What is a GPO?
A Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) negotiates Contracts with Suppliers by aggregating the collective spend of its Members to secure more favorable terms and prices. This could mean lower overhead for Member organizations, an optimized supply chain, and adding more time back in the hands of internal procurement teams to focus on their core competencies. While cost savings is often the biggest draw, the group purchasing advantage delivers value far beyond the bottom line.
CoreTrust, a leading GPO, helps both governments and companies in the public and private sector lower their costs and run more efficiently. By aggregating our purchasing power – the collective purchasing volume of our members – we are able to negotiate better terms on products and services from a wide range of high-quality industry suppliers. This enables us to potentially deliver price advantages and value no other purchasing collective can replicate.
GPO Member Direct Benefits
When partnering with a GPO, you work with a team of procurement experts who understand supply chain challenges, as well as the importance of developing and maintaining strong, sustainable relationships with suppliers. Ideally suited to private equity portfolios and large corporations, our dedicated team acts as a strategic extension of your procurement team – working diligently to understand the specific challenges of your industry and then customizing a procurement strategy that meets the unique and custom needs of your business.
For existing or potential members, the GPO partnership process is simple and based on transparency and open communication. You will work with our team to discuss your spend categories and analyze spend history, develop a customized plan that addresses the specific challenges and obstacles of your business, and then review our existing indirect spend categories to match you with categories you can join right away, allowing you the potentially immediate opportunity to accelerate speed to savings. Joining an existing product or service category can potentially offer incredible speed to savings – some go into effect within 24 hours – since the contracts are already written and active. While we have contracts in over 100 different business categories, the most common contract categories include:
- General Indirect: Office Supplies & Toner, Promotional Products, Mailroom Equipment & Software, Custom Print
- IT: Laptops, desktops, & Tablets, Printers & Peripherals, Servers & Storage, Copiers & Managed Print, IT Asset Disposal, IT Software, Software Negotiation Services, Wireless Phone Service
- Financial Treasury: AP Recovery, Capital Equipment Financing, ACH Payment Solutions, Corporate Purchase & Travel Card, Merchant Processing
- Human Resources: Pharmacy Benefits Management (PBM), HRIS/Payroll System, Contingent Labor Management, Employee Background & Drug Screenings, FSA Services (COBRA, Commuter, FSA, HSA), Relocation, Moving & Storage
- Travel: Rental Car, Rideshare, Meetings and Events Services, Travel Management
- Logistics: Small Parcel, Full Truckload (FTL), Less Than Truckload (LTL), Managed Transportation, Supply Chain Tools, Ocean and Air Freight
- Material Handling: Pallets, Forklifts, Liquid Propane
- Hospitality: Smallwares, Beverage Pouring Rights, Coffee & Vending Services, Paint and Related Products, Pest Control, Procurement & Distribution, Waste Disposal
- Facility Infrastructure: MRO, Appliances, Elevator/Escalator Services, Energy Procurement Services
With a growing member base and a steady increase in aggregate spend, we’re consistently working to renegotiate existing contracts and add new indirect spend product categories. Keep in mind that no matter the market circumstances, there is always an opportunity for improvement when it comes to procurement and your company’s bottom line.
An additional, and often unspoken benefit that a GPO offers is the value of a long-term partnership with its members. An effective GPO provides more than engagement and interactions at the beginning of the relationship and instead acts as a strategic consultant, advisor, and industry expert. We are consistently monitoring, engaging, and interacting with Members to identify additional potential cost savings and efficiency opportunities, adjusting any strategies in place to potentially make them more efficient and more effective, and helping with planning for future potential supply chain disruptions.
GPO Member Supplier Benefits
Working on behalf of its Members to create the most productive relationships possible, CoreTrust chooses Supplier Partners based on industry expertise, flexibility, quality, and service. For these suppliers, working with a GPO means increasing market share via access to our 3,000+ members and counting, their billions in spending power, and an opportunity to conserve time and resources by eliminating the need to dedicate staff to RFP fulfillment.
At CoreTrust, we take pride in the value we bring to our Members and Suppliers offering benefits otherwise not achievable on their own. Beyond our sustained and mutually beneficial relationships, we consider ourselves a strategic extension of your team. When the inevitable issue arises, the CoreTrust team is ready to jump in and help you find a solution.
Are you open and willing to learn more about what it’s like to have CoreTrust as a valued extension of your procurement team? Just want to talk with a member of our team to see what industry knowledge, value, cost savings, and efficiencies we can offer? Unsure if we will have the contracts that help you achieve the savings you’re searching for? Click here to tell us more about you and your business, and a member of our team will reach out to discuss how we can deliver contract value through our aligned membership model and unparalleled scale.