As a leader in procurement and supply chain management, you know what it feels like to be budget and time constrained especially during economic uncertainty. You and your team play a vital role in determining how to best supply your organization with the materials each department and individual stakeholder needs for success.
As you work to maintain efficiency, monitor and mitigate risk, stay compliant and within budget, your procurement can find great power in the use of a group purchasing organization (GPO) to help strengthen and streamline sourcing. The sourcing process can be cumbersome as you work to assess suppliers, identify those with the best value and negotiate contract terms. Through the strategic best practice of group purchasing, your procurement team can leverage group buying power to save time and money across the board. These cost savings and immediate access to solutions are made possible through the GPO’s strong relationships with suppliers, pre-negotiated contracts and diverse category offerings.
To learn more about how you can benefit from group purchasing strategy, we’ve listed the four steps to our unique GPO sourcing and procurement process.
Our Strategic Sourcing Process Explained
Our team of contracting experts completes the sourcing groundwork so you can trust in value well beyond the GPO contract. Our strategic sourcing process includes:
Step 1: Category Research Analysis
We work with our members to identify and define new categories of need where they find it challenging to manage their own spend. We also want to address individual pain points and form a solution that aligns with our collective goals.
This is all dependent on member feedback. We analyze and review our existing contracts, usage data, pricing, and technical and operational requirements to ensure we are offering the necessary solutions for our members. Our research spans a multitude of industries, potential supplier partners, and market characteristics such as share concentration, substitutes and conversion costs.
Step 2: Sourcing Strategy
After we complete our market assessment, which includes interviewing potential supplier partners and incorporating member feedback, we develop a strategic sourcing plan to create more value for our members.
Step 3: Contract Negotiation, Evaluation, and Award
Using collective buying power, we negotiate optimal pricing and terms and conditions in order to protect and provide for our members. This level of savings and value can only be found through a GPO. We are able to provide a unique and flexible experience for all of our members because of our contracting process.
Step 4: Execution & Ongoing Contract Management
Our team continuously monitors the portfolio to ensure we maintain market competitiveness. These efforts include supplier partner business reviews, real-time market assessments and frequent contract performance measurement. This continuous monitoring and maintenance makes sure that our offerings adhere to the latest in strategic procurement best practices and innovation.
Speed to Savings
Our unique approach helps members fully optimize their budget by providing a connection to the right supplier partners with the right products and services, for the right price with industry leading terms and conditions.
The average RFP can take up to 500 hours of internal resource time, which is not ideal for most organizations. When you consider the time required to gather stakeholder requirements, capture and analyze data, navigate legal requirements, implement, track results and establish an ongoing supplier management process, it becomes difficult to justify doing everything yourself. Our knowledge of cost drivers keeps us one step ahead of the market so we are able to deliver savings and monitor the price creep for you.
Stay Competitive with a Group Purchasing Strategy
While you’re working to understand different spend categories, collecting supplier information and developing a sourcing strategy, using a GPO to help with these steps will extend your team shaving time off your overall process. Procurement plays a major role in ensuring companies meet their overall business goals, and this is your opportunity to use a group purchasing strategy to free up some of your resources to focus on other company priorities.
We work to provide long-term solutions and industry expertise to members so we can work together to ensure your organization is strategically accelerating toward its goals. Contact us or visit our FAQ section to learn more and get connected today.
