Why Purchasing Through Cooperative Contracts is Simply Smarter
Government, education, and nonprofit organizations face constrained budgets and limited staffing. To meet these challenges, many are turning to cooperative purchasing to obtain the goods and services they need without the hassle of sending projects out for bid.
What is Cooperative Purchasing?
Cooperative contracts are competitively bid, evaluated, and awarded on behalf of the cooperative’s members or participating users. Cooperatives employ staff to streamline the procurement process by developing requests for proposals (RFPs) and invitations to bid (IFBs) for national, competitive solicitations that meet local requirements. Their aim is to continually refine the process to best meet the needs of participating agencies. Additionally, the use of cooperative contracts reduces the cost of goods and services by aggregating organizations' collective buying power.
By allowing the cooperative to overcome purchasing challenges, including budget and staffing constraints, members can purchase goods and services at negotiated pricing and terms through an established contract without going to bid. This saves time, ensures legal compliance, and is ultimately more efficient, particularly for urgent or large-scale purchases of technology and office equipment.
Cooperative purchasing continues to grow as organizations recognize its efficiency, cost savings, and wide range of offerings. Spanning government, education, and nonprofit sectors, cooperatives provide access to technology, services, and construction solutions while streamlining procurement. In fact, nearly 87% of governments are using cooperatives, and participation continues to expand.
How to work with a cooperative
Once an organization has identified its purchasing needs, it can identify cooperative contracts that provide the goods and services to meet those needs.
Using contracts from nationally recognized cooperatives, such as Sourcewell, can help organizations streamline purchasing for business products and office equipment while ensuring compliance with local, state, and federal procurement requirements.
Instead of seeking quotes, bids, or proposals, organizations can simply choose products and services from the cooperative contract’s catalog. These products and services have been pre-selected by the cooperative through its own competitive-bidding process. In essence, the cooperative has already done this work for the organization, so buyers are fully compliant with all procurement regulations when purchasing through a cooperative.
The future is clear:
Procurement for the future is here to stay. Cooperative purchasing opportunities bring buyers and sellers together efficiently and successfully, and are a great way to purchase business supplies and equipment, including office equipment such as copiers, interactive whiteboards, laptops, and displays.