Wells wants to move the government procurement system closer to what you find in the private sector. The center functions as a buying co-op for technology for state and local government agencies. Your shoelace breaks. You go to the store. You buy a new pair of shoelaces.
Prices change really fast.
But if we call TPC or give them a description of what we need, we're pretty much assured that we get the lowest price at that time. So it's been a big help. That gives us the ability to monitor what kind of markup a reseller is putting on an item and, in some cases, to go around the reseller channel altogether and fulfill the order directly from the wholesaler ourselves. But the procurement center offers more than just low prices. Since TPC staff know the system inside and out, they've been able to manipulate it to cut through a lot of the red tape jurisdictions often face.