Advantages of Purchasing through a State Contract

You maintain control.

It saves you time.

It saves you money.

It makes sense for furniture.

In fact, we feel that the State Contracts are the best value for those entities that are eligible to utilize them.  The standard discounting negotiated by the State is always extremely competitive for both “project” and day-to-day purchases.  Most contracts allow for discounts to increase with volume levels, and to allow for discounts deeper than those published for high value projects.

Business furnishings are not a commodity like asphalt, road salt and even office supplies.  In addition to a wide array of product features like fabrics, finishes and hardware, most projects require a great deal of design and space planning, compliance auditing, project management and installation coordination.  All of these layered services are included in most State Contract discount structures, but are not conducive to “best price” low bids.

The State Contract gives you more control of your project.  It allows you to use the vendor of your choosing, not just any low bidder who may not be known to you.  All of the vendors who participate in the State Contract system have been screened asbeing “responsive and responsible”.  Unlike many of the group purchasing plans available, the State Contract system gives you a much wider choice of potential vendors.  In fact, we often use several manufactures in combination to satisfy our client’s product requirements.

 

You also have more control of your product choices. Most bids, in order to be fair, allow for “or equal” substitutes. This enables the submission of a wide range of products, which may not meet all of your design and functional needs.  Using the State Contract system eliminates the need to compromise on vendor and product.

To begin, many of the difficulties with the bid process itself  are eliminated, most notably the time and labor it consumes for you to just administer the bid.  The State Contract allows you to use your resources to put more creative, not administrative, energy into your projects.

There are a variety of advantages for a non-profit entity to use “State Contract” purchasing in lieu of a bidding process.