In a recent webinar, Pavilion joined up with the National Association of Educational Procurement (NAEP) and higher education procurement leaders to discuss how suppliers can navigate the purchasing process to sell to public higher education institutions more effectively.
Here are the highlights:
Loop in Procurement early! They can be your ally.
“Engage us at the beginning and end of the process. We don’t want you to go so far down the path with an end user and have to start over because you didn’t follow the policies.”
Allison Canada, Senior Director of Procurement, Wor-Wic Community College
“Procurement can be your ally if you’re trying to find inroads into a university. Each buyer takes on 2 meetings per month with vendors we don’t currently do business with. We explain how to do business with the university and give the points of contact with department heads across campus. We’ll send an email to the campus users letting them know you stopped by.”
Eric Dickey, Chief Procurement Officer, University of North Florida
Be patient if budgets change mid-cycle.
“The vast majority of our members have fiscal years that run from July to June. But students aren't confirmed for final enrollment until August or September. If enrollment numbers come in way lower, your budgets can end up getting affected by that and need to drop either later that semester or even in the second semester. So while our members may have budget in July, they could start seeing cuts and no longer have the money to be able to move forward with the project.”
Sara Luther, Director of Operations, NAEP
Know your cooperative contracts! Institutions use them to buy what they need faster.
“It could be a 3-month long process to do our own solicitation. We may not have that time. That’s when piggybacking on a cooperative is a great advantage. We do use contracts from the national cooperatives, but our preference is to piggyback on a contract that was solicited by another higher education institution or state or local agency. They typically don't charge a contract administration fee to the supplier, so that typically results in better pricing for us. I also have confidence in their procurement process.”
Allison Canada, Senior Director of Procurement, Wor-Wic Community College
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Learn more about purchasing seasonality, funding impact, and other advice on how suppliers can effectively navigate the purchasing process.
