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Office of Procurement Services
The University of Mississippi

Purchasing

Purchasing procedures vary within the University community.  The following links should provide you with the appropriate directions to take, while complying with the Laws of the State of Mississippi and University policies.

PROCUREMENT MANUAL

Check out Requisition Tips and Purchasing FAQs for commonly asked questions.

 

Please email:

  • purchase@olemiss.edu with general questions about purchases.
  • bids@olemiss.edu with questions about bids.
  • prepayment@olemiss.edu with any prepayment information or questions. repayment Approval Forms are sent to this email address.
  • craf@olemiss.edu with questions or information about contract routing.  Contract Routing and Approval Forms are sent to this email address.
  • solesource@olemiss.edu with sole source information or questions.  Sole Source Request are sent to this email address
  • vendors@olemiss.edu for questions about becoming a vendor or updating your vendor account. Visit Vendors tab to complete the appropriate vendor application.

Contract Routing Approval

For more information and detailed instructions on the Contract Routing Form and the approval process, please visit: Office of Contract Management.

Please Note: Before certain contracts can proceed to legal review and be routed for approval and signature, the Office of Procurement Services may first need to verify that specific procurement-related processes have been completed. This applies to procurements involving prepayments or deposits, sole source purchases, ITS purchases, equipment leases, and purchases of goods or services that require multiple quotes or a formal bidding process.

If Procurement review is required, the requesting individual must coordinate with Procurement Services and obtain their approval on the Contract Routing Form prior to uploading the form and any associated contract to the Contract Intake Portal.

Prepayment

If your intended purchase includes a prepayment, a prepayment justification (Prepayment Approval Form) must be completed and submitted to Procurement Services.

  • Prepayments under $5,000 may be approved by the Director of Procurement Services or their designee.

  • Prepayments over $5,000 require approval from the IHL Commissioner or Board, in accordance with IHL Policy 707.03.

Please note: AppleCare purchases under $5,000 are exempt from the prepayment justification requirement.

  • Prepayment Approval Form
  • Prepayment Portal–Portal is currently unavailable. Please use the email address prepayment@olemiss.edu.

Sole Source

Sole Source Requisition Process:

Requisitions submitted to Procurement Services must be clearly marked in SAP as “sole source” or “IT sole source” on the purchasing requisition. Once received, the appropriate form will be emailed to the requisitioner for completion by the department’s subject matter expert and must then be uploaded into SAP.

After Procurement Services reviews the sole source request for completeness, a public advertisement is placed in the news media once a week for two consecutive weeks. If no objections are received within eight calendar days following the second advertisement, Procurement will proceed with completing the sole source certification process.

State Contracts

 

Competitive Contracts

The following are examples of commonly used competitive contract suppliers.

Office Supplies

Office Paper

 

Negotiated Contracts

The following are examples of commonly used negotiated contract suppliers.

Copiers

  • Multiple Manufactures to include Canon, HP, and Sharp

Laboratory Equipment

  • Multiple Vendors to include Agilent Technologies, Fisher Scientific and Nikon

 

Cooperative Contracts

The following are examples of commonly used cooperative contract suppliers.

Equipment Rental

  • Multiple Vendors to include Herc, United Rental, and Sunbelt.

Floor Covering

  • Multiple Vendors to include Mannington Mills, Mohawk Industries and Shaw

Purchasing Guidelines and Resources