Multifamily housing owners and operators are managing millions of dollars across numerous categories and often with limited procurement resources. With a growing to-do list, the team responsible for purchasing is tasked with delivering reliable products and services on quickly and at the best possible price.
Through group purchasing, your property team can discover new innovations and savings across the board for your multifamily housing portfolio. Owners, operators and purchasing teams can use the power of a group purchasing organization (GPO) to achieve streamlined and cost-effective procurement while helping your business remain competitive in this evolving industry.
Let’s take a look at the value that multifamily housing leaders can take advantage of through their GPO partnership.
How Does a GPO Work?
Cultivating strong and beneficial relationships between its members and suppliers, the group purchasing organization (GPO) is a strategic route for purchasers in the multifamily housing industry looking to simplify their process while saving time, money and resources. Acting as an extension of your procurement team, a GPO helps with spend, category and relationship management while connecting you to industry-leading solutions to meet the unique needs of your communities. Suppliers pay the GPO an administration fee while it’s free for members, and there’s no minimum order or spend obligation to join.
Group Purchasing Value for Multifamily Housing
GPO members can tap into the insight and counsel from group purchasing subject matter experts with market intelligence who have also held key procurement or multifamily housing industry positions.
To streamline your operations and make them more efficient, below we’ve discussed how multifamily housing purchasing leaders can leverage a GPO for value-add opportunities at your properties.
Increased Buying Power & Cost Savings
Multifamily housing procurement teams using a group purchasing organization can leverage immense buying power to increase their profits and achieve best-value pricing through aggregated spend. The GPO team negotiates deeper discounts, improved terms and conditions and monitors contracts to ensure agreements don’t decrease in value after implementation.
We spoke to Karen McLane, Senior Regional Director of Property Management at Rangewater Residential, and she shared what her team has achieved with the help of a GPO.
“We have been able to procure hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings by receiving the best contract pricing allowed by our Maintenance & Repairs suppliers," McLane said.
Save Time & Resources through Bypassing RFP Process
Along with an opportunity for significant cost savings, an impactful part of the GPO model is the ability for procurement teams to bypass the RFP process enabling them to dedicate more time and resources to other company priorities such as leasing, collections, service and more. Your team can tap into the tools and resources to support your internal stakeholders’ needs, increasing interaction and time spent with residents and prospects. The GPO's contracting experts complete all of the sourcing groundwork, which includes category research analysis and ongoing contract management.
Mitigate Risk & Gain Immediate Access to Solutions
During the pandemic, we witnessed members gaining access to hard to obtain products and services quickly, which would have been challenging or impossible to obtain on their own. That immediate access continues now despite supply chain shortages and delays. As a member, your service requests are also elevated due to the strong, established relationships with suppliers. Mitigating risk is a high priority for organizations, and the GPO can make it happen successfully by engaging with multiple people at multiple levels throughout supplier companies. For more information, review the GPO sourcing and procurement process.
