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 $ $ $ $ $ $ $

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 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 (
Newsletter (
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