Purchasing routes for technology services: a summary for agency staff
The purchasing routes available to public agencies for technology work, and when each fits.
Articles
Contracts & Procurement
Every reference article on hqt.org in Contracts & Procurement, written for agency procurement, technology, and program staff.
The California Multiple Award Schedule: how agencies use it
What CMAS is, which agencies can use it, and how a purchase through it works.
Cooperative purchasing: using contracts other agencies have already competed
How agencies buy through cooperative and piggyback contracts, and what to check before doing so.
Writing a technology RFP that gets good proposals
How agencies structure a solicitation so that vendors can price it accurately and evaluators can score it fairly.
Choosing a pricing structure for technology work
When an agency should buy on a fixed price, when time and materials fits, and how to manage each.
Due diligence before contracting with a technology vendor
What an agency should verify about a vendor's registration, insurance, security, and capacity before award.
Federal grants that fund local technology, and what they require
Where technology funding comes from and the obligations attached when federal money pays for a local project.
Contract terms agencies should include in technology contracts
The clauses that protect an agency's data, budget, and ability to change vendors.
What an owner's technical representative does on an IT project
Why agencies hire independent technical oversight for large implementations, and what the role involves.
Evaluating AI products: a guide for procurement and program staff
Questions to ask, evidence to require, and terms to include when an agency buys software with artificial intelligence in it.
Fixed price, time and materials, or staff augmentation: choosing a contract structure
A side by side comparison of fixed-price, time-and-materials, and staff augmentation contracts, and how to choose between them.
Market research before a solicitation: RFIs, demos, and fair dealing
How agencies learn what is available and what it costs before drafting a solicitation, without tainting the later competition.
Scoring technology proposals: evaluation criteria, weights, and committees
How to build an evaluation rubric for a technology RFP: criteria, weights, price scoring, rating definitions, and committee mechanics.
Bid protests: common grounds and how agencies reduce the risk
What a bid protest is, the grounds that most often appear, how the process runs, and the habits that prevent them.
Sole source justification for software: building a defensible record
What a sole source justification for software has to prove, the evidence behind common fact patterns, and what gets one rejected.
Change orders and amendments on technology contracts
How agencies separate a true scope change from a clarification or defect, and move a change from request to signed amendment
Software license models, metrics, and true-up audits
How agency buyers should read license metrics, count users and cores in real environments, and negotiate audit and true-up terms
Service level agreements and service credits in SaaS contracts
How availability is defined, measured, and reported in a SaaS contract, and what turns service credits into a real remedy
Insurance and indemnification in technology contracts
What each required coverage responds to, how certificates and endorsements work, and how indemnities interact with liability caps.
Subcontractor approval and flow-down terms on technology projects
How agencies keep visibility over subcontracted technology work through disclosure, written approval, and flow-down terms.
Software escrow agreements: when an agency actually needs one
What a source code escrow deposits, what triggers release, and when export rights or ownership terms serve an agency better
Total cost of ownership for an agency software system
The cost categories a full lifecycle software estimate should cover, from implementation and integrations through exit costs.
Working with a managed service provider: scope, service levels, and oversight
How agencies scope an MSP contract, set service levels and credits that mean something, and keep oversight of vendor access.
Managing software licenses and SaaS subscriptions across an agency
How agencies build a software and subscription inventory, track renewal deadlines, reclaim seats, and handle audits.
Procure to pay: requisitions, encumbrances, and three-way match
A walkthrough of the government purchasing cycle, from requisition and encumbrance through three-way match, exceptions, and payment.
Fit-gap analysis: documenting finance requirements before an ERP solicitation
How to inventory finance processes, run fit-gap sessions with staff, and build a defensible ERP requirements matrix.
Running a purchasing card program: limits, reconciliation, and the GL
How agencies structure purchasing card limits and roles, run monthly reconciliation, and post card activity to the general ledger.
Requirements for an agency HR, payroll, and time system replacement
A guide to the requirement areas that make public-sector HR, payroll, and time replacements different, and how to write each one so it can be tested.
HCM implementation contracts: milestones, parallel payroll, and holdback
How to structure HR and payroll implementation contracts so payment follows signed milestones, clean parallel payroll cycles, and a holdback.
Specifying an HVAC controls upgrade without a locked proprietary front end
How to write HVAC controls specifications that keep the graphics, programming tools, licenses, and passwords in agency hands.
NDAA Section 889: banned cameras and access control gear in agency purchases
How Section 889 restrictions on covered camera and telecom brands reach state and local purchases made with federal funds.
Energy savings performance contracts for HVAC, lighting, and controls upgrades
How an energy savings performance contract works for HVAC, lighting, and controls, and the oversight terms an agency should not concede.
What to specify when you buy a 311 or service request system
Requirements, scenario demos, reference questions, and late-surfacing cost lines to use when buying a 311 or service request system.
Advance planning documents and federal cost allocation for HHS systems
How planning and implementation APDs, prior approval thresholds, match rates, and cost allocation plans shape HHS system procurement schedules.
Business associate and qualified service organization agreements
When a health and human services vendor needs a HIPAA business associate agreement, a Part 2 QSOA, or both, and what each must say.
Buying aerial imagery, lidar, and change detection services
How agencies scope aerial imagery and lidar buys: accuracy specs, flight timing, licensing, hosting, and acceptance testing.
Asking vendors for an SBOM and actually using it
How to write SBOM requirements into a software contract, check what the vendor delivers, and search it when a vulnerability lands.
Procurement language for AI features in software contracts
The contract clauses that matter when software includes AI: data rights, no-training terms, model change notice, and exit rights.
Budgeting and capping AI usage costs: tokens, seats, and overage
How agencies estimate, cap, and charge back AI software costs across seat, token, and overage pricing models.
Two-step procurement: qualify vendors first, open prices second
How two-step technology solicitations work: screening qualifications first, then opening sealed prices only for firms that advance.
Competitive negotiation: discussions, revisions, and final offers
How agencies run discussions, request proposal revisions, and hold a final offer round without restarting the procurement.
Comparing proposals priced in different ways: a cost worksheet
A method for putting subscription, fixed-price plus hourly, and transaction-fee proposals onto one comparable multi-year cost number.
Best value award: defining it before you have to defend it
How agencies choose an award method beyond low bid, state the basis of award, and document why a higher-priced proposal won.
Pilot and proof of concept agreements: scope, cost, and exit
How to structure a government software pilot so it answers one question, protects agency data, and ends on a fixed date.
Continuity of service when a vendor is acquired or sunsets a product
How to write and use contract clauses that keep a government system running when the vendor is acquired or retires the product.
Data portability and exit terms to negotiate before you sign
How to negotiate export formats, schema delivery, API access, and post-termination data rights before signing a SaaS contract.
Contract administration after award: who owns the obligations
How agencies hand a signed contract from procurement to the program, and the artifacts and approval roles that keep it running.
Vendor performance management: scorecards, reviews, and records
How to score a technology vendor during the contract term, run reviews that leave a record, and document performance for the next procurement.
Terminating a technology contract: cause, convenience, and wind-down
How agencies end a software contract early: cause versus convenience, the cure notice and record behind it, and a wind-down that protects data and service.
Disputes and remedies: cure notices, escalation, and claims
A practical guide to the remedy ladder in a government technology contract, from withheld payment and cure notices through escalation and formal claims.
Participating addenda: making a cooperative contract fit your agency
How to use a participating addendum to attach your agency's own terms to a cooperative master agreement without exceeding its scope.
Acceptance criteria, milestone payments, and holdbacks
How agencies can tie implementation payments to tested, accepted functionality using milestones, acceptance criteria, and holdbacks.
Order of precedence when vendor terms conflict with yours
How to rank the contract, solicitation, statement of work, order form, and online vendor terms so an agency knows which document wins.
Who owns the code: IP and license rights in custom development
How agencies secure usable rights to custom software through assignment, license-back, deliverable definitions, and indemnity.
Debriefing unsuccessful proposers after a technology award
How state and local agencies can run a post-award debrief that is useful to the losing firm without disclosing competitors' confidential information.
Technology under a declared emergency: authority and documentation
What an emergency declaration unlocks for technology buying, access, and meetings, and the records that protect reimbursement later.
Interlocal agreements for shared systems: governance and exit
How to structure governance, cost allocation, data rights, and exit terms in an interlocal agreement for a shared government system.