The Foundation is pleased to announce the new pricing discount available through Link-Systems International (LSI) for NetTutor, an online tutoring service used by over half of the California Community Colleges . Since contract execution in December 2014, the Community College system has collectively purchased over 20,000 hours of NetTutor services reducing NetTutor’s hourly rate to $23.50, effective July 1, 2016. When compared to standard NetTutor pricing, the Foundation contract (CB 14-011) has saved the system over $85,000. Purchases from July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017 will determine the discount level for the next contract term.

Additionally, the OEI has funded a systemwide license for WorldWideWhiteboard through the Foundation’s contract. WorldWideWhiteboard is LSI’s online platform that facilitates online tutoring and other online academic support for local faculty and staff. Currently, over one-third of the California Community Colleges have installed WorldWideWhiteboard, which is available at no cost to every campus. Compared to minimum standard pricing, the Foundation contract has saved the system $285,000.

To learn more, please review the CollegeBuys Online Tutoring Services Fact Sheet, or contact Jorge Burwick, CollegeBuys Program Specialist, at jburwick@foundationccc.org.

In partnership with Foundation, Portfolium is helping colleges connect passion with profession. Portfolium’s flexible ePortfolio and assessment tools make it easy and free for students of any major to take their coursework with them so they can showcase that they have the right on-the-job skills to prospective employers. Portfolium also has a partnership with Canvas and other Learning Management System tools, allowing students and faculty to streamline in-class learning with workforce demands through seamless integration. Portfolium is proud to support all Community Colleges in their quest to position students for career success.

Portfolium also partners with Career Technical Education Pathway Programs for K-12. The partnership was a clear choice for Sacramento County Office of Education as Jared Amalong, Information and Communications Technologies Coordinator explains, “In addition to being a scalable, sustainable digital portfolio tool, we chose Portfolium because of the integration with the California Community College, California State University, and University of California systems.”

If your college would like to take advantage of this free service, please contact Portfolium at educators@portfolium.com.

The Foundation for California Community Colleges recently worked with CollegeBuys partner Utelogy (CB 14-202) to facilitate the purchase and installation of an AV solution for the organization’s conference rooms, which all Foundation staff can easily access with little to no assistance from the IT helpdesk.

Sam Fowler, IT Manager at the Foundation, indicated that the organization’s former video conferencing solution was negatively impacting operations because the helpdesk was often required to set up meetings with little notice of meeting AV requirements. With the new system, Foundation staff are no longer limited by technology when hosting a video meeting. Users are now able to have meetings that include a better video feed, and they can attend meetings using Adobe Connect, Zoom, Skype and GoToMeeting, etc.

More than 15 California Community Colleges currently use Utelogy. Other Community Colleges interested in Utelogy can rely on the Foundation contract as a viable and compliant procurement option to streamline their buying process for modernizing and enhancing AV solutions.

For contract details, please contact Jorge Burwick, CollegeBuys Program Specialist, at jburwick@foundationccc.org.

On June 21, 2016, CollegeBuys secured a partnership with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise through the California Higher Education Shared Services (CHESS) Initiative. The partnership makes available to the California Community Colleges exclusive California State University discounts of up to 74% for Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch data networking switching, routing equipment, and data network management products.

The Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch data networking portfolio is already used within the California Community College system and is deployed extensively within other higher education networks in California and nationwide to provide a range of IT networking and user benefits. Under the agreement, AT&T is the exclusive provider of the following baseline services: design engineering; deployment; operations support; contract and administrative; ALE data networking equipment, software and maintenance sourcing. AT&T can also provide additional services based on campus needs.

For contract details, please contact Jorge Burwick, CollegeBuys Program Specialist, at jburwick@foundationccc.org.

Registration is now open for the 2017 Purchasing Conference, which is being held at the Catamaran Resort Hotel in San Diego from April 12-14, 2017. This is the 10th annual purchasing conference dedicated to the California Community College purchasing community.

This year’s theme is Breaking Barriers. Building for the Future. Topics will include:

• A California Community College Handbook Workshop
• A CHESS Shared Procurement Panel
• Compliance Tips and Tricks
• Cooperative Purchasing Success Stories
• Legal and Legislative Updates
• Purchasing Professional Certifications
• Travel and Concur Implementation

Conference registration includes meals, snacks, receptions, and conference materials. A limited number of stipends are available upon request.

CollegeBuys has negotiated an exclusive conference room rate of $169/night, which is available until March 10, 2017, or until all rooms in the group block have been filled. Reserve online, or call the hotel directly at 1.800.422.8386. If you reserve by phone, please mention that you are attending the conference to secure the discounted rate.

For conference details and registration, please visit the conference website. If you have any questions or issues with registration, please contact Aileen Joy, CollegeBuys Program Coordinator, at ajoy@foundationccc.org.

For more information about the Foundation's offerings, or for questions or suggestions about the CollegeBuys Purchasing newsletter, please contact Aileen Joy, CollegeBuys Project Coordinator, at ajoy@foundationccc.org.