We say it all the time – a roofing project is no small feat. It’s a significant investment that can be stressful, and if you must compare contractor bids, it can quickly multiply your work!
Our team at West Roofing Systems has worked with all public agencies, including government, educational and non-profit facilities to ensure that they find the right solution for their facilities for the right price. Our team of expert technical representatives participates in bidding processes all the time.
West Roofing Systems recently became a member of the Sourcewell, so we thought that we should talk about how cooperative purchasing can help with your bid or procurement process.
What is a Bid Requirement?
Governmental, educational and non-profit agencies are often required to obtain goods and services through a procurement process to ensure that the funds are used wisely. This procurement process involves collecting bids from contractors to find a contractor at the lowest price.
This process involves:
- Posting your project publicly, which can be very expensive
- Hosting meetings and walk-through site visits for the contractors. Typically taking your team’s time away from their primary job duties
- Accepting bids from contractors by a determined deadline
- Sorting through to ensure the bids are correctly submitted and legal
- Evaluating and choosing the best bid for the project which is typically the lowest responsive bid
What is Cooperative Purchasing?
Every state has “joint powers” or cooperative purchasing laws that allow one agency to use the work done by another. Cooperative purchasing organizations create a network of members and vendors to leverage contractor bids from all over the country to fulfill your agency bid requirement while virtually eliminating the administrative work needed from your team.
The cooperative purchasing organization organizes and solicits bids from contractors in a competitive solicitation process to determine contractors that meet the requirements of the program. Once the cooperative purchasing organization has awarded a contract with the successful contractor(s), the agency allows participating members of the organization in need of similar products and services to make purchases utilizing the contract through the cooperative purchasing organization. This saves your agency time and significant money for additional projects.
Cooperative purchasing is a resource that agencies can use to acquire practical, best-value solutions for their facilities. Government, education and non-profit agency’s budgets are always being stretched to the limit, so this process can save money through administration hours and guaranteed best value contract prices.
How Cooperative Purchasing Can Help with Your Procurement Process
When an agency is required to go through a bid process to secure a vendor for their project, there may be an emphasis on choosing the low-bid contractor which runs the risk of a low-
quality contractor. Cooperative purchasing allows agencies the flexibility to select the contractor that best fits their needs, from price to quality and contractor qualifications.
Value of Cooperative Procurement:
- Cooperative procurement contracts are convenient. Instead of seeking quotes, bids or proposals, customers simply select products and services from the collective contract catalog, saving considerable time and effort, from the National Association of State Procurement Officials.
- The aggregation of product and service demand and volume result in aggressive and competitive pricing.
- With one procurement process and one contract serving multiple public agencies, cooperative contracts reduce administrative costs because the preliminary work has been done, from the National Association of State Procurement Officials.
- Cooperative Procurement offers choice with the ability to continue to perform your competitive solicitation process if you choose to do so.
Ultimately, citizens and donors benefit from cooperative procurement through the lower process cost, better application of resources and more efficient government and non-profit operations.
Who is Sourcewell?
Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing for Commercial Facilities
Sourcewell’s cooperative contract purchasing leverages the national purchasing power of more than 50,000-member agencies while also streamlining the required purchasing process. As a municipal, national cooperative purchasing organization, Sourcewell establishes and provides nationally leveraged and competitively solicited purchasing contracts under the guidance of the Uniform Municipal Contracting Law. Joint Powers laws enable members to purchase through our awarded contracts legally.
Sourcewell’s vendors’ product and service solutions range from office supplies to heavy equipment and everything in between. Sourcewell provides solutions that enable government, education, and non-profit agencies to work more efficiently and leverages its resources to effectively re-invest in the community.
Read More: West Roofing Systems and Sourcewell
By establishing stable cooperative purchasing processes, sustaining clear channels of communication, and working closely with your cooperative purchasing organization, you can create win-win solutions for agencies and contractors.
With our company history working with public, government and education facilities, our team at West Roofing Systems is excited to offer the ability for our customers to work with the Sourcewell to make their procurement process as comfortable as possible.
For more information about cooperative purchasing and Sourcewell, visit our webpage or give our team a call today!
