What is a Cooperative Purchasing Program? For school purchasers and education business officials, utilizing your cooperative programs can help stretch your budget even further to better serve your students, staff, and clients. Learn all about the world and cooperative purchasing and what it means for you:
What is a Cooperative Purchasing Program?
According to the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), “A ‘cooperative purchasing program’ is a cooperative arrangement for acquiring goods or services that involves aggregating the demand of two or more entities in an effort to obtain a more economical purchase.” In terms of state educational cooperative (co-op) programs, this is the arrangement between the state co-op program and businesses, which we call “vendor partners,” to be then utilized by educational entities such as schools, museums, and others. CESA Purchasing is one such co-op that serves the state of Wisconsin’s educational entities through pre-negotiated contracts with over 100 vendor partners. We develop these vendor contracts in conjunction with the demands of Wisconsin educational entities in mind, whether it’s to secure discounts on bulk purchases, exclusive trial programs, or other value-added deals.
There is also an association of these state co-op organizations called the Association of Educational Purchasing Entities (AEPA), which currently holds 29 members. All these member co-ops can utilize nationally negotiated contracts from AEPA, including CESA Purchasing, which is the Wisconsin member. The AEPA-specific contracts are usually designated as such on our vendor partner pages but don’t really differ from our contracts negotiated by CESA Purchasing.
How does it work?
In many cases, a business will be interested in joining the list of vendor partners of a co-op and reach out regarding becoming a partner. Whether for the publicity of being on the co-op’s website and communications, the prestige of being an approved vendor, or another reason, the co-op will decide if the vendor partner will make a good fit. For CESA Purchasing, we always consider if this potential vendor partner would provide a valuable service or materials for our entities. If the co-op and business agree on the potential partnership, they will then work to create a contract that lists the terms and the pricing for anyone who would use the contract. Usually, these contracts will last around a year and then be renewed, renegotiated, or terminated.
This process works because it provides a benefit to everyone. For the co-op, we usually secure a small fee from the vendor for being a vendor partner and resulting sales, incentivizing us to promote the contract and have educational entities take advantage of the deal. For the vendor, it gets them a foot in the door to make a sale they might not have otherwise with large organizations such as schools, whether cutting through some legal processes the co-op covers when creating the contract or providing a worthwhile deal to the school or other entity. For educational entities, the co-op offers an extensive list of vendors to suit their needs while knowing it will be one of the best deals they can find or negotiate, saving them time and money.
What makes using cooperative vendor contracts worth it?
With the value added through the work of the co-op, it may seem like there is some sort of hidden detriment to using these vendor contracts. However, state co-ops work hard to put no financial burden onto their educational entities using the vendor contract. In CESA Purchasing’s case, this is how we work to level the playing field for all our schools and other organizations:
No membership requirements - All Wisconsin educational entities can use CESA Purchasing vendor contracts. There are no limitations besides knowledge of the contract existing. Mentioning the contract number on the vendor pages or the “CESA Purchasing pricing” to the representative should be enough to use the exclusive deals. Our co-op is designed this way so there are no barriers to entry or costs that larger school districts may be able to afford but might prove too costly for smaller districts and entities.
No additional costs - All our vendor contracts work to get you the most competitive pricing possible. The price you see from the contract details is all you’ll need to worry about when purchasing. Because of added business through this contract, vendors see these contracts as a way to make additional sales where they wouldn’t otherwise, making the vendor contract all worth it to get you to make the purchase.
Reduced workload for you - When a co-op partners with a vendor, they look to make the process as easy as possible for anyone using the contract. This includes the time saved you would need to search out for vendors, partnering with high-quality vendors so you don’t need to worry about a vetting process, and meeting compliance requirements so you can know you are meeting legal requirements and can even avoid the Request for Proposals (RFP) process. Rather than having you worry about the time and cost of creating the terms and conditions of your project, our contracts simplify the process greatly so you can focus on other essential tasks.
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As a cooperative purchasing organization, CESA Purchasing is here to support all Wisconsin schools and educational entities with their purchasing decisions. Our services don’t just stop at negotiating contracts, we are here to guide and assist you throughout the purchasing process! Check out some of the other parts of CESA Purchasing to see other ways we can save you time and money:
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