Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Cooperative Procurement for Public Purchasing

  • By Matt Peterson
  • 11/01/18

The procurement process for public institutions, like schools, requires careful navigation and patience for dealing with rules and regulations. Procurement also requires spending time and resources that are often limited. Now, school districts have the option to turn to cooperative purchasing networks to get the biggest bang for their buck.

Cooperative purchasing happens when one public agency competitively bids and establishes a contract available for other government agencies to “piggyback” or adopt as their own. The combined leverage of multiple agencies’ budgets creates a price advantage and the piggybacking agency saves time and resources by using existing contracts.

While traditional construction procurement has a reputation for being expensive and inefficient, purchasing construction services through a co-op can streamline this inflexible process. By utilizing contracts through co-ops, school districts have access to competitively-awarded, local contractors who are available to start work immediately. They also see efficiencies across their schools increase as operational processes related to procurement become streamlined. School districts of all sizes and types save time and effort, avoid disputes and project delays, all while increasing budgetary control on construction projects.

Acquiring goods and strategic services through cooperative purchasing networks is now regarded as a best practice. By enabling school districts to trade the time and expense of traditional procurement for speed, efficiency, and the power of group buying, cooperatives networks are offering a new alternative to decades old processes.

This article originally appeared in the School Planning & Management November/December 2018 issue of Spaces4Learning.

About the Author

Matt Peterson handles Business Development – National Cooperatives for Gordian Group. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Round Rock ISD Completes New Early College High School

    Round Rock ISD near Austin, Texas, recently announced that construction is complete on a new, 46,500-square-foot campus for Early College High School, according to a news release. The new facility will allow the school’s students and staff to move from portables into a permanent building and increase its enrollment to 500.

  • College of the Desert Hits Construction Milestone on New Campus

    College of the Desert recently announced that the construction of its new Palm Springs Campus in Palm Springs, Calif., recently reached a major construction milestone, according to a news release. The college is partnering with general contractor C.W. Driver Companies, which recently “topped out” the facility by placing the final beam in its structure.

  • Stanford Completes Construction on Graduate School of Education Facility

    Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., recently announced the end of construction on a new home for its Graduate School of Education, according to a news release. The university partnered with McCarthy Building Companies on the 160,000-square-foot project, which involved two major renovations and one new construction effort.

  • Surging Demand for Student Housing Fuels Major Campus Investment Opportunities

    University leaders throughout the U.S. are accelerating plans to modernize and expand student housing as enrollment stabilizes and demand for on-campus living rebounds. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that total postsecondary enrollment is projected to grow through the end of the decade, with undergraduate enrollment alone expected to increase by more than 8 percent by 2030.