina Department of Administration's Division of Purchase & Contract runs it, and it replaced the state's older patchwork of procurement tools. Registration is free.
eVP is the on-ramp for everything. One account lets you do three things that used to live in separate systems:
- Register as a vendor so state agencies, universities, community colleges, and public school systems can find you and you can do business with them.
- Request NCSBE designation in the same flow, if you qualify on business size (see below).
- See and respond to bids. On July 10, 2023, the state moved the bid functions of its old Interactive Purchasing System (IPS) into eVP. Solicitations opening on or after July 17, 2023 live in eVP, and registered vendors get nightly notifications of new ones.
Sign-in uses multifactor authentication by email, so register with an address you actually check. If you get stuck, the NC eProcurement Help Desk is at vendor@nc.gov or 888-211-7440, option 2, weekdays 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
What happened to HUB certification
If you've done business with North Carolina before, you probably remember the HUB Office and its Statewide Uniform Certification (SWUC) for minority-, women-, and disability-owned businesses. It's gone. North Carolina's 2026 state budget (Session Law 2026-41, signed July 7, 2026) eliminated the Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses outright and repealed the statutes behind it, including the law that gave the state a verifiable 10% minority-participation goal on public building projects. Roughly ten HUB Office employees lost their jobs when the office closed. There is no active state-level minority- or women-ownership certification in North Carolina right now, and no goal or good-faith-effort requirement tied to ownership demographics on state contracts.
What survives is the North Carolina Small Business Enterprise (NCSBE) program, a race- and gender-neutral small-business track that never required ownership demographics in the first place. It moved from the old HUB Office to the Department of Administration's Division of Purchase & Contract, and the state was still finalizing its updated eligibility criteria as of this writing. Register for it through eVP, the same portal you use for vendor registration.
If your business qualified for HUB certification because you're minority-, women-, or disability-owned and you want that ownership recognized somewhere, North Carolina's state government is no longer where to get it. Pursue federal certification instead: 8(a), WOSB, or HUBZone if you qualify, or a national certifier like NMSDC or WBENC for corporate buyer relationships. Those credentials still work in North Carolina; the state's own program for them doesn't exist anymore.
A few things to know if you're pursuing NCSBE:
- Eligibility criteria were still in transition as of this writing. Confirm current thresholds at doa.nc.gov before you assume anything based on the old HUB rules.
- No verified fee. eVP registration itself carries no fee. Confirm NCSBE-specific costs in the portal before you assume.
- Contact hub.ncsbe@doa.nc.gov with questions about the transition; that's the address the Division of Purchase & Contract has published for it.
If you want help sorting out which certifications are actually worth pursuing given this change, CertifyAll handles federal and national certification filing so you're not guessing at what replaced a program that no longer exists.
What NCSBE and vendor registration actually buy you
A certification only matters if it changes who can win work. With the HUB program gone, North Carolina's state-level advantage for diverse business owners is gone with it, at least for now.
NCSBE-registered vendors still show up in the state's vendor system, which agencies, universities, community colleges, and school systems search. That's real, but it's a size-based visibility bump, not an ownership-based one. There's no statutory goal or good-faith-effort requirement pulling buyers toward minority- or women-owned firms specifically anymore, because the law that created it was repealed along with the office that enforced it.
That makes federal work more valuable, not less, if you're a diverse business owner selling into North Carolina. Federal set-asides and sole-source authority under 8(a), WOSB, and HUBZone don't depend on anything North Carolina's legislature does. If North Carolina agencies are spending federal pass-through dollars, the federal rules can still apply regardless of what the state program looks like. Our explainer on how federal set-asides work breaks down the mechanism.
Where to find North Carolina bids
Once you're registered, opportunities come to you and you can go to them.
- Nightly notifications. A registered eVP account sends you alerts on new solicitations that match how you're set up. Configure your commodity and service codes carefully during registration so the right bids reach you.
- Search eVP directly. Browse and search open solicitations inside the portal at evp.nc.gov. This is where state agencies, universities, community colleges, and many public school systems post.
- The legacy IPS site is gone. The old Interactive Purchasing System has been retired and its domain no longer resolves. Current bids and the certified vendor directory live in the electronic Vendor Portal (eVP).
Watch for both formal bids and the state's term contracts. Universities and community colleges buy heavily off pre-negotiated statewide term contracts, and getting onto one can mean steady repeat orders rather than one-off awards. Smaller purchases below the state's formal bid thresholds often move fast and with less competition, so don't overlook them while you wait for the big solicitations. Read each solicitation's requirements closely; North Carolina agencies disqualify bids for missing forms and late submissions, and a clean, complete response is half the battle on your first few tries.
A realistic first 30 days
Here's a timeline that matches how the state actually moves now.
Week 1. Create your eVP account at evp.nc.gov, set up multifactor sign-in, and complete vendor registration. Pick your commodity and service codes deliberately so notifications are useful. Turn on nightly bid alerts.
Week 1 to 2. If you qualify on business size, request NCSBE designation inside eVP. If you're pursuing diversity certification, start that process federally instead (8(a), WOSB, HUBZone) or with a national certifier, since North Carolina no longer runs one.
Ongoing. Registration alone lets you compete for bids and term contracts. Respond to what you're eligible for now rather than waiting on any certification to post. Build your capability statement and keep your eVP profile current.
For a side-by-side of how North Carolina's program compares to other states' certifications, see our state programs guide. And if you want corporate and government buyers to find your business directly, list it in our supplier directory so you're discoverable beyond the state portal.
Registration puts you in North Carolina's system. With the state's own diversity certification gone, federal and national certification is what makes buyers come looking for you here now. CertifyAll files those for you if you'd rather not learn each program's quirks yourself.
