Established IT Purchasing Agreements 

The University of Colorado purchases IT goods and services across all levels and organizational units within the university, including department solutions, campus solutions, and enterprise (system) solutions. A strategic approach has been developed and applied to IT purchases through IT category management which includes department-specific, campus-wide, and even system-wide contracts, as well as the development and management of key IT supplier relationships. Many IT purchasing needs have solutions already established and available for purchase within these existing agreements. When evaluating products to meet your individual department needs, it is recommended that you first consider any existing agreements that have previously been negotiated. 

Department-Specific and Campus-Wide Agreements 

Campus IT operations offer support for university-owned hardware, software, and peripherals with the goal of ensuring reliable and secure computing for the campus community. To maintain network and application integrity, the campus IT departments often provide access to IT commodities within their infrastructure that are sustainable, compatible with existing systems, and can be efficiently scaled and supported by the department. This could include, but is not limited to, secure data storage solutions, software licensing and telecommunications or web conferencing solutions. The purchasing of IT goods and/or services should be vetted with your campus IT organization prior to completing the departmental purchasing process. Your campus or department IT organization may be able to quickly address and direct your purchasing needs based on services they offer internally, or under supplier agreements or local enterprise licenses they already have in place. 

Consult with your department’s internal IT contact and/or your campus IT organization to determine what solutions may be available for your technology purchasing needs prior to moving forward with an alternative solution. 

Enterprise (System) Agreements 

System-wide “enterprise” IT agreements are established to provide overall value to campuses and departments. These agreements may deliver cost savings for IT goods and services, and the purchasing activity with these suppliers is streamlined with an efficient, effective, and standardized process across the system. Some of these suppliers have also been identified as strategic IT suppliers – vendors selected to establish product brand standardization across the entire University system. For example, Dell and Apple are strategic IT suppliers and as a result they are established computer brands for university use. The contract terms and conditions, IT security risk and compliance review and the contract review have already been processed and finalized when purchasing from a supplier with a system-wide IT agreement or enterprise license in place, as well as when purchasing from a strategic IT supplier. 

Details on the specific catalog of available licenses and other goods or services can be obtained directly from CU Marketplace in the individual supplier punch-out catalogs. Additional information on available hardware and software with enterprise-wide agreements can be found on the respective how to buy commodity pages.

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