Category: Purchasing and Procurement

Findings from the New Normal Survey: COVID’s Lasting Legacy on Local Government

599 local government officials and staff from across the country recently took “The New Normal Survey: COVID’s Lasting Legacy on Local Government,” which was conducted in partnership with The Atlas, ELGL, CivicPulse, CivicPlus and RouteFifty. It is a follow-up to a survey from June 2020. Last year, we asked local government leaders how public services … Continued

Spotlight on Regional Procurement Collaboration: The Strategic Alliance for Volume Expenditures (S.A.V.E.)

Photo by Thomas Hawk In this series, staff from CoProcure break down the ins and outs of public purchasing. Local governments are collaborating on procurement to save public staff time and taxpayer dollars. Efforts like the NIGP Columbia Chapter’s ICP group and the Kansas City Regional Purchasing Cooperative help local agencies in a region share the administrative costs of purchasing and … Continued

Regional Strategies for Procurement Collaboration

In this series, staff from CoProcure break down the ins and outs of public purchasing. The case for public procurement collaboration Across the country, over 89,000 local governments annually spend $1T buying similar goods and services. To spend public funds, governments must purchase using contracts created through a formal competitive bidding process. Most governments initiate a … Continued

Five Local Government Trends for More Equitable Public Purchasing

In this series, Mariel Reed and Brian Alexander of CoProcure break down the ins and outs of public purchasing. At the local level, public procurement manages the exchange of over $1T of U.S. taxpayer dollars each year. How these dollars are spent matters for equity in two ways: The responsiveness and quality of government services … Continued

Choosing a Procurement Pathway? Start With These Three Questions

In this series, Mariel Reed and Brian Alexander of CoProcure break down the ins and outs of public purchasing. If there’s one thing that’s clear after spending more than a year speaking with procurement officials, suppliers, and government staff, it’s this: public purchasing is complicated. (Read up on how local public purchasing works.) As you may … Continued

The Benefits and Risks of Cooperative Purchasing

In this series, Mariel Reed and Brian Alexander of CoProcure break down the ins and outs of public purchasing. Working in public procurement isn’t easy. According to a 2018 survey of state and local government purchasers, over 40% of procurement staff feel overworked. A county-level procurement administrator we interviewed summed up trends that have made procurement work … Continued

Using a Cooperative Contract? Start with this Diligence Checklist

In this series, Brian Alexander of CoProcure helps break down the ins and outs of public purchasing. CoProcure is an early-stage venture-backed startup optimizing local public procurement by helping local governments share contracts.  Cooperative purchasing can save government staff time and achieve cost savings. But if you’re new to cooperative purchasing, navigating the diligence process can be … Continued

Who Creates Cooperative Contracts?

In this series, Brian Alexander of CoProcure helps break down the ins and outs of public purchasing. CoProcure is an early-stage venture-backed startup optimizing local public procurement by helping local governments share contracts.  Cooperative purchasing is when two or more governments collaborate on purchasing by sharing contracts. Collaboration can happen up-front, when governments decide to run a … Continued

How Does Cooperative Purchasing Work?

In this series, Brian Alexander of CoProcure helps break down the ins and outs of public purchasing. CoProcure is an early-stage venture-backed startup optimizing local public procurement by helping local governments share contracts.  There are nearly 90,000 local government agencies across the U.S. Since governments spend public dollars, the way they spend these dollars is highly … Continued

How Does Local Public Purchasing Work?

In this series, Brian Alexander of CoProcure helps break down the ins and outs of public purchasing. Public purchasing is big business: governments spend 1 of every 3 taxpayer dollars buying something. With such large sums of money at stake, there’s obvious risk of abuse and corruption. Purchasing rules and regulations evolved with good intentions: to safeguard taxpayer … Continued

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