“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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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