Work safely in the cloud with suppliers and partners

Collaborative procurement is the ‘centralisation of the procurement of goods and services which are repetitive and common to multiple organisations’.

It is a strategy in which buyers can work together with suppliers to improve the quality of goods and services while reducing costs. This strategy is often used for products such as fuel where collaboration between different buyers can help save money.

Collaborative procurement offers organisations a plethora of advantages.

1. Reducing costs

Collaborative procurement can help deliver savings for organisations, especially in the public sector. One example of this is government contracts. Partnering with multiple organisations to purchase a single product can help take organisations in the public sector such as a local government take advantage of volume discounts which may otherwise be unavailable. With collaborative procurement, increased buying power and leverage can help an organisation obtain a better price throughout the tendering process.

2. Strengthening relationships with suppliers

A strong relationship between procurement agents and your suppliers is essential for successful business transactions. By collaborating with your suppliers, private and public procurement agents can develop a trusting relationship that will result in repeat business. Additionally, by collaborating with suppliers, procurement agents can stay up-to-date on the latest technology and products available, which will allow them to better serve their clients. This can also make supply chain management much easier and more efficient.

3. Facilitating standardisation

Collaborative arrangements can make it easier to standardise equipment and other resources. An example of this is a collaborative contract for protective equipment used across police forces. If different police forces collaborate to use the same protective equipment with the same specifications, the sourcing itself becomes easier. It also means that equipment can be used by different police forces. Each of the local authorities saves money on employee training, which can then go to commissioning other things they need. This is also helpful for other industries, such as the construction industry, where collaborative procurement can facilitate the standardisation of equipment to make meeting safety regulations and requirements easier.

4. Building expertise

If you want to learn more about complementary fields within your industry, collaborative arrangements is a great way to do it. An integrated approach involving collaboration with other businesses, you can learn best practices and gain insights that will benefit you as a client. And because centralised procurement can also help create social value for commissioners, it’s a win-win situation.

Collaborative procurement doesn’t have to be a lengthy process, but slow communication and inefficient working can make it feel like one.

Kahootz can help you streamline your entire process.

Incorporating cloud-based collaborative working into your process of collaborative procurement assists improved coordination between procurement decision teams and suppliers. This is because everyone has access to a single source of truth, making the supplier evaluation process more efficient.

It can make it easier to track changes and progress throughout the collaborative procurement process, as all changes to key documents are automatically saved and can be easily accessed by everyone involved. Centralisation reduces the risk of losing important files and wasting your company’s time and money, helping your collaborative procurement go more quickly and smoothly.

Using cloud collaboration software can reduce the need for face-to-face meetings, as most teamworking can be done online. Not only can this benefit your team, but it’s also great for time and cost savings. Since these meetings can be conducted from anywhere in the world, they can be more convenient for participants and will certainly be more cost-effective than in-person meetings.

Online collaboration can help your team develop their expertise in collaborative procurement by providing a platform for them to share information and work together on projects. By using a cloud-based system for collaborative procurement, your team can have access to the latest information and tools and can work together on projects from anywhere in the world.