E&I Members: How likely are you to recommend E&I Cooperative Services to a peer?
Grainger is a staple for many colleges and universities for a wide range of MRO tools and supplies. However, how you buy from Grainger can make a big difference in your bottom-line spending. Many campuses are buying direct and paying retail pricing, and that can cost you. By contrast, opting into a cooperative agreement through E&I Cooperative Services gets you access to discount pricing and streamlines your procurement process.
If you have a Grainger account with Net 30 terms, you’ll get an invoice for your purchases and have 30 days to pay. This lets you get what you need right away and delay paying for it once you establish credit with Grainger.
For many educational institutions, Net 30 purchasing offers practical advantages. Instead of requiring immediate payment, departments can order needed supplies and process payment through your existing AP process. Grainger Net 30 arrangement has advantages, including:
This payment arrangement makes it easier to buy, but it doesn’t offer any pricing incentives on its own.
Cooperative contract pricing works differently.
E&I competitively sources contracts with leading suppliers like Grainger. Because E&I negotiates on behalf of its more than 6,200 member institutions, these contracts typically include volume discounts that are unavailable to most individual institutions. Contracts often include exclusive offers, additional incentives, and more favorable terms. For example, the E&I cooperative agreement with Grainger includes aggressive discounts across 32 categories and exclusive financial incentives based on purchasing tiers.
For schools, colleges, and universities, this produces discounted contract pricing while also avoiding the time and expense associated with running their own sourcing event.
Here are some of the key differences.
Factor | Grainger Net 30 Account | Cooperative Contract Purchasing |
Primary Benefit | Payment flexibility | Contract compliance and purchasing efficiency |
Payment Timing | Invoice due in 30 days | Institution payment terms still apply |
Competitive Solicitation | Internal procurement requirements may still apply | Already competitively solicited |
Pricing Structure | Payment terms, not necessarily discounted catalog pricing | Contract-based pricing across broad categories. |
Procurement Workload | Internal sourcing requirements may remain | Can significantly reduce sourcing effort |
Educational procurement teams today are under significant pressure and scrutiny. Many campuses are being forced to make difficult decisions. “We have shifted more toward survival,” said Cody Powell, Associate VP Facilities Planning & Operations, Miami University of Ohio, told EnvisionED Magazine. “You cannot cut your way out of a change that higher ed is facing today.”
Cooperative contracts can help you manage costs more aggressively and streamline your procurement process, providing both direct and indirect savings opportunities.
Running a competitive solicitation requires significant staff time. Procurement teams must develop specifications, issue solicitations, evaluate responses, manage documentation, and maintain compliance records.
For many institutions, especially those facing staffing shortages or increased workloads, repeating this process for commonly purchased categories creates unnecessary administrative burden. By leveraging a cooperative contract, institutions can opt into an agreement that’s already been negotiated under public compliance rules.
Many educational institutions struggle with decentralized purchasing. Different departments may purchase similar products through different channels, making it difficult to standardize processes and track spending. Cooperative contracts provide a common purchasing framework that can be used across facilities, maintenance, environmental health and safety, operations, and other departments.
E&I’s cooperative contract with Grainger for your maintenance, repair, and operational (MRO) needs. Grainger carries one of the industry’s largest catalogs, featuring more than 600,000 products from more than 2,800 diverse suppliers. Many items offer same-day availability.
Through E&I, you get access to comprehensive services with a verified cost reduction analysis showing savings opportunities for MRO, safety, janitorial, facilities, and operational products. Through the cooperative agreement, you have opportunities for increased incentives to lower your costs further, along with access to more than 560 Grainger Account reps and a specialized customer service from E&I for specialized support.
Because E&I Cooperative Services is the only member-owned, nonprofit sourcing cooperative that works exclusively with the education sector, contracts are designed to meet the unique needs of academic institutions and offer industry-leading discounts. Even institutions that already have a Grainger account can handle procurement through the E&I cooperative agreement and find ways to save.
View the Grainger contract at E&I Cooperative Services.