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 the manufacturer's catalog, which means there is no fixed price to publish for them at all.
Both are set out below, along with what actually moves the number.
Services: 44 published hourly ceilings
Each figure below is a ceiling the contract sets, not a rate anybody has quoted you. Work is priced against it and can be priced under it; nothing may be billed over it. TIPS members pay 10% beneath each published figure.
Programme, engineering and support roles
| Role | Not to exceed | TIPS member |
|---|---|---|
| IT Program Manager | $227.00 | $204.30 |
| IT Project Manager | $210.00 | $189.00 |
| Configuration Management / Quality Assurance Manager | $200.00 | $180.00 |
| Subject Matter Expert I | $250.00 | $225.00 |
| Subject Matter Expert II | $325.00 | $292.50 |
| Subject Matter Expert III | $375.00 | $337.50 |
| Consultant I | $150.00 | $135.00 |
| Consultant II | $175.00 | $157.50 |
| System Specialist I | $120.00 | $108.00 |
| System Specialist II | $145.00 | $130.50 |
| Software / Network Engineer I | $175.00 | $157.50 |
| Software / Network Engineer II | $225.00 | $202.50 |
| Software / Network Engineer III | $350.00 | $315.00 |
| Systems Analyst I | $125.00 | $112.50 |
| Systems Analyst II | $150.00 | $135.00 |
| Systems Analyst III | $200.00 | $180.00 |
| Systems Analyst IV | $250.00 | $225.00 |
| Systems Administrator I | $150.00 | $135.00 |
| Systems Administrator II | $275.00 | $247.50 |
| Systems Administrator III | $325.00 | $292.50 |
| Computer Security Specialist I | $175.00 | $157.50 |
| Computer Security Specialist II | $220.00 | $198.00 |
| Computer Security Specialist III | $250.00 | $225.00 |
| Technical Writer | $175.00 | $157.50 |
| Clerical / Office Automation Assistant I | $60.00 | $54.00 |
| Clerical / Office Automation Assistant II | $75.00 | $67.50 |
| Clerical / Office Automation Assistant III | $95.00 | $85.50 |
| Clerical / Office Automation Assistant IV | $125.00 | $112.50 |
| Help Desk Supervisor | $150.00 | $135.00 |
| Data Entry Clerk I | $50.00 | $45.00 |
| Data Entry Clerk II | $75.00 | $67.50 |
Learning management roles
| Role | Not to exceed | TIPS member |
|---|---|---|
| LMS Consultant | $225.00 | $202.50 |
| LMS Administrator | $175.00 | $157.50 |
| Learning Content Manager | $150.00 | $135.00 |
| LMS Content Developer | $125.00 | $112.50 |
Physical security and low-voltage roles
| Role | Not to exceed | TIPS member |
|---|---|---|
| Physical Security Systems Engineer | $125.00 | $112.50 |
| Physical Security Solutions Consultant | $135.00 | $121.50 |
| Security Systems Technician | $115.00 | $103.50 |
| Physical Security Project Manager | $150.00 | $135.00 |
| Security Systems Integrator | $175.00 | $157.50 |
| Access Control and Surveillance Administrator | $105.00 | $94.50 |
| Security Operations Analyst | $115.00 | $103.50 |
| Physical Security Maintenance Technician | $125.00 | $112.50 |
| Low-Voltage Cable Installer | $100.00 | $90.00 |
Products: a discount, not a price
The contract sets a 10% discount off manufacturer catalog pricing across Dell Technologies Product Line, APC by Schneider Electric Product Line, Microsoft Product Line, SMART Technologies Product Line, Lenovo Product Line, LG Electronics Product Line, Adobe Product Line, Palo Alto Networks Product Line. Catalog pricing is provided on request, so no list price appears in the contract for these lines.
Why products are sold this way, what the percentage protects you against and how to verify a quote against a manufacturer catalog are covered in what discount off catalog pricing means. For budgeting purposes the consequence is the only part that matters, and it is set out below.
The practical consequence for a budget is that the hardware line is an estimate and the services line is bounded. Those two halves deserve different treatment in a spreadsheet and different treatment in a conversation with finance, because only one of them can move after approval. Budget the hardware from a current quote with headroom for catalog movement, and budget the services from the ceilings, which cannot move.
What drives the number
The seniority mix, far more than the hour count. The published range spans a factor of seven from the lowest administrative role to the most senior subject matter expert. A piece of work estimated at eighty hours can differ several times over depending on who is assumed to be doing it, which is why a quote that names hours without naming roles is not comparable to one that does.
Whether the work needs a specialist family. Security, learning management and physical security are priced as their own role sets. A project that touches one of them is not simply a general engineering project with a different label.
Site count and travel. A single-site installation and a twelve-site rollout of the same equipment are not the same purchase. Travel is priced into the contract rather than negotiated per visit, which makes a multi-site programme budgetable.
How much of the work you keep. Imaging, enrolment, asset tagging and disposal are all real hours that either your team absorbs or the supplier bills. Deciding deliberately is worth more than negotiating the rate.
Travel
Getting to a site is invoiced apart from the work itself, and on a multi-site programme it is not a rounding error. Driving is reimbursed against the published federal mileage rate, a figure neither party controls and which therefore carries no discount. Air fares are billed at cost. Hours spent in transit attract a reduced proportion of the working rate rather than the full one: 50% of the regular hourly installation charge against the ceiling, 40% of the regular hourly charge for a member.
How to budget
Build it in three parts.
The equipment, from a current quote, with an allowance for catalog movement if the purchase is more than a quarter away. Do not budget hardware from a percentage; budget it from a number somebody has quoted.
The services, as hours multiplied by the ceiling for the roles the work actually needs. Using the ceiling rather than a hoped-for rate means the budget cannot be embarrassed by the quote.
The work you have not counted, which is usually receiving, tagging, disposal of what is being replaced, and the internal time to run the project. This is the part that turns a clean estimate into an overrun, and it is knowable in advance.
Then sanity check the total against the problem being solved. A rate ceiling tells you what an hour costs and nothing about whether the work is worth doing, which is a separate judgment and the one that actually decides value.
Reading a quote against these ceilings
Three checks, in order, and together they take a quarter of an hour.
Are the roles named? A quote showing a block of hours at a blended rate cannot be reconciled to anything. Named roles let you check each line against the table above and, more usefully, let you ask why a task needs the seniority proposed for it.
Does the seniority match the work? This is where the real money sits. Configuration work priced at consultant level, or analysis priced at administrator level, are both worth a conversation, and neither is necessarily wrong once explained. What matters is that the question is asked while the quote is a draft.
Are travel and equipment separated from labour? If they are folded together, the quote cannot be compared with another and cannot be reduced without renegotiating everything. Separated, each can be examined on its own terms.
What the ceilings do not tell you
A published ceiling constrains the price of an hour. It says nothing about how many hours a piece of work requires, and that number is where the variation between two proposals for the same job actually lives. Two suppliers quoting identical rates can differ by a factor of two on the total because they have understood the work differently, and the one quoting more hours may well be the one who has understood it better.
The ceiling also says nothing about who will do the work. A rate for a role is not a commitment about the person filling it, and on any engagement that matters it is worth asking who specifically is assigned and what else they are committed to during the same period.
Neither of those is a criticism of published pricing, which does exactly what it is meant to do: it removes price as a variable so that scope and capability become the things you are actually choosing between.
One last caution about using published ceilings well. They are most useful early, as a sanity check on whether a project is affordable at all, and least useful late, as a negotiating position on a quote that has already been scoped. An agency that checks the ceilings before committing to a scope has used them properly. One that discovers them after approving a proposal has usually just confirmed a number it already accepted.
The same applies to the product side, where the discount is fixed but the catalog beneath it is not. Re-checking a familiar configuration against the current catalog once a year takes minutes and occasionally reveals that what was a keen price has quietly stopped being one.
Where these figures come from
Every rate on this page is a published ceiling under TIPS Contract 250106, Technology Solutions, and a condensed version appears on the contract these ceilings belong to. Whether a purchase of this size should use the contract at all, and what to record about that decision, is covered in cooperative contract versus your own RFP.
To turn these ceilings into a quote for a real piece of work, tell us what the project has to achieve.