The procurement process in higher education can be complex. Procurement and finance teams have to find cost efficiencies, meet a growing list of compliance regulations, and deal with tight budgets—all while making sure their school gets the goods and services it needs without sacrificing quality.
A higher ed sourcing cooperative significantly streamlines the procurement process through pre-negotiated contracts, bulk purchasing, and compliance. To maximize these benefits, you need a structured approach that aligns cooperative purchasing with your institutional policies and strategic goals.
Let’s walk through the steps.
The first step in any procurement process is determining your institution’s needs.
This requires interaction across departments to evaluate demand. Procurement teams must evaluate existing contracts, analyze historical purchasing data, forecast future needs, and then compare them to budgets.
At this stage, market research is critical. You need to understand both the available options and emerging trends. This helps you make better decisions, including comparing cooperative purchasing agreements to find cost-effective and efficient solutions.
One of the main benefits of being a member of a higher ed sourcing cooperative is the ability to access pre-negotiated contracts with preferred suppliers. These agreements offer competitive pricing and standardized terms to reduce the administrative burden on procurement teams, which drives up costs.
To leverage these agreements effectively, however, you must make sure cooperative contracts align with your internal procurement policies. This requires coordination between procurement officers and the cooperative to select the right agreements that meet institutional needs while optimizing costs and efficiencies.
Once procurement teams have identified relevant cooperative contracts, the next step is selection. While cooperative agreements simplify this process by providing a list of suppliers, institutions should still conduct their own evaluations to ensure optimal fit.
Key factors to consider when selecting suppliers within cooperative contracts include:
Even when using agreements from a higher ed sourcing cooperative, you must follow internal approval processes to ensure accountability and regulatory adherence.
This step typically involves:
By following standardized approval workflows, you can mitigate the risk of non-compliance and maintain transparency.
The next step is processing the purchase order. This involves:
After procurement transactions are completed, procurement teams must track order fulfillment, assess service quality, and address any issues that arise.
Employing a standard set of KPIs can help. For example, monitoring:
If there are any concerns, address them promptly. You want to resolve concerns quickly, but you also want to evaluate how suppliers handle problems. Not every transaction goes perfectly, but high-quality suppliers will work to address problems in a responsible manner.
A well-structured procurement process includes continuous evaluation and improvement. Conduct periodic post-procurement reviews to analyze spending patterns, assess supplier performance, and identify opportunities for cost savings.
Analysis should go beyond individual contracts and look at your overall portfolio, looking for opportunities to:
Efficient procurement processes are essential for higher education institutions seeking to maximize value, control costs, and meet internal goals. By following this step-by-step framework, cooperative members can achieve greater efficiency and streamline workflow.
E&I Cooperative Services is the only member-owned, nonprofit sourcing cooperative focused solely on the education sector. Leveraging the combined purchasing power of 6,000 academic institutions produces cooperative agreements that offer significant volume discounts and terms favorable to colleges and universities.
View available contracts at E&I Cooperative Services and learn more about how you can optimize the value of your membership, including patronage rebates based on participation.
