Page 27 - spaces4learning, July/August 2020

This is something a single school district will find difficult to navigate on it’s own.
“The increased expectations have procurement teams look- ing increasingly to already-solicited cooperative contracts to help gain some efficiencies. One of the contract areas that has really grown is construction — job order contracting — for re- pairs and small, routine projects,” said Amundson.
Cooperative contracts now use a variety of creative financing ideas and incorporate leasing and purchasing into their awards. This helps schools in maximizing their budgets and get help for continued maintenance, and the product/service life cycle is more readily refreshed.
Procurement teams are continuing to be part of the strategy team at the district level. Examples of closer collaboration, and specialization with procurement having category expertise and working closely with aligned departments.
As a government agency, Sourcewell’s procurement team “sits next to district procurement staff at trainings, they aspire to and attain the same professional certifications, and they live in the same procurement world as the members using our coop- erative contracts,” Amundson said.
This gives them a strategic advantage as they are also em- powered to reinvest in the communities they serve and aim to offer contracts for the long list of purchasing needs in their dis- trict.
Sourcewell membership is available at no-cost, no obliga- tion, and no liability to public agencies, school districts, state colleges and universities, and local governments. Tribal govern- ments, nonprofit organizations, and other similar entities may also join.
Despite all the benefits cooperative purchasing offers, the NIGP: The Institute of Public Procurement in their position pa- per states that sometimes the contract pricing may not be “opti- mal due to the inability of the public body to accurately predict order quality and time.”
Large-scale cooperative purchasing initiatives may also hin- der opportunities for local, small or disadvantaged suppliers. Market research and due diligence are critical in evaluating co- operative purchasing initiatives.
Meanwhile, the US-China trade war hasn’t yet made a big dent in the world of cooperative purchasing. “Like many, we have been keeping a pulse on potential impacts from the US-China trade wars and listening for feedback from districts and awarded vendors. Certainly, there are some pockets of con- cern, but for the variety of contracts we have available, we have not noticed any markable trends in the use or feedback relative to pricing,” said Amundson.
Sarat Pratapchandran is a writer specializing in education, environment, and healthcare. His website is www.lettersnatcher.com.
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