While we create opportunities for more diverse-owned companies to do business with UMass, we also look to the University's strategic partners and largest suppliers to collaborate with us on this vision towards greater economic and social impact, especially in the communities where we operate. Our Tier 2 Program allows us to extend our diversity initiatives across a broader value chain by working with UMass's prime Tier 1 suppliers to increase diverse spend. Tier 2 diverse spend is therefore your company's own direct and/or indirect spend with diverse suppliers.
If you are an existing UMass supplier interested in diversifying your supplier base and reporting your diverse spend to UMass, we invite you to participate in our Tier 2 Program by emailing upst@umassp.edu. Whether you are a long-standing or new UMass supplier, sharing the same values with our University is important to us, and one way to demonstrate this is by investing in your own company's supplier diversity.
UMass partners with TealBook, a supplier data enrichment company, to collect this information confidentially each quarter. In order for your company's diverse spend to be counted in our Tier 2 Program, you will need to report spend via TealBook.
If your company does not yet track diverse spend, TealBook will enrich your spend data for you free of charge, giving you visibility into your company’s diverse spend and impact as well!
Tier 2 Success Story
Consider this - if two industry-dominant, long-standing IT suppliers can adapt to successfully align commercial and social values, we believe there must be many more opportunities like this out there for increasing diverse spend with and across our supplier base.
As part of UMass’s IT Value Added Reseller (VAR) Program that launched in FY 2022, two of the four VARs that were awarded contracts were selected in part for their commitments to supplier diversity. CDW and Connection each committed to achieving at least 20% Tier 2 spend with their own set of diverse suppliers, with a focus on prioritizing women- and black/brown-owned businesses based in New England and the Commonwealth.
Since the program's inception and in just two years, we've already seen their reported Tier 2 diverse spend reach 15.2%!
Frequently Asked Questions
My company doesn't use TealBook or currently report any diverse spend - how do we get started?
The first step is to email us at upst@umassp.edu to express interest and get onboarded onto our Tier 2 Supplier Diversity Program. We'll share more information via email or schedule a call, and then send you a TealBook access link with additional instructions and resources for reporting diverse spend.
In the meantime, we recommend aligning with your company's finance or procurement folks to help you gather quarterly spend data, as well as anyone who might be working on supplier diversity efforts within your company.
What certifications does UMass track? Do they need to be certified by any particular agency?
The list of certifications that we track can be found here. However, you don't need to customize your spend file or diverse spend report for us - TealBook's platform takes care of this by verifying whatever you report against its supplier database and UMass's own set of diverse spend qualification rules.
Is my company contractually obligated to report our diverse spend to UMass?
It depends - some of UMass's key suppliers are making contractual commitments to supplier diversity to demonstrate an alignment of values with the University and a desire to improve the overall value of goods and services being delivered to the University (as showcased above). UMass recognizes supplier diversity and sustainability efforts by our supplier base as a sign of goodwill, an appetite for innovation, and a commitment to the greater public good.