Business Opportunities

DIR is committed to providing competitive business opportunities to all qualified vendors. Taxpayer dollars are maximized when Texas government has a vibrant technology vendor community. By encouraging competition and by enabling equitable market forces on all public sector technology initiatives, Texas will benefit through highly attractive pricing, improved service levels, and strong collaboration with private sector companies, both large and small.

IBM, as the data center services contract holder, has responsibility to provide all in-scope services, including hardware, software, tools, and data center management. IBM provides these services directly and through subcontractors, including many HUB firms. Where possible, IBM is required to use DIR’s ICT Co-op Contracts to obtain the best value for the state. Participating state agencies determine the services and hardware and software requirements necessary to meet their business needs. These participating state agencies submit their requests to procure in-scope hardware and software directly to IBM. Out-of-scope services continue to be procured directly by agencies according to established state procurement guidelines.

Click here for a list of in-scope services for the data center services contract.

Vendors should continue to market products to state agencies participating in the DCS program. However, vendors should not accept purchase orders directly from participating agencies for in-scope hardware or software. Those purchase orders should come directly from IBM.

For information on opportunities to work with the State on the date center services contract, please contact IBM directly. For general information on doing business with DIR, please see How to become a DIR vendor.

Send questions to datacenterquestions@dir.state.tx.us.