Defense BPAs offer PCs at steep discount prices
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Agencies are reaping discounts as high as 22 percent for PCs and peripherals through new blanket purchasing agreements. The Defense Logistics Agency in recent weeks set up four BPAs open to all federal agencies. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service signed two-year BPAs with four General Services Administration Information Technology Schedule vendors.
Agencies are reaping discounts as high as 22 percent for PCs and peripherals through
new blanket purchasing agreements.
The Defense Logistics Agency in recent weeks set up four BPAs open to all federal
agencies. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service signed two-year BPAs with four
General Services Administration Information Technology Schedule vendors.
DLA negotiated an 8 percent discount from Compaq Computer Corp.s GSA schedule
prices, and Dell Computer Corp. marked down its products as much as 9 percent, DLA
spokesman Lynford Morton said.
Gateway Inc. gave 2 percent discounts. Hewlett-Packard Co. laser printers and scanners
resold by Comark Federal Systems of Chantilly, Va., will sell for 4 percent to 8 percent
less than they do on Comarks schedule contract, Morton said.
Comarks DLA agreement is similar to the Armys Enhanced Technology-1 BPA but
has a narrower scope, said Alan Bechara, the companys vice president and chief
operating officer.
Last fall, IntelliSys Technology Corp. signed a DLA BPA for Micron Electronics Inc.
ClientPro desktop PCs, TransPort Trek notebook PCs and NetFrame servers at up to 3 percent
less than the Nampa, Idaho, companys schedule prices, said Mary Souther, a vice
president for Intellisys of Fairfax, Va.
DFAS spokesman Ed Braese said the service negotiated discounts of up to 22 percent from
Inacom Government Systems of Fairfax, Va., Intelligent Decisions Inc. of Chantilly, Va.,
McBride and Associates Inc. of Albuquerque, N.M., and NCS Technologies Inc. of Sterling,
Va. DFAS plans to buy about 4,000 PCs and spend about $5.2 million, he said.
McBride and Associates resells Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. notebook PCs
and Micron PCs and servers, said Jeff Bell, the companys director of vendor
relations.
Intelligent Decisions and NCS Technologies sell their own systems, said Fran Haller,
senior business development manager at Intelligent Decisions. NCS has won one of the three
DFAS delivery orders so far for at least 429 units. Intelligent Decisions will supply at
least 254 units on the other two delivery orders, she said. She also expects DFAS to order
about 1,000 notebooks.
DFAS buyers pay Inacom $1,394 for a 350-MHz Pentium II Hewlett-Packard PC running
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0. Anything on Inacoms GSA schedule contract is
available through the BPA, a company official said.