City-County Procurement Program Adds Furniture Vendor, Knoll Inc.

May 15, 2000

The United States Conference of Mayors has added the nationally-recognized office furniture supplier, Knoll Inc. to its list of suppliers for office furniture systems and seating through the USCM-NACo local government procurement program, the US Communities Government Purchasing Alliance (GPA).  KI has also provided office furnishings through the GPA since March 1999. Local governments can now piggyback onto the contract to optimize savings and pricing.  The GPA is committed to providing cost-efficient solutions for city and local government procurement operations.

As a company whose design philosophy is firmly rooted in the needs of its customers, Knoll is committed to providing city and municipal government elegantly designed office furniture products. Knoll's GPA offering's include their Reff, Morrison, Currents, Equity, Dividends office systems and seating with discounts ranging from 50-71 percent.

As with all USCM-NACo procurement contracts the Knoll contract meets competitive bidding requirements.  Contract awards are only made after a rigorous national competitive bidding process. The request-for-proposal, bidding and evaluation process was conducted and finalized by Fairfax County, VA using the Los Angeles County model. The model enables local governments to avoid costly and time-consuming bid and evaluation processes by using the already publicly-bid contract. Use of the furniture contract is discretionary as the contracts are non-exclusive and no fees are required in order to utilize any US Communities GPA contract.

The USCM-NACo US Communities Government Purchasing Alliance is endorsed by the National Institute for Governmental Purchasing, NIGP. 

Since its founding in 1938 Knoll has established itself as a global manufacturer of office furnishings dedicated to design excellence. Recognized as a design leader in the industry, Knoll is the recipient of hundreds of design awards with products represented in major art museums around the world.  They have also had more than 30 products included in the Design Collection of The Museum of Modern Art in the City of New York.

The Knoll office product line includes office systems, office seating, wood desks, metal desks and files, office accessories, fabrics and leathers.  They combine solid workplace research with innovative thinking to create distinctive, high-performance workplaces that address the unique and ever-changing needs of city-government.

Knoll serves the United States through a network of more than 300 dealerships supported by 100 showrooms and regional offices nationwide and has manufacturing sites in East Greenville, PA; Grand Rapids, MI; Muskegon, MI and Toronto, Canada.  Knoll is also distinguished as the first major office furnishings manufacturer to be awarded ISO 9000 registration.

The USCM-NACo US Communities Government Purchasing Alliance also offers contracts for Office Supplies, Computers and Software and Electrical, Telecommunications and Data Supplies. Cities interested in learning more about Knoll and the USCM-NACo joint procurement program and contracts should contact the Conference staff at 1-888-828-8763.  Email:  jobrien@usmayors.org . Additional information on the Government Purchasing Alliance contracts as well the full range of Conference program offerings is available on the Conference of Mayors website at www.usmayors.org/solutions   

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