California Awards Statewide Contracts for Computer Hardware to HP, IBM, Gateway and Others; New Contracts for IT Goods Projected to Save $40 Million over Two Years.WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The State has awarded seven statewide contracts for computer hardware worth a projected $116 million, the Department of General Services announced today. The competitively bid statewide contracts, reached through the California Strategic Sourcing Initiative, are expected to yield savings of approximately $40 million over two years. Average price reductions range from 15 percent on peripherals to more than 46 percent on printers. "These contracts represent a major victory for the taxpayers of California," said DGS DGS Department of General Services DGS Digeorge Syndrome DGS Dynamic Geometry Software DGS Defected Ground Structure DGS Diego Garcia (space launch ground station) DGS Diocesan Girls' School DGS Digital Station Director Ron Joseph. "By pursuing best value from top manufacturers, we have obtained major price reductions on the same brand-name computer equipment used in businesses across America." The contracts mark the first time the State has developed common configurations for computer equipment. As a result, the State has been able to leverage its enormous purchasing power Purchasing Power 1. The value of a currency expressed in terms of the amount of goods or services that one unit of money can buy. Purchasing power is important because, all else being equal, inflation decreases the amount of goods or services you'd be able to purchase. 2. to get better prices and better values on what it buys. "We don't need scores of different models and configurations of desktop computers," said Fred Aguiar, Secretary of the State and Consumer Services Consumer Services refers to the formulation, deformulation, technical consulting and testing of most consumer products, such as food, herbs, beverages, vitamins, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, hair products, household cleaners, [paints, plastics, metals, waxes, coatings, minerals, Agency, which oversees DGS. "By switching to a handful of basic, off-the-shelf computer models, we can buy in bulk and drive down prices." The open, competitive bidding Competitive bidding A securities offering process in which securities firms submit competing bids to the issuer for the securities the issuer wishes to sell. competitive bidding 1. process was run using a "best value" approach. Sixty percent of bidders' scores were based on price, while 40 percent were based on technical and administrative requirements, such as service levels and customer references. The goal was to award based not just on purchase price, but on a combination of factors that reflect total cost of ownership. Contracts for desktop computers, worth an estimated $53 million combined over two years, were awarded to the team of Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard, Sacramento-based Western Blue and Tempe, Ariz.-based Insight Enterprises and to Irvine-based Gateway. Contracts for notebook computers A laptop computer that weighs in a range from five to seven pounds. The term originated when laptops were routinely more than 10 pounds, and those that became lighter were placed in a special "notebook" category. In practice, notebook computer and laptop computer are synonymous. , worth an estimated $22 million combined over two years, were awarded to Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) and Gateway. The HP-Western Blue-Insight team won the contracts for printers and peripherals, worth an estimated $8 million and $25 million, respectively. Gateway won the contract for monitors, worth an estimated $9 million. Gateway and the HP-Western Blue-Insight team both agreed to meet or exceed the State's goals for small business and disabled veteran business enterprise (DVBE DVBE Disabled Veterans Business Enterprise network ) participation. Both will subcontract sub·con·tract n. A contract that assigns some of the obligations of a prior contract to another party. intr. & tr.v. sub·con·tract·ed, sub·con·tract·ing, sub·con·tracts at least 25 percent of the work to small businesses and at least 3 percent to DVBEs, greatly increasing small business and DVBE participation in State contracting for computer goods. "There were many fine proposals," said DGS Director Ron Joseph, "but these represent the best of the best -- contracts that offer the strongest combination of low prices, outstanding service and progress on our socioeconomic goals." |
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