By Emily Allender / 3 Aug 2018 / Topics: Procurement
Facts at a glance
Client industry:
City police department
Challenge:
The client needed a more efficient process for procuring IT equipment and ensuring continued support for technology investments.
Solution:
OMNIA Partners (formerly U.S. Communities) contract-enabled purchasing at a reduced cost
Results:
- Expert support at every stage of procurement
- Significant time and cost savings
- Increased product quality
- Longer hardware lifecycle
Solution area:
Insight's Supply Chain Optimization solutions simplify the process of procuring, maintaining and replacing the technology clients invest in to run their business.
Procuring high-quality, low-cost hardware can be frustrating and challenging for small government organizations with limited IT staff. When a city police department found the bidding process for individual hardware vendors for each IT need was becoming costly and time-consuming, it reached out for help.
The police department had to thoroughly vet each and every vendor to ensure the technology met government requirements. But a low-bid approach can lead to many unknowns.
“When problems arose after a technology vendor won a bid, we often couldn’t get the hardware support we needed,” says the police department’s sergeant. “A vendor will promise the moon and the stars — and then we didn’t get much out of the relationship.”
The department needed a more reliable and efficient hardware procurement process.
The state’s municipal association introduced the police department to the OMNIA Partners (formerly U.S. Communities) purchasing program, a leading national cooperative purchasing alliance that provides world-class government procurement resources and solutions.
Through the OMNIA Partners program, the client connected with Insight Public Sector and was able to obtain low, government-contracted pricing on IT services and solutions. We also provided a single source for all of the department’s technology needs, eliminating the need for Request for Proposal (RFP) requirements.
We helped the city police department procure Panasonic Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) at a reduced price by leveraging the OMNIA Partners contract. And, using OMNIA Partners’ lead public agency model drastically reduced the expense of preparing a bid and managing a contract — saving the city department significant time and money.
Thanks to a solid partner relationship with Panasonic, we were also able to provide the police department with Panasonic Toughbook laptops, Arbitrator 360° HD digital video recording systems and Arbitrator Body Worn Cameras.
“The U.S. Communities contract with Insight Public Sector served as a one-stop shop for us,” says the police sergeant. “We knew we were dealing with quality companies, and Insight Public Sector helped us get exactly what we wanted.”
Throughout the procurement process, Insight helped the police department plan for both current and future technology needs — and provided post-purchase product support.
Leveraging Insight Intelligent Technology Solutions has reduced the police department’s technology procurement costs, improved the quality of workforce technology and maximized hardware lifecycles — with some Panasonic Toughbook laptops lasting up to eight years.
“When Insight Public Sector helps us build requirements, they do it thoroughly so that we know exactly what we’re getting, instead of having requirements change later after poor initial planning,” the sergeant says.
With objective, experienced technical experts on hand to help, Insight continues to provide unbiased analysis of the city police department’s needs, as well as the best IT solutions at the lowest government contract pricing.
