Carnegie Mellon University

Doing Business with Carnegie Mellon

Procurement Services sources university-wide large spend commodities and purchasing categories, negotiates contract language and terms, facilitates contract disputes, and manages strategic supplier relationships.

Learn how to become a university supplier and about CMU’s supplier programs.

New Suppliers and Business Opportunities

Business opportunities may be limited in some commodity areas. The university does not place contracts or establish preferred suppliers in response to direct marketing. 

Click here to complete the Supplier Pre-Registration if you:

  • Want to provide goods and/or services to CMU or
  • Want to be considered for preferred supplier classification

Completing the Supplier Pre-Registration does not guarantee that your business will be selected to provide goods and/or services to the university or to receive preferred supplier status. You will be contacted if a business opportunity arises.

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Small Businesses Opportunities

Carnegie Mellon is committed to supporting small business enterprises, including disadvantaged, women-owned, veteran-owned, service disabled veteran-owned and HUBZone business enterprises in its purchasing programs.

If you are a small business as classified by the Small Business Administration, please register at the System for Award Management (SAM) in support of CMU's reporting to the federal government. When registering at this website, you are requested to obtain a DUNS number. There is no charge for obtaining this number. Contact Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) at 866-705-5711 to obtain your free DUNS Number.

Preferred Supplier Program

Preferred suppliers are determined by a request for proposals (RFP) process conducted and managed by Procurement Services. Not every supplier who does business with the university is a preferred supplier. 

The Preferred Supplier Program:

  • Provides for the negotiation of reasonable price and service agreements for specific goods and services
  • Incorporates a commodity management strategy
  • Formalizes the relationship with suppliers who are selected based on procurement volume and their strategic and economic benefit to the university

Purchase Orders

Carnegie Mellon uses the Oracle Financials System to create purchase orders and generate payments.

New and existing university vendors/suppliers are required to register and create/maintain a profile in PaymentWorks to be eligible to accept university purchase orders and receive payments. See the Vendor/Supplier Onboarding page for more information. A university representative will contact you to complete the vendor/supplier onboarding as needed.

The university's Purchase Order (PO) Terms & Conditions are available at https://www.cmu.edu/finance/forms/files/po-terms.pdf.

Additional Information

Supplier Services

Services have specific contractual terms and conditions documents that must be agreed upon or negotiated and signed by an authorized signatory for the university and the supplier. Examples include:

  • Entertainment Performance Agreement 
  • Consultant Agreement
  • Professional Services Agreement
  • Professional Services Agreement - Software Programming
  • Speakers Agreement(s)
  • No Charge Contracts for Equipment Evaluation of Supplier Loaned Equipment 
  • Hotel, Banquet and/or Conference Services Agreement (outside Allegheny County)
  • Non-Disclosure Agreement

Supplier Goods

Purchasing card (PCard) purchases and Oracle purchase order acquisitions with non-preferred suppliers for less than $5,000 incorporate Carnegie Mellon University Purchase Order General Terms and Conditions.