Helping the public sector streamline their purchasing
Now, more than ever, organizations are looking for ways to manage their operations efficiently and effectively without compromising on quality or service. Grainger Canada, a leading supplier of maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO), offers products, solutions, and services to meet the unique needs of their customers. Serving segments like healthcare, higher education and the broader public sector, Grainger has developed relationships with a number of collaborative procurement organizations and working with these groups to help their members save time and money while keeping their operations running and people safe.
As an example, Grainger has been working with one of the largest universities in Canada in partnership with Kinetic GPO to help streamline their procurement processes resulting in savings that allows them to reinvest back into their facilities. Grainger is also working closely with the university to ensure students and faculty return to a safe learning environment. In addition, a major capital region in Canada has realized substantial cost savings by consolidating their spend with Grainger through the Canoe procurement group, leveraging Grainger’s agreement with Sourcewell.
Grainger offers a broad range of products, inventory management solutions, a variety of services, easy online ordering, the ability to customize product lists as well as local sales representatives and a branch network across the country. Consolidating purchasing with Grainger means a one-stop purchasing experience that saves times and money and makes it easier than ever for businesses to keep their operations running smoothly. Visit us today!
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Group Buying - Growing Option for Procurement Teams
According to GovWin by Deltek, "the Government of Canada buys over 70,000 products and services ranging from aircraft to office supplies to training and scientific research services. The Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Public Services and Procurement Canada claims about $200 billion is spent annually on public procurement in Canada." Over the past decade, particularly during the recent pandemic, the use of group buying has become a growing tool for public procurement teams. Read more....
Source: GovWin by Deltek
One challenge for procurement teams is to keep up with current expiring contracts. Even with a robust eProcurement system, it is difficult to put a new bid out, expect vendors to respond, and conduct business as usual for all expiring contracts, while working from home. One solution implemented for many during the pandemic was to review available cooperative contracts for needed commodities and services. Making this choice allowed procurement teams to establish contracts for their organization to minimize maverick, off-contract spend. As many Provinces are continuing to extend the length of time before employees are back the workplace, and as many have experienced success with this approach, group buying continues to grow.
According to the National Cooperative Procurement Partners (NCPP), North America's premier Association for cooperative procurement, procurement teams should conduct due diligence and ask questions to confirm that a chosen cooperative contract is the right choice for their entity. Providing educational content to help with that review, NCPP's "Road Map to a Group Buying Strategy” is fast becoming a sought-after resource by Canadian procurement teams. More information can be found at the dedicated CANADA page with additional free resources.
Upcoming Webinar - FREE to Canada Public Procurement Professionals!
Pivoting in an Uncertain Environment: Key Components of an Effective Supply Chain
Contribution by OECM
The toilet paper shortage that made news headlines at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis is a stark reminder of how vital supply chains are in our day-to-day lives. As a not-for-profit collaborative sourcing organization, OECM has witnessed the good, bad, and the better in the world of supply chain management and logistics. As part of the 2021 Supply Chain Canada National Conference, held virtually this past October 18 – 22, OECM’s directors came together to examine the Key Components of an Effective Supply Chain, and deconstructed the several facets of an evolving public sector procurement landscape. Read more....
Thank you to our NCPP members for supporting best practices in cooperative procurement and education for public procurement professionals.
