Collaborative for higher education shared services

The Collaborative for Higher Education Shared Services (CHESS) is issuing a sole-source contract for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Student Information System (SIS) implementation and ongoing services to support six New Mexico community colleges, with proposals due September 11, 2026. The sole-source award is to CHESS itself, a nonprofit consortium comprising Central New Mexico Community College, Clovis Community College, Luna Community College, Northern New Mexico Community College, San Juan Community College, and Santa Fe Community College.

CHESS holds the contractual relationship with Workday as the underlying ERP/SIS vendor, selected through prior competitive RFP #P-430. The systems support finance, human resources, payroll, admissions, recruiting, financial aid, records, curriculum, advising, and student financial transactions across all participating colleges. The contract term is 2.5 years with a total value of $17 million. The sole-source justification rests on CHESS being the only vendor capable of providing comprehensive, coordinated services across all participating institutions through its exclusive Workday contract.

Pricing has been validated as fair and reasonable. The vendor provided three pricing concessions from its initial offering, resulting in estimated cost savings exceeding $9 million compared to the original quote. Pricing was validated against other bidder responses from the prior competitive RFP and falls within the collective planned budget. A 30-day posting period for the sole-source determination was completed with no objections received prior to award authorization on August 12, 2026.