Guiding Principles for Multi-year Contracts

1. In order to be considered, multi-year agreements must have substantial value savings for CES or for the campus. As a guideline it should me more than $10k/30% savings.

2. Due to the rapid change in technology and vendors, multi-year agreements are generally acceptable for 3 years but discouraged for 5 or more years. There will be exceptions, but a strong value proposition should accompany this request.

• Hardware agreements are more likely to be considered for 5 years due the nature of the infrastructure maintenance and support.

3. Any multi-year agreements will avoid 3rd party loan contracts. These are situations where the vendor “sells” the multi-year contract or offers it as collateral to a 3rd party who would, in turn, pay the vendor a discounted amount up front and collect the annual payments from us.

4. The review and approval process starts at the campus level with the Product Manager who develops the proposal with the help of the sponsoring department/team. The proposal is reviewed by the Managing Director with a product roadmap that shares the future expectation of the product.

• Vendor plan (multi-products)
• Product plan
• Gartner research is available as a resource

5. When the appropriate campus-level approvals are in place, a review of the multi-year contract request will be completed at the CES admin level (CxOs/TPC/CES Procurement office).

• The sponsor (executive) will be identified and accountable. The Product Manager/Managing Director has the responsibility to ensure the sponsor is knowledgeable about agreement, why we entered into this relationship and how it fits with the key priorities of the organization and when we should exit the solution/contract.
• Multi-campus agreements will be reviewed by the multi-campus committee led by the sponsoring Product Manager. Each campus representative is responsible for securing the approval of their campus approver.

6. The CES CIO is the final approver of a multi-year agreement for CES ITS contracts while local ITS contracts will be approved by the campus CIO and the TPC.

• Upon approval, the contracts should be signed based on established purchasing agreement policies for CES or the appropriate campus. For instance, the Commissioner’s Office or university president might be the designated signer for contracts over $500k while VPs sign contracts between $250k and $500k.