Benefits of a State Contracted Upfitter

What is a state contract?

If you’ve ever planned an event, purchased a home, or even needed a vet recommendation for your pup, you’ve more than likely reached out and consulted a list of friends for their preferred vendors.  In the case of state contracts, it’s a similar concept. The state would give contracts to an upfitter or vendor, whose services and products have been vetted by the state. Often this is because the vendor can offer better pricing than the competition through partnerships & relationships with manufacturers.

For Iowa’s state and local government, their mission is to “facilitate a procurement process that provides timely, cost-effective, high quality goods & services through cooperative and proactive purchasing practices.”

Overall the state’s preferred vendors are a trustworthy resource to purchase equipment for your department. State contracts help to remove the research time of finding a reliable vendor.

Who uses state contracts?

In KELTEK’s case, our state contracts are used by mainly police and sheriff’s departments, fire departments, the Department of Natural Resources, and EMS facilities. Our upfitting services and parts used to do a build are under state contract. We also have state contracts for your technical resources as well, your body worn cameras, in car video, and Toughbook’s.

Using a preferred vendor comes with huge benefits. Confidence being one, hopefully I have made it clear that using a vendor with state contract reduces your time searching. The effort put into the search can be saved, knowing the state has fully vetted an upfitter for you and your department.  Also drawing up a contract between you and KELTEK is easier since we can use the MSA – Master Service Agreement, that is issued by the state. Terms and conditions put into place, agreed upon by the state and KELTEK.

There is also a savings behind using a preferred vendor. By leveraging volume and consolidating usage of specific brands of equipment, you may provide an incentive for our company to provide the best possible price.

Next Steps

With more than 21 years of upfitting vehicles in Iowa and the surrounding states, combined with our service offerings such as Hardware-As-A-Service, we hope you realize your state’s officials did their due diligence in selecting KELTEK as a vendor. We would love to earn your business by providing competitive pricing on your next build or technology project.  We will work with you to create options that work with your departments budget and long-term goals.

Your next step is to reach out to our team here and make us your premier Iowa upfitter! We look forward to speaking with you and showing you the benefits of state contracts firsthand.