EMC brings infrastructure, storage solutions to WSCA

EMC Corp. announced last week a three year agreement with the Western States Contracting Alliance and the National Association of State Purchasing Officers to provide member states with infrastructure products, services and solutions. The WSCA/NASPO Master Price Agreement is the company’s first multi-state purchasing vehicle, making their products available to a wide array of state and local government customers, the company said.

The three-year deal was issued through the State of Minnesota’s Materials Management Division (MMD) with two additional one-year extensions possible. Because Minnesota is one of fifteen states in WSCA, the agreement provides state agencies, local governments and educational institutions an avenue to procure EMC’s information storage systems and software, including the company’s recovery and archive solutions.

EMC joins companies such as Apple, Dell, HP, IBM, Xerox and others in providing IT and “server-storage” products. During the second quarter of 2009, the last quarter data is available on vendor sales, nearly $700 million in computer equipment, software, and related services was bought by WSCA member states. By joining the likes of as Dell (who was the recipient of more than half of all sales), Apple, HP, IBM, Xerox and others in providing IT products, EMC hopes to tap into this large contracting vehicle.

“EMC’s WSCA/NASPO Master Price Agreement furthers extends our reach into U.S. state and local government, an important sector for the company, by giving customers an efficient and effective way to do business with EMC and our authorized partners,” Jennifer Axt, State and Local Government Director for EMC, said in a statement.

According to EMC’s price list, the company is offering WSCA members hefty discounts as part of the Master Agreement. In an attempt to help state and local governments deal with an explosion of data storage needs, EMC is offering WSCA members a 44 percent discount for a host of Symmetrix networked storage system solutions, for example.

“As these organizations deal with meeting the responsibilities to their constituents, managing exploding volumes of information, adapting to new business models and reducing costs, EMC is committed to providing them the best portfolio of information infrastructure products and services to help them succeed,” Ms. Axt said.

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