https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Events
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • Magazine
    • Back
    • Digital Editions
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • Advertise
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Events
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • Magazine
    • Back
    • Digital Editions
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • Subscribe to GovPro
    • Manage GovPro Subscription
    • Advertise
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
acc.com

Smart Cities & Technology


Article

Competing cooperative consortiums: Independent association taking shape

Competing cooperative consortiums: Independent association taking shape

Three of the largest cooperative procurement programs for public agencies, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations are forming an independent alliance.
  • Written by mikekeat
  • 17th November 2014

Three of the largest cooperative procurement programs for public agencies, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations are forming an independent alliance. In a statement, the alliance creators said the group would “represent excellence in cooperative procurement practices and other interests of the public procurement profession.” The cooperative programs setting up the alliance are the National IPA, NJPA and TCPN.

The alliance casts a wide membership net. The coalition of industry participants “is open to public procurement practitioners, agencies, suppliers, cooperative programs and professional associations that can contribute to its benefit, said the statement announcing the initiative. “The result of this effort will be an independent voice advocating excellence in cooperative purchasing practices and focused on helping you achieve your purchasing objectives as effectively as possible,” the statement explained.

Andrea M. Scobie, vice president of marketing at Franklin Tenn.-based National IPA, said that the independent alliance wants public procurement practitioners to participate in the group. “We want this group to consist of all facets that cooperative programs touch, so that everyone feels that they have a voice. We felt that it was the right time for this group to be formed. The market is expanding, and cooperative purchasing programs have become a best practice in public procurement.”

She said that a variety of factors, including the growth of cooperative purchasing, NIGP’s own cooperative purchasing initiatives, potential future legislation and regulations, were all driving the still unnamed group’s formation. “It’s time that we have an independent coalition where we can address those issues,” she explained to GPN.

In a statement, the NIGP said that it “embraces and applauds the coming together of the (unnamed coalition’s) programs in support of sound public procurement practice and a commitment to the profession’s values.” In the statement, NIGP said the institute’s future implementation of the “NIGP Accredited Cooperative” program was a sign of its support of cooperative procurement “as a valuable option for public entities.” The institute will launch the accreditation initiative in early 2015.

NIGP’s statement said that NIGP “anticipates the opportunity to work with each member of this coalition – and the broader community of cooperatives – to affirm that they are effectively providing options that consistently reflect sound public procurement professional practice.”

U.S. Communities general manager, Kevin Juhring, said, “This appears to be an attempt to pre-empt the NIGP’s accreditation initiative with some sort of industry standard. U.S. Communities remains very supportive of NIGP’s accreditation efforts for cooperatives. The NIGP accreditation will be an invaluable tool for public procurement professionals to quickly identify creditable cooperatives that employ practices that meet or exceed public procurement standards.”

Darin Matthews, who is director of procurement at Portland (Ore.) State University and an NIGP past president, welcomed the announcement of the formation of the new independent alliance. “This type of collaboration can only improve our cooperative procurement practices by better communicating the options available to our profession.”

Public procurement veteran Stephen Gordon said he “will watch with interest and supportive hope to see if this new alliance and others like it will yield the significant benefits of cooperative procurement that exceed better pricing, including the increased sharing of information, ideas and experiences that can support continuously improved strategic results for all.”

Gordon is program director for the Graduate Certificate in Public Procurement and Contract Management at Norfolk, Va.-based Old Dominion University. He formerly managed several public procurement departments including departments in Alexandria, Va., and Nashville and Davidson County, Tenn.

Gordon noted that “The emergence of organizations — profit and not-for-profit — that market the use of aggregated contracts has benefited many state, local, and educational procurement programs and their stakeholders.” He added however, that part of the cooperative purchasing movement has “also has raised political, policy, structural, and resource allocation questions, which to the best of my knowledge, have not been addressed on a broad-scale basis by public procurement professionals, policy makers, or others.”

There may be room for improvement in the performance and/or offierings of cooperative purchasing entities. Government Procurement’s (GP) summer E-survey of public procurement professionals who subscribe to GP showed some respondents had some negative experiences with cooperative purchasing programs’ contracts.

In the survey, GP asked: What are the drawbacks to cooperative programs’ contracts that you have experienced or heard about? The top drawbacks and percent of respondents who experienced them, according to the survey:
Lack of local suppliers, 44.76 percent
Pricing not aggressive enough 41.32 percent

Does not meet competitive solicitation requirements 29.79 percent
Too narrow—not enough choices 22.90 percent
Lack of small, women-owned and/or minority-owned businesses 22.31 percent
Operational/logistical problems 22.16 percent

The GP survey included a total of 731 completed survey responses.

_____________

To get connected and stay up-to-date with similar content from American City & County:
Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter
Watch us on Youtube

Tags: Administration Procurement Smart Cities & Technology Article

Related


  • Take the wheel on a driverless future
    For the last five years, self-driving cars have slowly begun to enter the public consciousness. As is often the case with new technology, private sector resources and investment allow it to advance quickly beyond most governing bodies’ ability to regulate, let alone develop the technology in partnership. If that trend continues, it will be a […]
  • State Procurement Answers The Call
    During the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) embarked on a study to assess state procurement office structure and their processes’ impact on emergency response to the pandemic within their state. Using over 100 hours of interviews with state procurement staff from 47 states and Washington, D.C., suppliers, and other state […]
  • Kentucky county invests over $13 million in building innovative public fiber network
    Boone County, Ky., is partnering with telecommunications services provider Cincinnati Bell to provide every address in its area with one-gigabit high speed broadband access. The county and Cincinnati Bell signed the agreement on March 23, according to a news release. As part of the agreement, Cincinnati Bell will expand its fiber network to over 40,000 […]
  • The future of work is hybrid: why city and county workers need secure remote access
    With the United States now leading the world in the rollout of vaccination programs, there’s a sense of optimism that many aspects of life may soon return to normal. But the big question for city, local, state and federal government agencies of all sizes isn’t necessarily about how to safely bring employees back to the […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your American City and County account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Five trends in government procurement for 2021 and beyond
  • Municipal commitments to renewable energy drive prosperity
  • Texas AG sues capital city, county over enforcing mask mandate
  • Public-private partnerships with meal distributor help cities solve food insecurity issues

White papers


How-to Tips to Prepare for Your Summer Construction Projects

5th April 2021

How to Procure an eProcurement System that Generates More Value from Your Budget

1st April 2021

The Technology Solutions Vital to Clerk Productivity in Our Post-Pandemic Communities

18th March 2021
view all

Events


PODCAST


Young Leaders Episode 4 – Cyril Jefferson – City Councilman, High Point, North Carolina

13th October 2020

Young Leaders Episode 3 – Shannon Hardin – City Council President, Columbus, Ohio

27th July 2020

Young Leaders Episode 2 – Christian Williams – Development Services Planner, Goodyear, Ariz.

1st July 2020
view all

Twitter


AmerCityCounty

Georgia city moves to automated trash collection dlvr.it/RxX5Rl

12th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

The Community Game Changer: Library Outsourcing dlvr.it/RxLd6r

9th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

Cooperative contracts can be an entryway for small and diverse companies to successfully compete for government sal… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

9th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

Electric slide: Mayors form collaborative organization to purchase electric vehicles for cities dlvr.it/RxGsHY

8th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

Celebrating the unsung heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic: Procurement professionals dlvr.it/RxGsG2

8th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

Expanding opportunities: Nebraska’s bold procurement Concierge Program dlvr.it/RxGpyr

8th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

All activities monitored: The 10 most surveilled major cities in the U.S. dlvr.it/RxCKzy

7th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

Denver anticipates autonomous vehicles with cross-agency, cross-sector collaborative planning dlvr.it/RxC1dP

7th April 2021

Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X