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Higher education procurement is undergoing a significant period of change, balancing rising expectations for speed, transparency, and efficiency with significant budget challenges.
Traditional procurement in education is built heavily around resource-intensive RFP cycles. Yet, as demands increase, this process is harder to justify. Today, procurement leaders are looking for solutions to save time and lower costs.
One of the most effective models supporting this shift is partnering with a purchasing cooperative. With access to competitively solicited contracts, top-tier suppliers, and pre-negotiated terms, cooperatives allow procurement teams to work more strategically while delivering stronger outcomes across cost, compliance, and operational efficiency.
Cooperative purchasing adoption continues to accelerate as institutions face heightened pressure to do more with less. Beyond the typical 10–15% cost savings, institutions also gain meaningful time efficiencies. One survey reported that the majority of procurement professionals say cooperative purchasing reduces the procurement cycle by up to 50%.
This reduction in cycle time is especially significant in higher education, where decentralized purchasing, multiple stakeholder groups, and rigorous compliance requirements can make the sourcing and negotiation process extremely challenging. A purchasing cooperative helps streamline workflows, providing access to competitively solicited and compliant contracts.
Why are academic institutions embracing cooperative purchasing? A survey of procurement teams highlighted the benefits of a cooperative strategy:
As you can see, the benefits of a cooperative go well beyond just pricing. Cooperative purchasing improves efficiency, reduces risk, and strengthens purchasing governance.
Cooperative contracts leverage the combined purchasing strength of thousands of institutions. By aggregating spend and negotiating on behalf of a broad member base, cooperatives secure pricing levels that individual institutions cannot typically reach on their own.
You can dramatically reduce the time and effort associated with running full RFPs. Competitive solicitations, supplier evaluations, contract negotiations, and legal reviews are already completed, enabling you to opt in to pre-negotiated contracts.
Institutions often encounter categories that require deep knowledge or have technical requirements or specialized evaluation criteria. A key benefit of a cooperative is having access to a team of procurement specialists who are deeply immersed in particular categories. This knowledge can help offset knowledge gaps and uncover unique solutions.
You can also tap into the expertise of procurement professionals to improve your procurement. Through E&I Cooperative Services, for example, you can access a wide range of industry consultants and take advantage of no-cost Strategic Spend Assessments by E&I data analysts to find hidden cost savings and ways to bring more spend under contract.
Another benefit of working with E&I is that you have access to a dedicated member representative with deep experience in the education sector. This helps in sourcing and negotiating cooperative contracts that are tailored to your needs.
The cooperative approach helps strengthen organizational compliance while reducing the burden on your procurement staff during audits, internal reviews, or accreditations.
Supplier diversity is an increasing focus across higher education. Cooperatives can help you meet your internal targets by providing access to a wide range of certified diverse suppliers, including those that might otherwise not respond to individual RFPs.
The impact of cooperative purchasing is best shown through real projects. An example is how the Francis Tuttle Danforth campus used an E&I Cooperative Services contract with Steelcase to build what it calls an interactive school of the future. They were able to achieve:
Academic institutions across the country are turning to purchasing cooperatives as a way to lower costs and streamline the entire procurement lifecycle. As the cost of goods and services continues to rise and budgets continue to tighten, cooperative purchasing offers a scalable future-ready model to help you deliver stronger value to your institution.
E&I Cooperative Services is the only member-owned nonprofit sourcing cooperative focused exclusively on the education sector. View hundreds of competitively solicited contracts designed exclusively for education or learn about the benefits of membership at E&I Cooperative Services.