Education Purchasing Evolved: The Legal Framework of Cooperative Buying
Cooperative purchasing organizations play an increasing role in helping academic institutions meet their procurement goals, optimizing purchasing, keeping costs in check, and meeting internal goals. However, there remains a misconception about the legality of their use, particularly regarding competitive solicitation and bidding requirements. So, let’s take a look at the legal framework of education purchasing […]
How National Procurement Systems Enhance, rather than Bypass, the Bid Process
Education procurement is complex. Tight budgets, evolving regulations, and changing requirements make the job of procurement teams challenging. Even for experienced pros, it can be confusing. Group purchasing organizations (GPOs) can help reduce frustration, but there are some misconceptions about how they work. We will break down the process to give you a better understanding. […]
Streamlining Education Spending: National Procurement Strategies for Federal Grant Recipients
While the amount varies from year to year, the Department of Education gives colleges and universities about $52 billion in grants annually, not including money for student financial aid. These grants typically come with complex regulations about how they are spent. Purchasing cooperatives in education can be a key resource for procurement teams in maximizing […]
Group Purchasing Organizations in Education: Why Cooperative Contracts Outperform Sole Source
As demands increase and budgets tighten, many education procurement teams are feeling the pressure. There’s often not enough time in the day to handle all the purchasing needs while ensuring compliance with every regulation and guideline. Some turn to sole-source procurement as a way to accelerate the labor-intensive process of sourcing, proposals, and bidding. However, […]
Streamlined Success: Suppliers’ Perspective on Educational Purchasing Cooperatives
Educational and institutional cooperative purchasing using a purchasing cooperative enables you to leverage collective bargaining power for better pricing and streamlined procurement. This process offers big benefits for schools, colleges, and universities, but suppliers see advantages as well. If we look at procurement from the suppliers’ perspective, we can see the many reasons working with […]
The Ultimate Guide to Cooperative Purchasing in Higher Education: Debunking Myths and Maximizing Benefits
What is a major advantage of coop purchasing for higher ed institutions? You can start with savings from leveraging aggregated buying power to achieve volume discounts, but the benefits of education purchasing cooperatives go well beyond that. You can significantly streamline your procurement while tapping into industry expertise, complying with your competitive bidding requirements, and […]
National Procurement’s Answer to Regional Higher Ed Challenges
Regional higher education institutions often face unique procurement challenges that reflect their specific local needs and constraints—regardless of size. A small community college in rural America might struggle with sourcing specialized technology equipment, within its budget. A large urban university may face difficulties in managing complex facilities services efficiently. These challenges underscore the pressing need […]
Supplier Diversity in Education Purchasing Cooperatives
Most academic institutions have initiatives in place to promote equitable procurement activities through solicitation and inclusion of diverse suppliers. Even those who have not adopted formal policies typically look to provide opportunities to vendors that are more than 50% owned and operated by members of a minority group. It can be a challenge for procurement […]
The Bid Process Reimagined: The Truth About Purchasing Cooperative Contracts
As budgets get tighter and demands get higher, procurement teams are looking for innovative ways to streamline their process, comply with legal requirements and school initiatives, and control costs. Today, more schools, colleges, and universities are turning to purchasing cooperatives to leverage their massive buying power to negotiate better deals. Using cooperative contracts absorbs much […]
RFP Contract Meaning: Key Concepts for Higher Education Procurement
In the public sector, it takes 57 days on average from posting to awarding a contract—not including the time to prepare. Suppliers spend an average of 23.8 hours drafting responses for a single RFP. The larger the company, the more time it generally takes. If you make a mistake or overlook key items, it can […]
