Budget pressures in education have never been greater. With enrollment declines, frozen budgets, and increasing compliance demands, procurement teams are expected to deliver more value with fewer resources. Every dollar matters, and every sourcing decision carries strategic weight.
That’s where the E&I Economic Benefit Model™ (EBM) comes in. Built specifically for education, this model helps institutions quantify the total economic benefit of cooperative purchasing, measuring cost savings, cost avoidance, and incentive-driven value.
Using this model, here are seven procurement cost savings strategies that your academic institution can apply to deliver measurable financial impact.
With today’s financial pressures, you need to rethink how value is measured. Traditional sourcing may go beyond price comparison, but not by much. Delivering short-term savings is good, but it’s the long-term, sustainable savings that really matter. E&I’s Economic Benefit Model™ introduces a broader view that accounts for direct and indirect value, the total economic benefit, in three ways:
An often-overlooked procurement savings strategy is cost avoidance. In higher education procurement, reducing administrative effort, avoiding the costs of RFPs, and minimizing exposure to price volatility leads to significant savings even if they’re not as obvious.
Institutions that leverage E&I’s competitively solicited contracts avoid the time, legal fees, and staff burden associated with issuing their own RFPs. They also gain immediate access to pre-vetted suppliers with negotiated terms that eliminate surprise costs down the line.
Scale is a powerful driver of cost savings. By joining a cooperative, institutions gain access to the collective purchasing power of thousands of peers, resulting in discounts that individual schools couldn’t achieve alone.
Applying this model and partnering with E&I Cooperative Services saves an average of 4–10% on every contract, while ensuring compliance with education procurement regulations. This approach transforms cooperative buying into a resilient procurement savings strategy.
Procurement cost savings extend beyond the price tag. Many of the biggest gains come from streamlined processes and reduced administrative overhead.
Using pre-solicited cooperative contracts cuts cycle times dramatically. What once took months can often be completed in days, so your procurement staff spends less time managing bids and more time on strategic analysis.
The result? Less time spent on paperwork and more value derived from every purchase order.
When your procurement cost savings strategies include a sourcing cooperative, you often get access to additional incentives and rebates through cooperative contracts. E&I Cooperative Services also provide annual patronage refunds based on spending levels, which can exceed three million dollars in total paid out to members.
By consolidating spend through cooperative contracts, you also amplify your returns. Every additional dollar of compliant spend strengthens the value of participation, generating a compounding effect that turns procurement into a revenue-supporting function.
Investing in long-term supplier relationships is a key part of any procurement savings strategy. When you think of suppliers as partners and work to develop trust and accountability, you typically yield stronger service levels, fewer disruptions, and better pricing consistency.
Using cooperative contracts that include performance monitoring and regular supplier evaluations can produce a collaborative approach that helps identify inefficiencies, improve delivery times, and other ways to lower costs.
In the long run, supplier partnership becomes a form of cost avoidance, minimizing the operational risks that often erode budgets.
Procurement teams deliver impressive savings. However, it’s rarely measured and reported except when you get a discount or hit spending targets. Without visibility, the hard work higher education procurement teams put in every day typically goes unrecognized. Quantifying results using the E&I Economic Benefit Model™ is a powerful way to demonstrate the total economic benefit you’re delivering to your institution.
Metrics like total spend under contract, cost avoidance, rebate earnings, and cycle-time reductions can be converted into a single figure. Presenting these insights with dashboards or year-end summaries showcases how you’re delivering real value. This elevates the discussion and gives procurement teams a stronger voice within the organization.
Real procurement transformation demands a structured, data-driven framework. The E&I Economic Benefit Model™ is a no-cost tool that allows members to look at every sourcing decision through the lens of total value: cost, efficiency, risk reduction, and revenue opportunity.
There is no cost to become a member at E&I Cooperative Services or to utilize the Economic Benefit Model at your institution. Find your rep for personalized support or to discuss how you can improve your procurement cost savings strategies.