While your procurement process works, and you're successful at it, there is no doubt you may feel swamped from time to time. You may have a mountain of projects you'd love to tackle but no extra time. What if we told you there was a partnership you could leverage to take some weight off your shoulders and give you more time to focus on your overall procurement and organizational strategy?
Buying groups, also known as group purchasing organizations (GPO), are a strategic way to stay competitive and strengthen your procurement team. GPOs combine the purchasing power of collective businesses to leverage better pricing, service levels and account representation from suppliers. The GPO manages each contract for you and monitors the market to ensure you’re getting the best prices.
"My team and I can negotiate pretty well but when we hit the wall, we turn to OMNIA Partners. They round third and take us home, we get the extra savings and it helps the company." - Greg Schilder | Vendor Manager | One American Bank
How does a buying group work? It helps procurement and sourcing teams achieve savings in cost, time and resources, and they’re safe to use. By providing strong group buying power to achieve better pricing and contract terms, your purchasing team can bypass the RFP, streamline your overall process and quickly receive the goods and services you need to keep your operations up and running.
We got a chance to speak with OMNIA Partners member Greg Schilder, Vendor Manager at One American Bank, who has experienced impressive results from partnering with a GPO/buying group.
Group purchasing is a best practice for procurement leaders, so we’ve summarized the key benefits your organization can gain by incorporating a GPO/buying group into your strategy.
Procuring solutions for your organization and its multiple locations is a critical part of the company’s success. That's a lot of responsibility for one person or small team, and sometimes you may feel like you have to settle for a lower quality product in order to stay under budget. That’s not something you have to worry about when partnering with a GPO, which allows you to purchase high quality products for less.
Members of a buying group can leverage the combined and robust buying power of several organizations in the buying group, which results in significant savings, and better prices than you as an individual could achieve on your own. Bypassing the RFP and time-consuming details involved with the purchasing process helps free up some of your time to dedicate to other areas of strategy and advancement. Because of the lower prices and value beyond savings, you’re able to allocate funds to other areas of spend and open doors to new opportunities that help you secure more influence at the organization.
You might be looking to update your office to include the latest technological advancements and are trying to identify a strategic supplier for cyber security. Although, IT may not be your area of expertise so it’s more complicated to navigate than other categories. Good news—your GPO team has subject matter experts in every category that can point you to the best cost-effective supplier solutions for your organization.
Adding a buying group to your purchasing strategy doesn’t take away from your team, it simply acts as an extra resource to help you manage your complex spend cube and different categories ensuring you get the most out of your budget. The GPO enhances your productivity and efficiency so your procurement team can better serve your stakeholders’ several other needs. Keep in mind that the GPO team continually monitors the market so your company has the best contracts to select from in group purchasing portfolio.
You and your team are tasked with purchasing everything from insurance & benefits to cleaning services for your company. With the wide range of categories, there’s a lot to manage along with the lingering anxiety of whether those items are available as supply chain delays and the labor shortage continue to challenge every industry.
Being a member of a buying group with a diverse portfolio of industry-leading supplier solutions creates reassurance that you’ll locate the in-demand items right away due to the GPO’s strong and long-standing supplier relationships.
We also house all of our solutions in one place so you have quick and easy access when you need it most. This allows you to get what you need faster and know it’s the most cost-effective solution. As a result, you’ll be able to spend more time on other areas of your organization’s strategy.
Partnering with a GPO opens endless doors to savings, category experts and networking opportunities. Our team is made up of former procurement professionals, and we have daily communication with industry experts to keep up-to-date on the latest market trends and supplier innovations. The buying group's purchasing power motivates suppliers to offer their best pricing and service levels. Have other questions about GPOs/buying groups? We've answered the most common questions for you over on our FAQs page.
At OMNIA Partners, we're always ready to help and answer any questions you may have.