Monday, August 27, 2012

The Growing Use of Purchasing Cooperatives

As public agencies cut procurement staff, many agencies are streamlining their buying activities by purchasing from an ever increasing list of national and regional Purchasing Cooperatives that competitively bid goods and services for use by public agencies.

Requirements vary:  Not all public agencies are permitted to use the solicitations and awards of Purchasing Cooperatives.  Many agencies that do permit the use of Purchasing Cooperatives require that the Cooperative must have solicited and awarded contracts in a manner consistent with the requirements of the agency using the procurement and pricing of the Cooperative.

List of Purchasing Cooperatives:  Purchasing Cooperatives have different methods of operating (lead agency vs. solicitation by the Cooperative), different scope (national vs. regional), and different constituencies (general government, health care, education, etc.).  Here's a list of just some of the Purchasing Cooperatives:
Brent Maas
PowerPoint:  At the NIGP Annual Forum in Seattle in August 2012, Brent Maas, NIGP's Marketing Director, presented a workshop on Evaluating Cooperative Purchasing Program.  Click here to view his PowerPoint presentation.
Mike Purdy's Public Contracting Blog 
© 2012 by Michael E. Purdy Associates, LLC 
http://PublicContracting.blogspot.com

No comments: