“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
– Attributed to Mark Twain
I’m joined today by Anthony Clervi, President and CEO of UNA, a group purchasing organization (or GPO). He joined us last month for an AoP Live session that proposed an alternative approach to ‘automating’ procurement – one that doesn’t involve robots and doesn’t cost a dime.
As the opening quote suggests, our preconceived notions can often prevent us from leveraging the full range of options available to us. Acting without being fully informed can be a huge misstep for procurement, given that our purpose is to identify and compare as many qualified solutions as possible for every business need.
Since many procurement organizations do not have experience with a group purchasing organization, everything we learned about what GPOs are NOT is just as valuable as what they do and the opportunity they represent. GPOs are NOT:
- Just for small companies
- Just for hospitality, healthcare, and higher education
- Just about savings
- Just for indirect spend
- And most importantly, GPOs do not represent a competitive threat to in house procurement.
As you will see in the post-event ebook, we received audience questions reflecting a wide range of category priorities, attitudes towards spend management, and level of experience with group purchasing organizations.
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