Consulting

Business professionals reviewing charts; graphs; and data reports on a wooden conference table with laptops and tablets.
What You Own at the End of a TIPS 230601 Engagement
TIPS , IT Procurement , Public Sector , IT Consulting
A purchase order under this contract buys hours at a published ceiling. That is what the award settles, and it is very nearly all the award settles. It is usually not what the buyer wanted. What a public organization wan...
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IT professional in purple shirt reviews Quality Management compliance dashboard across multiple monitors in modern office.
Measuring the Value of TIPS 230601 Consulting
TIPS , IT Procurement , Public Sector , IT Consulting
Twelve months after an engagement ends, somebody who did not authorize it will ask what it achieved. Often that person is new, or is in finance, or is preparing a budget request and needs to know whether the last one wor...
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Smiling middle school student in a wheelchair uses a desktop computer at an accessible desk in a K-12 classroom.
Accessibility Obligations in a TIPS 230601 Purchase
TIPS , IT Procurement , Public Sector , IT Consulting
Most compliance questions in a technology purchase arrive through the funding: accept federal money and conditions follow it. Accessibility is not one of those. It attaches to a state or local government entity because o...
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Two professional women reviewing colorful data dashboards on large monitors in a modern office environment.
Cooperative Contract vs. Your Own RFP
TIPS , IT Procurement , Public Sector , IT Consulting
A business office reaches this question in a fairly specific way. Someone has scoped a piece of technology work, found that an awarded cooperative contract appears to cover it, and now has to decide whether to buy throug...
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Row of white multifunction office printers on hardwood floor in a modern open office with plants and workstations.
What Is Discount Off Catalog Pricing?
TIPS , IT Procurement , Public Sector , Cooperative Purchasing
A buyer comparing two quotes for the same laptop will often find that one names a price and the other names a percentage. The second is discount off catalog pricing, and it is how most technology products are sold on coo...
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Professional typing on laptop surrounded by floating AI prompt interface elements: instructions; context; input data; and output indicators.
TIPS Technology Solutions: A Guide for Public Buyers
TIPS , IT Procurement , Public Sector , IT Infrastructure Management
Most technology contracts make you choose. One covers products and another covers the people who install them, so a project that needs both becomes two purchases, two approval paths and two suppliers who can each explain...
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Professional interacting with AI chip interface generating multiple data analytics dashboards in a dark digital environment.
How to Buy Technology Hardware Through a TIPS Contract
TIPS , IT Procurement , Public Sector , Cooperative Purchasing
Buying equipment looks like the simplest kind of technology purchase and produces more disappointment than any other. The reason is that the difficult parts are not in the price, and a requirement written around the pric...
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Glowing digital QMS interface ringed by icons for search, analytics, goals, gears and personnel on a dark blue background.
How Much Does TIPS 250106 Technology Solutions Cost?
TIPS , IT Procurement , Public Sector , IT Consulting
This contract prices two different things in two different ways, and a budget that treats them the same will be wrong in one direction or the other. Services carry published hourly ceilings. Products carry a discount off...
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Two security personnel monitor multiple CCTV screens showing facility hallways in a dimly lit operations control room.
What to Look For in TIPS 250106 Technology Solutions
TIPS , IT Procurement , Public Sector , Cooperative Purchasing
Two suppliers under the same awarded contract can quote the same equipment at the same discount and deliver very different projects. Choosing between them is not a pricing exercise, and on a contract that covers products...
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An overhead view of a desk with a laptop showing a budget spreadsheet, a calculator, and a notebook.
How Much Do Virtual CIO Services Cost?
IT Consulting , Small Business IT Support , IT Strategy , Managed IT Services
It is a reasonable question and a genuinely difficult one to answer well, because “Virtual CIO” describes a role rather than a defined quantity of work. Two proposals for what looks like the same service can ...
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