What is a Purchasing Program?
In the simplest terms, a purchasing program combines the purchasing power of all its members to have the same or better buying and negotiating power as large corporations. A purchasing program (sometimes called a GPO or Group Purchasing Program) also offers other advantages, such as fewer suppliers and contracts to manage, lower costs, direct relationships with all suppliers, pre-negotiated service level agreements, and more.
How a Purchasing Program Works
While a purchasing program has many moving parts, the overall concept is straightforward:
- Companies with similar purchasing patterns, like with healthcare, hospitality, commercial real estate, and the grocery industry, band together to create collectives. The combined spending guarantees suppliers a certain level of business.
- In return, suppliers provide significant discounts and their highest service levels because they don’t need to spend time and money sourcing new business.
- As time goes on and more companies join the purchasing program, members can negotiate even deeper discounts and better terms with suppliers. It’s a win-win because purchasing program members get a bigger volume discount and suppliers get a steadily increasing customer base.
Why did Qmerit partner with Avendra?
Contractors and building engineers purchase over $100B in parts and equipment each year for service, maintenance, and retrofits, but, unlike other industries, there was no purchasing program in place. Qmerit thought there should be. That’s why we teamed up with Avendra, a groundbreaking purchasing program with more than 15 years of experience in hospitality and other industries, to maximize discounts on MRO parts and materials.
Why Qmerit?
Many procurement execs have created excellent procurement programs. However, most struggle to get employees to comply with the purchasing process, which is often cumbersome and complicated. Until Qmerit came along, a trip to the store often seemed easier and faster than struggling with an outdated system.
Qmerit updated the very traditional procurement process with user-friendly technology. We understand how employees prefer to shop and built the one-click, easy-to-use online MRO Marketplace to access Avendra’s unparalleled discounts.
Here are all the advantages of becoming a Qmerit member company:
- 7-25% discounts on MRO supplies
- No-fee membership
- Qmerit’s MRO Marketplace, which allows you to manage procurement and your contractors with a one-click cloud-based system. Our Best Value Finder displays the lowest price from an approved supplier no matter where your employees are shopping.
- Outsourced supplier management and negotiation
- Detailed reporting with dashboards that can provide granular info by location
- Contractor management that scores your pre-vetted contractors on past performance via our proprietary Qmerit Contribution Index (QCI)™
- Access to a vast network of pre-negotiated suppliers
For more information about the ways Qmerit can help you manage MRO procurement and contractor management, check out our frequently asked questions.
