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Salesforce

What this guide covers

How to actually buy Salesforce for a Maryland agency — which statewide vehicle you ride (it has its own, not COTS), which reseller fulfills the order, the FedRAMP/ATO path, and the functionality gates to clear before you sign.

Who it’s for

Engineering leads, program staff, and procurement officers at a Maryland State agency or education entity who have decided they need Salesforce — CRM, case management, or low-code constituent services — and need the path from “we want it” to “it’s authorized and on contract.”

Part of the SaaS Catalog. For the vehicles themselves, see Maryland Master Contracts; for the process and thresholds, see Maryland Procurement.

Disclaimer. Not legal or procurement advice. FedRAMP authorizations, contract catalogs, and BPO numbers change as awards are renewed and authorizations are re-baselined. Verify every figure below against the FedRAMP Marketplace, the DoIT Salesforce Licenses 2023 contract page, and the DoIT Statewide Contracts hub before relying on it.

TL;DR

  • Category: CRM and low-code application platform — case management, constituent services.
  • Maryland vehicle: Salesforce Licenses 2023, BPO 001B3600044, its own statewide contract awarded to Carahsoft. Salesforce does not ride COTS.
  • Reseller: Carahsoft is Salesforce’s primary public-sector distributor and the awarded reseller; direct for large deals.
  • Authorization: Salesforce Government Cloud Plus is FedRAMP High (on AWS GovCloud (US)). The older Government Cloud edition is FedRAMP Moderate.
  • The ATO trap: Pick the edition that matches your data classification — only Government Cloud Plus is High; the older Government Cloud is Moderate.

What This Tool Is

Salesforce is a SaaS CRM and low-code application platform — contact and case management, service consoles, and configurable apps for constituent services, licensing, and benefits workflows on top of the same core. Agencies reach for it when they want a managed platform to build constituent-facing case management on, instead of standing up and operating a custom application stack themselves. There is no honest drop-in open-source swap for a platform-class CRM at this scale — the OSS CRMs do not match the configurable-platform and managed-ATO story Salesforce sells, so this is a buy decision, and this page is the buy.

Which Maryland Vehicle

Salesforce is unusual: it has its own Maryland statewide contract rather than riding the general COTS software vehicle.

VehicleBPOHow Salesforce rides it
Salesforce Licenses 2023001B3600044The path. A dedicated statewide contract for Salesforce SaaS, awarded to Carahsoft. Executive Branch agencies release purchase orders against this BPO.

The contract was awarded 2023-09-06, with a base term 2023-09-21 to 2026-09-20 and option years extending to 2028-09-20 — confirm the current term and option status against the DoIT contract page before relying on it. Because this is a dedicated vehicle, do not look for Salesforce on the COTS publisher catalog — see Maryland Master Contracts → Where Carahsoft Fits for how Carahsoft holds awards across several vehicles.

Resellers and Pricing Path

Carahsoft is Salesforce’s primary public-sector distributor and the reseller holding the Maryland Salesforce Licenses 2023 award; very large deals may go direct to Salesforce. You do not buy a “Carahsoft contract” — Carahsoft fulfills your order against the statewide Salesforce BPO. Request a quote referencing BPO 001B3600044 so the order is priced against the statewide ceiling rather than commercial list price. Salesforce is licensed per-user per-edition with add-on clouds (Service, Experience, Data Cloud), so the quote depends on seat counts and which clouds you provision — size both before you ask.

Authorization and ATO

AttributeValue
Authorized offering (High)Salesforce Government Cloud Plus — runs on AWS GovCloud (US)
FedRAMP statusHigh (Agency P-ATO; authorized since 2020)
Marketplace IDFR2003061248
Older editionGovernment Cloud — FedRAMP Moderate (a different boundary)
Related Salesforce productsTableau and the newer Agentforce / Data Cloud offerings reached FedRAMP High in 2025 — confirm each separately
GovRAMP (StateRAMP)Not confirmed — verify on the GovRAMP product list

The single thing to get right for the ATO: choose the edition that matches your data classification. Government Cloud Plus is the FedRAMP High boundary on AWS GovCloud (US); the older Government Cloud is FedRAMP Moderate. They are different boundaries with different control sets, and an order that provisions the Moderate edition gives you nothing to inherit at High. If you also intend to use Tableau, Agentforce, or Data Cloud, confirm each product’s FedRAMP authorization separately — the 2025 High authorizations are recent and should be re-checked on the Marketplace.

Functionality Gates to Verify

Clear these before price comparison — any one can disqualify the buy regardless of cost. See the canonical list in Tools and Software → Enterprise Functionality.

GateSalesforce-specific note
SSO (SAML/OIDC) + SCIMSupported; confirm SCIM de-provisioning is included at your edition, not gated to a higher tier.
Audit logsField Audit Trail and event monitoring available; confirm retention and that event monitoring is licensed at your tier.
RBACProfiles, permission sets, and sharing rules; map to least-privilege before rollout.
Data residency / FedRAMP boundaryGovernment Cloud Plus on AWS GovCloud (US) is the residency answer — see above.
Accessibility (VPAT/ACR)Request Salesforce’s current VPAT; Maryland’s Nonvisual Access (NVA) requirement applies to the procurement.
BAA / DPARequired if any constituent data could carry PII/PHI; confirm availability for the government edition.

Procurement Steps

  1. Confirm the platform need. Platform-class CRM has no drop-in OSS swap; document why managed Salesforce is worth the spend — that rationale is the core of the budget justification.
  2. Register / confirm eMMA. Your agency and the reseller must be set up in eMMA.
  3. Confirm the vehicle. Salesforce rides its own statewide contract — BPO 001B3600044 — not COTS. Verify the term and options are still active.
  4. Get a Carahsoft quote referencing the BPO, sized to your seat counts and clouds, for the Government Cloud Plus edition if you need High.
  5. Check the threshold. The order’s dollar value drives the method — purchasing card, small procurement, or BPW review. See Maryland Procurement → how the value picks the path. Do not split a buy to dodge a threshold.
  6. Run the ATO package. Inherit the FedRAMP controls for the chosen edition’s boundary (High = Government Cloud Plus on AWS GovCloud); document the rest. Confirm the edition matches your data classification first.
  7. Issue the order against the vehicle once approvals clear.

Sources

ClaimSource
Salesforce Government Cloud Plus FedRAMP High listingFedRAMP Marketplace — FR2003061248
Government Cloud Plus achieved FedRAMP High (2020)Salesforce — Government Cloud Plus / FedRAMP High announcement
Maryland Salesforce Licenses 2023 statewide contract (BPO 001B3600044)DoIT — Salesforce Licenses 2023
Carahsoft public-sector reseller pathCarahsoft — Maryland State Contracts

The contract term, option-year status, and the FedRAMP baseline for related products (Tableau, Agentforce, Data Cloud) should be re-verified against the DoIT contract page and the Marketplace before relying on any figure here.