Procurement

Purchasing Deadlines

  • Furniture - March 29, 2024

  • Academic Departments - April 26, 2024

  • Administrative Departments - May 24, 2024

Procurement Bid List

See the list of our current awarded bids as well as our in process/open bids. 

This policy provides guidance when purchasing gift cards for reward or incentive purposes while following internal control and tax requirements.

  • Gift cards are NOT to be purchased for Fitchburg State active employees, including students working in the department, researchers, or consultants employed by Fitchburg State
  • Holiday or other gifts to employees or student employees are not allowed
  • Gift cards as a research participation incentive are permitted

All gift cards for prizes/awards must be in the form of “e-cards” purchased on Fitchburg State’s Amazon Business portal. Due to risks of fraud, waste, and abuse, this policy confirms that gift cards not purchased through the Fitchburg State Amazon portal will not be allowed. Additionally, procurement will no longer allow physical cards to be kept in the office to be handed out.

Please adhere to the following steps:

  1. Identify the type of card you want to purchase and see if it needs to be “unlocked”. If it does, reach out to your procurement point of contact (Jannine Carson or Jess Martin) for them to unlock the card.
  2. Before purchasing, you will provide the following information via email to your procurement point of contact.
    • Event Name
    • Name of the store for the e-card
    • Dollar amount
    • Awardee’s full name
    • Awardees @ number
    • Awardee’s email address
    • FOAPAL to be used
  3. You will then purchase the e-card like other items from Amazon Business. It will flow to your procurement person for approval who will confirm it against the information provided.
  • FGIENCD (Detail Encumbrance Activity Form): This inquiry form allows the user to see the detail of a particular activity against a purchase order.
  • FGIOENC (Organizational Encumbrance List Form): This inquiry form allows the user to see a list of all purchase orders within an organization and or fund.
  • FOIDOCH (Document History Form): This inquiry form allows the user to drill down into a document and all documents related to it. Requisition, Purchase Order, Invoice and Check information are all available on this screen.

The University has an agreement with DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Leominster for a discounted rate for people visiting the campus for University business. If you need to book a room, please contact Beth Keene, bkeene1@fitchburgstate.edu, for the corporate account booking link.

Helpful Information

To purchase an item from one of the links below or any other source, please remember that a purchase order is required prior to placing any order. This process is started by entering an online requisition.

Goods over 5K that are not available on either MHEC or CommBuys need to go out to formal bid. Please submit the following information to your procurement point of contact (Jannine Carson or Jess Martin):

  • A list of items (specifications)
  • Three suggested bidders for issuance of a formal bid

Once received by Procurement, this process takes approximately 3 weeks. When the bids are received, a copy will be sent to the department who requested the bid. The department submits a requisition to procure the item.

If a service is required that is not on either listing below, please contact your Procurement Coordinator for suggested vendors. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Standard Contract/Terms and Conditions are required for any such procurements and are available in our forms library.

The Procurement Department is excited to provide a new option for buying goods and services.

The Quick Quote Process allows Departments a way to purchase items with a more streamlined procurement process.

  • Price Range - $10k-$24,999
  • Product/Services with limited criteria
  • Product/Service not available on state contract
  • A one-time purchase; not annual spend which is renewable each year

If the above is what you are looking to purchase, please contact your designated buyer:

  • Department will provide a description of the needed purchase to the Procurement Department
    • That description will be the baseline to the quote’s scope of work
  • Contact information for at minimum 3 vendors for the quote to be sent to:
    • Name of Company
    • Contact Person Name, Phone, Email
  • Procurement will set an approximate timeline of when items will be due
    • Once quotes are received by the Procurement Department they will be forwarded to the awarding department to review. The awarding department will choose and award to the vendor that is the lowest price and that meets the requirements of the quote
    • Once awarded an online requisition will be entered into Banner (listing the quote # for reference) by the awarding department

What is not recommended for the quick quote model?

  • Complex orders (items that are needed multiple times per year)
  • Items that will require additional orders or repeat purchases
  • Purchases that will require evaluation criteria

Quick Quote Decision Tree

G.A. Blanco and Sons, Inc. is our state contracted vendor for toner cartridges.
OSD Contract ITC80 through December 31, 2029 (MASS STATE SOWMBA CERTIFIED VENDOR - VENDOR CODE: 6000062941)
G.A. Blanco and Sons, Inc. (FSU Vendor # 020327245)
Orders by Phone:(800) 292-6625
Orders by Fax:(800) 931-0016
Orders by Email: gablanco@gablanco.com

Purchasing Guide for Vendors

Thank you for your interest in our campus. Whether you are already a valued business partner or anticipate doing business with the us in the future, we hope you will find the following information informative.

Fitchburg State’s purchasing commitment is to maximize the value of spending resources through competitive bids, efficient purchasing procedures, and state-of-the-art information systems. Fitchburg State’s Procurement rules state that we shall obtain all goods and services at the best overall value to the university. In complying with this policy, the cost of acquisition, the required delivery window, and other pertinent factors must be considered.

To maximize vendor competition and volume discount purchases, departments shall use the University’s, and state or publicly-bid consortia contracts. As an agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, our primary resource for vendors is through authorized cooperative purchasing
contracts awarded to vendors by the Massachusetts Operational Services Division (OSD) and the Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium (MHEC). For guidance on how to become an authorized vendor, please visit the following websites:

To start the process of becoming a vendor with Fitchburg State, please send a request via email to fitchburgstate_po@fitchburgstate.edu.

All completed forms (new or modified) shall be returned via email to fitchburgstate_po@fitchburgstate.edu.

ALL forms must be filled out electronically in order to be processed. Documents that are handwritten will be returned.