Procurement Contract Routing Review
Procurement and Contract Services (PCS) requires a contract routing review for ALL contracts. For your contract to be reviewed, you must submit a ticket using this Contract Routing Review. Packages sent via email to public or personal Procurement emails will not be accepted.
A Contract is a legally binding written agreement where a Vendor provides goods and/or services and TWU accepts the established price, terms, and conditions. A contract is any document that requires a signature by TWU personnel. Even if there is not a costing amount to TWU, if there are terms and conditions that require a signature, this is considered a contract.
Contracts will be reviewed by the areas outlined in the TWU Contract Signature Matrix. This includes Procurement, IT Services (ITS), Risk Management, Digital Accessibility Information Resources, and Data Management. The Matrix outlines each contract category and which approvals it requires.
Templates
TWU Office of General Counsel has created a variety of templates for common contracted services. They can be found on the Procurement website under Forms and Instructions. This greatly expedites the review process and allows processing without legal review. We recommend that departments encourage vendors to accept our templates when applicable.It is always best to download new documents each time you need them to ensure you’re using the most up-to-date forms.
All Office of General Counsel (OGC) Templates must be submitted in Word format with all revisions tracked. These templates allow Procurement to process the agreements without having to submit for legal review. All language is pre-approved by the Office of General Counsel. Tracking the language allows us to confirm that none of the OGC-approved language has been altered. Documents not submitted in this format will cause the contract to be rejected and returned.
- The only exceptions to this are FMC contracts (Professional Services Agreements, Change Orders, Master A202, IDIQ PSA) and Performer/Artist Agreements.
Any edits made to an OGC Template by the vendor or the department will require the contract to be submitted for legal review.
For a list of contract categories that have templates available, please refer to this Contract Category Guide
Before submitting your contract package for review, please make sure you have provided ALL required supporting documentation. Incomplete packages will not be accepted. Please refer to this Supporting Document Breakdown for what type of documents are required for each ‘Contract Category’. All supporting contract documents must be submitted as individual files.
There may be additional information required depending on purchasing guidelines. Please refer to the Procurement Guidelines Website for that information.
Risk Management
Risk Management approval is required for service contracts to validate liability insurance. Please reference the TWU Signature Matrix to see if the contract category requires Risk Management review.
The requesting department must obtain a copy of the vendor’s Certificate of Liability Insurance (COI).Risk Management will review and approve according to our Third Party Insurance Standards. You may be required to reach out to the supplier to get additional information if necessary.
Contracts for Guest Lecturers do not require insurance review
IT Solutions (ITS)
IT Solutions (ITS) review is required for all software, license, web applications or cloud service contracts (including renewals). To receive approval, ITS Risk Assessment is needed. You can complete this here via the Risk Assessment. The contract and product or service will also be evaluated by the ITS project management team to determine solution viability.
As of January 1, 2022, if the contract is to procure a cloud service, the cloud service may be subject to TX-RAMP certification (more information is available at the Texas Department of Information Resources' TX-RAMP website). The TWU Information Security team will evaluate the Risk Assessment responses to determine if TX-RAMP certification is required. If so, the vendor will be required to obtain the appropriate certification prior to ITS approval. The state verifies and certifies vendors for TX-RAMP certification. The process to receive certification will require additional vetting and may increase the time to procure cloud services.
Digital Accessibility Information Resources
Texas Woman's University strives to ensure programs, services and activities are accessible for all students, faculty, staff and visitors. One way we are working to remove accessibility barriers is to select accessible software and hardware in accordance with Subchapter M, Chapter 2054, Government Code, and Title 1 of Texas Administrative Code Chapters 206 and 213. These statutes provide standards for Digital Accessibility.
Product categories subject to accessibility review within the Procurement Contract Routing:
- Software applications and operating systems
- Web-based internet information and applications
- Telecommunication products (phone systems, voice mail systems)
- Video and multimedia products (videos, TVs and displays)
- Self-contained, closed products (printers, kiosks)
- Desktop and portable computers
Data Management
Data Management review provides Enhanced Security for University Data and Role Based Access. This protects Human Resources, Suppliers, Finance, and End User Information.
Office of General Counsel
Contract Packages that do not utilize an Office of General Counsel (OGC) approved template must be submitted for legal review.
This review process is currently outside of this Procurement Contract Routing Review Ticketing System. OGC Legal Review tickets will not be submitted until this Contract Routing Review has been completed. If legal review is required, a member of the Procurement team will update the ticket once it has been submitted.
Department Accountability
All contracts require approval from a Contract Manager. The Contract Manager is responsible for the agreement between the supplier and the department on behalf of Texas Woman’s University. The Contract Manager guarantees that the contract being submitted has been reviewed in full and all terms within are approved; this also includes securing the necessary funds via requisition for the supplier to be properly compensated. This should be a department head or account approver.