“Not Going It Alone: Smart Statewide Consortium Procurement Practices”

1. “Not Going It Alone: Smart Statewide Consortium Procurement Practices” Co-Presenters: Tamara Petronka, Executive Director, Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium, USM Joseph G. Rossmeier, Vice President for Technology Services, PGCC and Chair, MEEC Board of Directors Thursday, October 14, 2010, 1:00 PM EDUCAUSE 2010

2. Agenda • Statement of Purpose • Description of State-wide MEEC Organization • Degree of Success • Template for Other States/Institutions

3. Statement of Purpose • Use of technology grows exponentially while IT budgets are under severe stress • Individual institutions not able to leverage discounts because quantities not large enough • Many institutions like private K-12 less than 200 students • Vendor discount deadlines may be out of sync with institutional budgets • Solution is to create collective purchasing power among institutions • Consortium buying power can leverage not only significant discounts but also more reasonable terms and conditions

4. Origin of MEEC Organization • Maryland Enterprise Education Consortium born in 1999 to promote collaborative purchasing across all segments of education in Maryland • Started when the University System of Maryland (USM) tried to negotiate contract with Microsoft—USM could not meet 100,000 license minimum to get substantial discounts • Situation lead to formation of a K-20 consortium within the State which is hosted by USM • Over 10 years, MEEC has transitioned from loosely organized entity to a formal consortium

5. Description of MEEC • Formal Charter with By-Laws • Staggered Terms of Office • Board Member Qualifications • Executive CIO Types • Participate in wide-range of educational activities • Board Officers • Chair • Vice chair • Secretary

6. Description of MEEC • Board of Directors Membership • Fifteen Board Membership • USM Associate Vice Chancellor and CIO • Largest Institution—standing membership • USM—two members • Community Colleges—two members • Private Higher Ed—one member • Public K-12 School Systems—two members • Private K-12 Schools—one member • Library Representative • Federal Institutions Representative • Maryland State Department of Education • Maryland Higher Education Commission • Immediate Past Chair • MEEC Executive Director (ex-officio)

7. Description of MEEC • Membership Fees • Tier Range of FTE Price # of Members • 1 1-100 $250 79 • 2 101-500 $500 59 • 3 501-1000 $1000 17 • 4 1001-2500 $2000 21 • 5 2501-50000 $3000 6 • 6 5001-10000 $3750 5 • 7 10000+ $4000 4

8. Description of Organization • Membership • 190 paid members • 12 USM universities • 17 Private colleges and universities • 2 Public college and university • 16 community colleges • 23 public K-12 school systems • 101 private K-12 schools • Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore • Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, DC • 11 public libraries • 6 Associations • 2 Federal Institutions

9. Description of Organization • Support Organization • Executive Director • Administrative Assistant (1/2 time) • Both positions paid primarily by MEEC organization • USM provides space, technology, financial, personnel and legal support • Maryland Attorney General’s Office at USM provides all legal assistance • A Procurement Officer from USM or CC leads every procurement • Procurement Committees made up of member experts

10. Degree of Success • Board very proactive in evaluating technology needs of membership • Pursuit of needs cuts across wide spectrum of administrative and academic requirements • While typical agreements apply to most members, Board will consider needs of special segment of members (i.e. K-12, etc.) • Continuous array of RFP-initiated procurements in progress • Member institutions always have flexibility to pursue independent vendor contracts • MEEC approach viewed as fair, competitive and equitable process—no formal protests filed by grieving vendor to date

11. Degree of Success • Overall Procurement Benefits • Saving millions of dollars annually • Members achieving better pricing than on their own • Vendors like idea of not having to maintain aggressive marketing campaigns at individual institution level • Many procurements result in multiple vendor awards that provide members with choices • Hardware • Audit Services • Help Desk Services • Student E-Mail Agreements • E-learning • Anti-Virus • Discount benefits same for large and small institutions • Institutions are free to negotiate a larger discount

12. Degree of Success • Examples of Recent Procurements • Reseller for Microsoft products • Reseller for Adobe products • Call Center/Help Desk Services/ Six Vendors • IT Security Assessment and Advisory Service /Eight Vendors • New Procurements Being Pursued • Learning Management Systems • Security Software

13. Degree of Success • Benefits Beyond Procurements • MEEC offers wide array of other services • Statewide “Show and Tell” Seminars once Vendor contracts secured • Training Sessions • New technology trends/issues seminars • No cost annual member conference • Website (http://www.meec-edu.org) • Newsletter (http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/meec/2010/09/newsletter_volume_1_issue_1.html) • Surveys • Networking opportunities

14. Degree of Success • Testimonials from Attendees of the recent Annual Conference • Molly Aiken, Adobe Systems • Stephen Difilipo, VP & CIO , Cecil College • Wesley Watts, Chief Information Officer, PGCPS • Elliot Schlanger, Secretary – Dept. of IT, State of MD • Chris Goodson, Microsoft

15. Relevance to Other Institutions • MEEC effective voluntary procurement model for technology products and services • Applicable to K-20 educational institutions in other states, regions or metropolitan areas • Value-add model that not only supports actual procurements but also facilitates • Issue Forums • Training Workshops • Vendor “Show and Tell” Sessions • MEEC model promotes unique blend of collaborations and interplay among all K-20 segments—large, small, public and private

16. Questions Tamara Petronka, Joseph G. Rossmeier tpetronka@usmd.edu jrossmeier@pgcc.edu 410-455-5617 301-322-0987