Strategic Sourcing

1. Products or Services purchased off a University, State (OSD)/ COMMBUYS, E&I (Educational & Institutional Cooperative Purchasing) or MHEC (Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium) contract
2. Purchases of materials, goods, commodities, leases (including equipment or real property), or licenses (including software or real property) less than ten thousand dollars ($10,000) in value.
3. The best overall value based on a minimum of two with a preferred three quotes for purchases of materials, goods, commodities, leases (including equipment or real property), and licenses (including software) between ten thousand dollars ($10,000) and fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) in value.
4. Consultant, services contracts, or sub-contracts with fees of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) or less per fiscal year.
5. A No-Bid Justification form is completed

An exception to competitive procurement (no-bid justification) may only be used if the following conditions exist:

• The product or service being purchased is unique and the specified vendor is the only vendor from whom the product or service may be purchased, or
• Similar products/services may exist, but for reasons of expertise, standardization, quality, compatibility with existing equipment, specifications, or availability, the vendor selected is the only acceptable vendor to the University.

No Bid Justification (NBJ) (formerly sole source): For UMB and UMass Amherst Campuses, can also be used for select departments in other campuses whose requisitions do not originate in BuyWays.

• New No Bid Justification (NBJ) DocuSign form 
• Campus specific requirements:
  • DocuSign NBJ Requirements and Process (General)
  • DocuSign NBJ Requirements and Process (Amherst) 
  • Amherst NBJ Seminar Recording

Highly technical and complex purchases of equipment, software, and certain technical services may not be ideally suited for traditional RFXs or “paper based” evaluations; i.e., appropriate diligence and evaluation may require actual hands-on use, or for services, actual experience with the processing.

Proofs of concept and trial agreements are agreements between the University and a Contractor to determine suitability to meet University requirements. Whenever possible the University’s standard proof of concept or trial agreement form shall be used. Given the preceding, and subject to the approval of UPST, Departments may substitute a proof of concept or trial to evaluate at least two (2) potential Goods or Service offers.  The proof of concept or trial exercise must include:

• Execution of a proof of concept or trial agreement
• Documented evaluation criteria
• Submitted pricing from each bidder
• Pricing/Cost analysis based on likely consumption of Goods and/or Services
• Bidder’s response to the University’s Purchase Agreement; and
• Documented scoring of both bidders across all of the above elements

The intent of the proof of concept or trial exception is not the elimination of marketplace competition but as an alternative when all requirements are not necessarily known at the initiation of the purchasing process or when the nature of the functionality does not lend itself to the traditional RFX process.