A closer look at Mississippi’s IT hardware term contracts
With more than 70 statewide term contracts from Mississippi’s IT Hardware Express Products List, it’s evident that the IT hardware category is a hot one in today’s market. The state took one solicitation and created 70-plus contracts offering a wide range of products including desktop/mobile-based computers, GIS-level workstations, monitors, printers/scanners, servers, storage, and video-conferencing equipment.
Mississippi has 77 approved manufacturers and 99 resellers on the IT Hardware EPL. While there is no confirmed spend value for statewide term contracts since they are based on purchases over the course of a contract, vendors may see large returns; statewide term contracts offer a large range of products and are available for use by all Mississippi agencies, universities, colleges and governing authorities.
The state has a purchase limit for users of $200,000 per project, per fiscal year for the IT Hardware EPL, which notes the anticipated high value. Mississippi also requires customers to obtain quotes from at least two EPL sellers if their purchase will be more than $50,000, which increases vendor competition. Another benefit to the EPL is that new sellers can submit proposals to get in on the action every six months.
Mississippi’s EPL Interactive website provides in-depth contract, vendor and pricing information, specifically for the IT Hardware EPL contract, but is not as robust with spending information. The site allows users to search by category, manufacturer, and seller name. You can also search by manufacturer reseller group, where a manufacturer sets a not-to-exceed price that resellers must obey; from there, some resellers will offer discounts on that manufacturer’s price. They keep this updated as the manufacturer changes any products on their website to make sure it meets state requirements.
Displayed in Table 1 are the different IT hardware categories offered under the EPL. The audio-visual components class is offered by 20 manufacturers and 66 resellers, the most of all categories. Interactive devices, which include whiteboards, voting devices and displays, is a close second with 18 manufacturers and 64 resellers. Some vendors offer both of those top contracts, like the Visix Term Contract. Deltek’s State & Local Term Contract resource has a searchable, saveable, living record for each of the more than 70 Mississippi IT hardware contracts, and 1,200 IT hardware term contracts throughout the United States.
The IT Hardware EPL contract is set to expire in June 2014, and the state has indicated a replacement RFP will be released in April 2014. If IT hardware vendors don’t want to wait for the new solicitation, they can get on this contract in the next update cycle – the due date for proposals is June 4, 2013.
Forty-six states are using term contracts as an approach to purchase IT hardware. To explore more term contracts and gain insight into competitor contracts and pricing, check out Deltek’s State and Local Term Contracts resource.
