According to state law, public entities including schools, hospitals, and municipalities must go out for bid in order to purchase real and personal property whose values exceed $25,000. The bidding process is not only expensive to implement, it takes a considerable amount of time. The answer for many public entities is purchasing cooperatives.
Purchasing cooperatives allow their individual members to obtain the benefits and efficiencies of procuring from bid schedules a broad range of goods and services from qualified vendors without having to go through the labors of the traditional bidding systems. By using current internet-based technologies, cooperatives streamline the government purchasing process for their members while also leveraging the economies of scale inherent in pre-qualified bids. The following list of purchasing cooperatives are all in compliance with applicable state bidding requirements and have recognized Ramtech as an approved vendor for the lease and sale of a wide variety of temporary and permanent modular buildings:
The BuyBoard is a customized electronic purchasing system for all government entities created by the Local Government Purchasing Cooperative, an administrative agency created in accordance with Section 791.001 of the Texas Government Code. It is administered by the Texas Association of School Boards and uses internet-based technologies to create a secure Web site for product and awarded contract information and ordering. A BuyBoard membership is free and open to all local governments, nonprofits, and other political subdivisions of the state of Texas. Ramtech was the first modular construction company to be awarded a contract from BuyBoard, and we continue to offer the most comprehensive line of portable classrooms and other prefabricated modular buildings available for sale or lease through the program. Ramtech Building Systems has been an approved vendor of the BuyBoard since 2001 and is also the only company to offer permanent modular buildings using the Accelerated Building System through the program.
Houston-Galveston Area Council Buy is a nationwide government procurement service available to any state agency, county, municipality, special district or other political subdivision, or a qualifying non-profit corporation that provides one or more governmental functions or services. Each vendor contract available to participating members of HGACBuy has been awarded by virtue of a public, competitive procurement process compliant with state statutes. As a unit of local government assisting other local governments, HGACBuy strives to make the governmental procurement process more efficient by establishing competitively priced contracts for goods and services. Public and non-profit agencies have been procuring products and services through HGACBuy for over 35 years. Ramtech has been awarded competitively bid contracts for the lease and sale of modular buildings through the HGACBuy program since 2005.
The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS) is sponsored by the Region VIII Education Service Center (ESC) in Mt. Pleasant, Texasand is governed by the Region VIII ESC Board of Directors. TIPS is a free contract that is available to public and private schools, colleges, universities, cities, counties and other government agencies in Texas and 37 other states. Each vendor that is certified by TIPS/TAPS are granted contracts which have been competitively awarded in accordance with applicable state laws and have agreed to provide the best pricing, terms, and conditions available to similar customers. Ramtech has been awarded competitively bid contracts for the lease and purchase of modular buildings since 2004.
For public schools, hospitals, and municipalities that want a quality modular building, purchasing a Ramtech modular building through one of the above purchasing cooperatives is fast and very cost efficient.
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Gary White is Vice President of Sales & Estimating at Ramtech Building Systems, Inc. He has been in the commercial modular industry for 33 years and is responsible for the management of all sales and estimating efforts across each of Ramtech’s key market segments: Education, Government, Medical, and Commercial.
