E&I Members: How likely are you to recommend E&I Cooperative Services to a peer?
Fitch Ratings, S&P Global, and Moody’s Ratings all forecast that 2026 was going to be a tough year for higher education finances. Moody’s calls it an “increasingly difficult and shifting operating environment for colleges and universities.” It’s even more challenging for many private universities. Forbes College Financial Grades for 2026 rated the financial status of more than half of private institutions a C or worse, with 27% receiving the lowest grade.
Doing more with less has become standard operating procedure, and procurement teams are stretched thin. Yet, there’s an urgent need (and increased pressure) for most procurement leaders to find cost savings even as the cost of goods and services continues to rise.
A formal procurement assessment can help, analyzing patterns to find hidden opportunities to reduce costs and improve efficiencies is critical.
Many organizations generate procurement reports. Some have real-time dashboards. These are especially valuable in understanding what was spent, but a procurement assessment goes further, examining why spending occurs the way it does and where opportunities for improvement may exist.
Rather than simply listing suppliers or summarizing spending totals, the assessment evaluates purchasing patterns, supplier relationships, contract utilization, and procurement processes, looking for potential cost savings or ways to reduce spend leakage.
A comprehensive procurement assessment examines spending from multiple perspectives. For example, a department may be purchasing from multiple suppliers within the same category while approved contracts already exist that offer negotiated savings. The same might be true across multiple departments or campuses.
Individually, these purchases might not appear significant. Collectively, however, they may represent a meaningful opportunity to improve pricing, reduce administrative effort, and increase compliance.
One of the most valuable aspects of such an assessment is identifying opportunities that may go unnoticed in processing day-to-day procurement activities.
Procurement teams can spend hours over months developing RFPs, sourcing suppliers, negotiating contracts for favorable pricing, and going through compliance reviews. But if these contracts aren’t utilized, the benefits are never realized. Increasing use of existing contracts is often one of the fastest ways to reduce spend leakage and generate measurable value.
In larger institutions, it’s not unusual to do business with thousands of suppliers. More suppliers mean more contracts to manage, more invoices to process, and more procurement resources devoted to routine transactions. Besides the heavy administrative burden, you may also be missing significant opportunities to consolidate suppliers and achieve higher volume discounts.
Procurement assessments often reveal spending patterns that are difficult to recognize at the departmental level. For example, different departments buy the same items but at different price points.
Many procurement assessments uncover operational inefficiencies that create unnecessary costs or administrative burdens. These may include excessive supplier onboarding, redundant purchasing activities, manual processes, or inconsistent procurement practices across departments. Addressing these issues can improve efficiency and save time.
However, identifying these opportunities is only the beginning. The real value comes from putting the knowledge you’ve gained into action. For some institutions, this may involve directing more spending through approved contracts. Others may focus on supplier consolidation, process improvements, or strategic sourcing initiatives. Most of the time, the best approach is all of the above.
The data is great, but you need to develop a strategic roadmap to act on what you’ve learned and a system to manage accountability.
Analyzing the data yourself can take a considerable amount of time. Hiring an outside consultant can get expensive. E&I Cooperative Services offers a no-cost Strategic Spend Assessment for members to uncover opportunities that may be hidden within everyday purchasing activity.
By analyzing institutional spend data, E&I helps procurement leaders identify contract utilization gaps, supplier consolidation opportunities, spend leakage, and areas where adopting a cooperative contract can produce immediate savings. Combined with E&I’s Economic Benefit ModelTM, institutions can get a comprehensive view of procurement value, including cost reduction, cost avoidance, and other financial benefits that are available.
Ready to see what your data is hiding? To get started with a Strategic Spend Assessment, contact your E&I Member Representative. Find your Member Representative and contact information here.