The 2025 Annual Higher Education Outlook report from Forvis Mazars and NC State University’s Poole College of Management revealed a striking reality: successful institutions today typically maintain an operational net income of just 2% of total revenue. That’s a razor-thin margin and emphasizes just how critical it is for procurement teams when making sourcing and purchasing decisions. There’s not a lot of room for error here, so every purchasing decision matters.
For procurement teams, that 2% gap represents both a challenge and an opportunity. To stay sustainable, colleges and universities must make smarter, data-driven sourcing choices that generate measurable value over the long term. That’s precisely where we can help.
Designed specifically for higher education procurement, the E&I Economic Benefit Model™ is built to help you forecast, capture, and communicate the total economic benefit based on three core strategies:
The result? A strategic approach to procurement that helps you evaluate every sourcing decision for long-term value.
The potential for lower revenue from enrollment is just one challenge facing higher ed. Deloitte’s 2025 U.S. Higher Education Trends report put it this way: “Higher demands on institutions clash with higher costs for services provided. Challenges include skyrocketing overhead costs—including health care, student mental health, and insurance premiums.”
Amid these growing pressures, procurement teams must play a significant part in keeping costs in line with services to meet these tight margins. However, this requires viewing procurement through a different lens, becoming a strategic lever for cost management to support financial resilience. The E&I Economic Benefit Model™ can help you change that narrative, transforming procurement into a performance engine that directly supports institutional health.
At its core, the E&I Economic Benefit Model™ enables procurement teams to translate purchasing decisions into measurable results. It helps answer the question about the true value you’re getting from procurement.
The model helps you determine where you can reduce costs, avoiding administrative overhead and the costs that go with that, and the impact of incentives or rebates. This helps you understand how to increase procurement cost savings in real terms, accounting for both direct and indirect financial benefits.
One of the most powerful tools available to higher education procurement teams is the cooperative model through E&I Cooperative Services, where thousands of member institutions combine their purchasing power, gaining access to competitively solicited contracts designed specifically for education.
Aggregating demand across other academic institutions enables significant economies of scale, often generating average total savings of 4–10% or higher. The E&I Economic Benefit Model™ goes further by quantifying the total financial impact, factoring in avoided costs and incentive-based returns. You get a fuller picture of the total value, such as the time and expense of managing RFPs and built-in incentives within cooperative agreements.
The E&I Economic Benefit Model™ helps you plan future spend. By applying historical data and market benchmarks, you can prioritize categories with the greatest financial potential. This forward-looking capability is invaluable, helping you focus on high-impact savings and drive sustainable results.
A side benefit is stronger collaboration with finance teams, who also gain deeper insight into the role procurement plays to make more confident financial decisions. The E&I Economic Benefit Model™ clarifies procurement’s value and strengthens internal credibility by demonstrating ROI for purchasing and procurement activities.
Higher education procurement today demands greater analytics, planning, and measurable outcomes. At each step, you need to demonstrate how you’re bringing value and helping overcome the financial pressures academic institutions face.
The Economic Benefit Model™ helps procurement professionals capture, calculate, and communicate total value with greater precision. It brings structure, visibility, and credibility to the financial conversation, helping raise the profile of the work procurement teams do to meet institutional goals.
Explore the E&I Economic Benefit Model™ and discover how to increase procurement cost savings across your institution. Get in touch with one of our procurement experts to get started. There is no cost to become a member of E&I Cooperative Services and no cost for an E&I Economic Benefit Model™ review.