Announcement of a Sole Source Purchase

The university (Gies College of Business) has a need to provide high-quality, meaningful and consistent grades and feedback for online graduate degree programs. This is needed because as programs scale, the ability to provide that feedback strains instructional support teams and can become a bottleneck which can negatively impact learning and satisfaction. The end result of this will be an innovative advanced platform to assist the instructional teams in providing individualized meaningful feedback quickly to learners. The university, on information and belief has concluded that only one vendor can meet its need or can meet this need economically. That vendor is Sense Education. The university has provided detailed justification to support its conclusion as shown on the attached Sole Source Justification Form. Although the university has presented this as a sole source procurement this as a sole source procurement, we are seeking competitive information from firms with the capability of meeting the university's need (even if performed in a manner different from what has been presented) to contract us and provide sufficient information to show the need can be met. If we receive that information, the Chief Procurement Officer will offer a public hearing to consider the matter. Hearing information is describer below.

The University has determined that this purchase is only economically available from this source because the procurement is software license, upgrade or maintenance.