Dear Colleagues:
As you are aware, in order to level the playing field as much as possible and to ensure a transparent and fair approach, we must be mindful about vendor contact during NMICC’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) quiet period – now through the awarding of the contract. Overly-aggressive vendors could compromise this important process by attempting to glean information from you. It is imperative that each of us steer clear of even the appearance of interacting with vendors in this way.
There are a number of higher education software vendors and third-party implementation consultants who could potentially offer a proposal, including your college’s current ERP provider. Of course, there are legitimate business or training reasons to be in touch with your current ERP provider, such as for technical support, accounting, and education services. Other business webinars around managing with COVID, working remotely, or additional topics by other vendors are not of concern. However, any invitation to a webinar that touts their benefits, ROI, opportunities to grow, etc. should be considered sales or marketing pitches and therefore innapropriate. For example, requests from your current vendor to speak with your colleagues about issues other than regular technical support should be declined.
Please do not engage in these types of sessions until a decision has been announced, likely after negotiations have completed in July of 2021. We are counting on everyone to protect the integrity of the process so that any rationale for vendor recommendations is restricted to the evaluation materials, discussions, and presentations. If we all respect these guidelines, we will ensure a clean and ethical process.
Should you hear from a vendor, please refer them to NMICC’s ERP Procurement Manager Gerrie Becker at gbecker1@cnm.edu.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Interim Chief Information Officer Vice President of Finance/Chief Financial Officer
