A public agency with the authority and experience to award a marketplace contract with millions of products

Public PEPPM is a national purchasing cooperative serving education agencies and other public sector governments throughout the United States.

The PEPPM cooperative is a program of the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit (CSIU), an educational service agency in Pennsylvania. The CSIU is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, created by the Pennsylvania Legislature.

The CSIU’s legal authorities include the ability to seek bids for products and services and then award shareable purchasing contracts for the benefit of other agencies, including schools, cities, counties, special districts, and universities inside and outside of Pennsylvania. It has continuously operated the PEPPM program since 1982.

Scope of Services

Following best practices and strict procurement laws, PEPPM (pronounced PEP-um,) solicits bids from vendors for products and services useful to public sector buyers. PEPPM evaluates bidders for responsibility and their bids for responsiveness. Then PEPPM uses software to compare competing bids for the lowest price — even if it means reviewing hundreds of thousands of products to get apple-to-apple comparisons. Using this process, PEPPM has awarded hundreds of purchasing contracts delivering millions of bid-protected products that schools and public agencies can buy with assurance of a legal bid-protected process.

Eligible Agencies

Schools and other government agencies from all 50 states have used PEPPM contracts to bypass the red tape needed to make their purchases. Even political subdivisions in U.S. territories are eligible.

Contract Types

PEPPM currently goes to bid for products and services in four categories:

  1. 1) branded product lines from manufacturers or resellers,
  2. 2) products contained in commercially available catalogs,
  3. 3) print management solutions, and
  4. 4) marketplaces representing thousands of products with dynamic pricing.

Best Practices and Transparency

PEPPM is committed to use of best purchasing practices and the highest ethical standards. It solicits bids from thousands of vendors and widely advertises its Request for Bids in multiple publications across the U.S. Bids are awarded by the agency’s Board of Directors in a public meeting. For transparency, PEPPM publishes contract documentation online and makes the current bid prices visible to buyers -- all of which can be accessed from the “Contracts” link along the top of PEPPM’s home page.

 


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