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


  • FirstNet Authority releases new details about impact of Nashville explosion on broadband system
    Public-safety subscribers to FirstNet responding to the Dec. 25 massive explosion near the AT&T network hub in Nashville experienced a four-hour outage when some services were not rerouted prior to deployable cell sites becoming operational at the scene, according to a FirstNet Authority blog. Released Friday evening, the FirstNet Authority blog reiterated several facts previously […]
  • In challenging year, working with public safety to move FirstNet forward
    It has been a challenging year for the nation, especially for the first responders who are on the front lines of wildfires, hurricanes, and the COVID-19 pandemic. During this historic year, the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) remained committed as ever to helping first responders save lives and protect communities. As part of our […]
  • Biden Administration – Projected 25x greater Investment in smart cities
    This is one in a series of primers from the Smart Cities Council about how your community can ‘bounce back’ from your current situation during the Biden Administration. In this article we recommend that – It is ‘smart,’ to read what happened with the Obama Administration to understand the Biden Administration. It is ‘smart,’ to […]
  • Florida county announces successful test of Motorola Solutions’ cloud-based P25 core technology
    A Florida county recently announced the completion of a successful test of Motorola Solutions’ CirrusCentral Core, the cloud-based secondary core for ASTRO 25 P25 systems that is designed to provide redundant reliability to the land-mobile-radio (LMR) network without the costs associated with a physical secondary core site. In Sumter County, Fla., the absence of a […]

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

  • Biden’s relief plan includes $350 billion for local and state government
  • Will digital transformation of city procurement hold up beyond the pandemic?
  • How Philadelphia is aiming for zero waste
  • Embracing digital within local government in 2021

White papers


How a unified HR system helps one public safety organization manage crews, payroll, and more in a single platform

7th January 2021

Your Roadmap to COVID-19 Funding

18th December 2020

The One Where Everyone Wins: A Mutually Beneficial Contracting Method

10th December 2020
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

The latest episode The Young Leaders Podcast focuses on Cyril Jefferson. Cyril is the youngest African American to… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

27th October 2020
AmerCityCounty

Hillsboro, Oregon is pioneering a new #renewableenergy generation technology through a partnership with… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

27th October 2020
AmerCityCounty

The impact of the #COVID19 pandemic on #telework was swift and profound. Now, the big question is whether – and to… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

26th October 2020
AmerCityCounty

Get ready for the can't-miss webinar on how to kickstart your efficiency improvement plan with Luke Anderson of… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

26th October 2020
AmerCityCounty

Among all states headed into the 2020 general election, which ones have voting populations that are the most demogr… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

26th October 2020
AmerCityCounty

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts in our readership survey to help us shape future content so that we c… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

23rd October 2020
AmerCityCounty

See how cities different approaches to distribute masks in their communities >> spr.ly/6010GAPLa

23rd October 2020
AmerCityCounty

While #facialrecognition is a powerful tool that can improve law enforcement efficiency, that doesn’t necessarily t… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

23rd October 2020

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