ePlus lands Pa. equipment deal

ePlus Inc. won a four-year contract from the Pennsylvania General Services Department to provide computer peripherals, the department announced this month. The contract has an estimated annual value of $23.5 million and is worth as much as $94 million if all options are exercised.

Under the contract, ePlus of Herndon, Va., will provide the state with IT network gear as well as disk drives, printers and other computer peripherals.

In keeping with state requirements, 9 percent of the contract will go to small, disadvantaged Pennsylvania businesses.

The state businesses participating on the contract are Office Machine Sales and Service Co., Erie, Pa.; Pierson Consulting Inc., Mechanicsburg, Pa.; Solutions4Networks, Pittsburgh; and University Business Machines Inc., Upper Darby, Pa.

The state awarded the contract as part of its ongoing strategic sourcing initiative, it's expected to save taxpayers $8.5 million, according to state officials.

The initiative maximizes the state's buying power by aggregating the purchasing power of all state agencies. This latest award brings the total annual savings generated by the state's strategic sourcing initiative to $82.7 million, state officials said.

ePlus is an applications services provider and IT equipment reseller. The company has more than 500 employees and annual sales of $330.6 million, according to Hoover's Online of Austin, Texas.