Agencies throughout Louisiana state government use Dell desktop computers almost exclusively so it must be assumed that competitive bids were taken on the equipment and that the state paid the most economical price.
After all, there are literally dozens of state agencies and many more offices within those agencies. Estimates vary as to the actual number of active employees on the state payroll at any given time but it is generally agreed there around 50,000-or more.
And virtually all those employees have a desktop computer—a Dell—assigned to them.
And, yes, of course competitive bids are taken. It’s the law.
Fewer, but still a substantial number of state employees have the need for laptop computers. Those include state police officers and employees who perform much of their work in the field.
Those computers, for the most part, also are Dells.
So one would surmise that when an agency takes quotes on one or two Dell laptops, Dell would give the state the best possible price, given the thousands of computers it has already sold to the state.
One might surmise, but one might be wrong.
First of all, if the purchase price is below a certain amount, informal quotes from vendors may suffice in lieu of going through the more lengthy and involved bid process. That is certainly understandable.
Still, it would be reasonable to expect to attract the most favorable quotes.
One state agency recently asked for quotes for two Dell Latitude E6420 laptops. The quotes from Dell were quite surprising.
The price was $1,448.71 each for a total of $2,897.42. By the time two Kensington Microsaver laptop locks (security cable locks) were added in at $37.29 each ($74.78 for the two), the total cost for the two units came to $2,972.20.
Again, to the non-skeptic, it would seem reasonable to assume that with the state’s volume buying from Dell, the company would have discounted the laptops in order to cut the agency the best deal possible. Think again.
A quick online check of Dell prices found the Dell Latitude E6420 listed for $1,042.51 each—$406.20 less than Dell’s quote for the state agency for the same model. Some, obviously stripped-down models of the same laptop, were going for as low as $670 and $750.
It would be a daunting task to learn how many times this scenario is repeated throughout state government. We do know, however, that this agency followed procedure in requesting quotes and if no one made a better offer it will probably pay the higher price.
Perhaps this is an example of trickle-up economics because it most certainly isn’t trickle-down.
It’s your money.
Louisiana Voice 
What makes it worse is that these computers keep getting lost.
From WAFB, 1/1/2012: “Officials at the Department of Health and Hospitals say they are already trying to fix the problem. When the Office of Public Health in New Orleans moved to its new location, Benson Towers, the office reported missing $1,270,077 in state property. ‘When you lose almost $400,000 of computers in a year that’s a concern to us,’ said Ernie Summerville with the Louisiana Legislative Auditors’s Office.”
From WWL, 1/23/2012: “The Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s office admits accounting practices at the Recovery School District in New Orleans is improving. … ‘In one instance we had in the findings, we had 94 computers at a school that started at the school, and when they went to do their yearly inventory, there were 94 computers short,’ said Ernie Summerville, the assistant director of the Legislative Auditor’s Office. “So, what happeded to the 94 computers? Nobody could tell us.'”
As a local technology provider for over 20 years, I have watched this practice go on for over a decade. This post is 100% spot on. Governor Jindal, it’s time to take a really hard look at the millions of dollars each year spent on NO bid purchase orders for IT equipment. There is zero oversight in this area and no regulation. According to the current WSCA/NSPO contract website Louisiana spent almost $90,000,000 in 2010 on DELL computer equipment off the WSCA state contract which includes PCs, servers, and other miscellanous equipment. This does not include networking or other types of gear either. In other states such as MS there is legislation in place that require DELL to resell their gear through local tech firms but, not here. WSCA is not a contract it is a catalog, so basically there is no contract.
It makes me so frustrated when I hear various politicians wring their hands about why there are no technology jobs in Louisiana and come up with various ideas about how to attract business in that field. There are no jobs becuase even our own state government doesn’t use local tech firms to procure products from the other vendors that do support local partners such as HP or Lenovo for PCs to name a few. DELL sells direct and every single dollar (except a few which I won’t get into) goes directly back to Austin, TX to the DELL coffers. There are no jobs created and no one makes any money except the sales reps from DELL and Michael DELL in Austin. IF the price is the same why wouldn’t they buy gear from manufacturers that use local partners as their agents.
All of this is done under the table and I hear rumors that the state of Louisiana has in place some unpublished volume pricing agreement from DELL. Personally I can’t find a copy of that agreement anywhere on the OIT website. Was there an RFP to award this contract? The answer is a big fat NO! As you can see above the so called volume deal is no bargain. Comparable products from other major computer manufacturers are much lower and if there were there are no bids ever that go out so who knows. If nothing else if everyone wants to buy DELL products then if there were a bid process, then it would be a win/win because it would be competitive. I could go on but there are so many roadblocks to competitive bidding and DELL gets all the business, it doesn’t matter who I work for or how much I try it is impossible to get even a small piece of the state IT business.
It would be very helpful to our economy and our future if someone would do something about this. People wouldn’t have to be laid off or spending freezes happen if the state would just do their due diligence and get bids and I mean real bids that are published on LAPAC for PC products. At least level the playing field. I love competition so I am happy to play and I am betting so are all the PC manufacturers in the world if given a chance.
This info can be verified at http://www.mmd.admin.state.mn.us/wsca/2009-2014VolumeData.htm
2005 $82,494,680
2006 $99,722,817
2007 $106,766,710
2008 $123,716,982
2009 $95,857,579
2010 $87,177,019