The New York State Office of General Services, together with the State Chief Information Officer, issued a request for proposal for PCs and laptops to the leading computer manufacturers: Dell, Gateway, HP and IBM. The companies were asked to submit proposals based on predetermined standard configurations and high volume sales. By totaling the estimated demand for PC's and leveraging New York's purchasing power, steep discounts were expected from the industry's premiere technology manufacturers.
The state, combined with local governments and New York City who also participated, purchased nearly 12,000 PCs at more than 40 percent off state contract list prices. This equates to a savings of nearly $8 million. The prices quoted were available for only a three month period and applied to all state agencies, authorities, school, universities and local governments regardless of size. Many small organizations would never realize such cost savings due to their relatively small buying volume. Aggregating the purchase provided savings for everyone.
To begin the initiative, the New York State CIO Council's Technology Committee was charged with defining standard configurations for workstation and business class PCs and laptops. Standard configurations set common features of the equipment to reduce the variations and allow the state to buy in quantity. Standard configurations also will lead to reduced maintenance costs over the life of the computer.
