Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Newsletters
Strategic Tech Purchasing
10/23/2006
Mind Your RFPs
Bid proposals are challenging for universities because of extreme pressure both from within an institution and from vendors to get the best pricing and the best value. One suggestion from Sartin is to tailor the RFP to very specific needs rather than simply fill in pertinent facts on a standard form.
“Many times there’s a boilerplate RFP, and you just fill in what you want,” he says. “But now we’re seeing customers write more specialized RFPs, so they really get what they need from a price as well as a service standpoint.” That means focusing on smaller issues like turnaround time, customer service attributes, or certain Web capabilities.
Because both the Purchasing department and university’s General Counsel office will be involved in RFPs, Camp suggests developing a close, working relationship with representatives of both offices. “Any healthy relationship requires good communication, mutual respect, and trust,” Camp says. “When those traits are associated with IT, Purchasing, and Legal, the result is better RFPs, proposals, and awards.”
In fact, Camp’s comments are good advice for fine-tuning your purchasing strategies overall. Good communication with everyone who purchases equipment, along with mutual respect and trust, can go a long way toward helping everyone understand how solid purchasing rules keep costs under control, helping standardize equipment, and making purchasing and using IT equipment easier for everyone.
Linda L. Briggs is a freelance writer based in San Diego, Calif.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- Getting the Money Right
A clear sign that online and distance learning is maturing is that we are struggling with how to organize and fund these programs on an ongoing basis.
- Technology and Campus Services
Can auxiliary services be mission-critical? You bet they can. With tuition on the rise, Auxiliary Services departments at a variety of colleges and universities are proving that they can innovate and still save their parent institutions cash.
- Ad It Up
Commercials on television tend to enrage me and laugh tracks are guaranteed to give me a headache. Plus, where do people find the time to watch TV?
- What Is the Purpose of an Electronic Portfolio? Is the Answer the Key to Your Successful Implementation?
Among many themes, Margaret Price explores the theme of purpose in her Viewpoint. One purpose of ePortfolio is to reflect on change from a beginning to a later point in time. In a future Viewpoint, Margaret will return to the SpEl.Folio and we’ll see how her thinking and her project have evolved.
- Making Faculty Smarter about Smart Technology
If you’re not also enabling the ‘why’ or ‘what’ behind the tech tools you give your faculty, you’re not enabling effective use of those tools.
- Smashing the Shackles of Intentionally Dysfunctional Technology
Until last week, it hadn’t "clicked" inside my head that the Library of Congress could or would make specific exemptions to copyright laws.
