Sharing our services in government purchasing is about organizing and working together to produce true cooperative contracts to save time and money. Westchester County's Cooperative Purchasing program is a fiscally responsible approach for local governments, school districts and fire districts to realize savings for themselves as well as the county taxpayers. In fact, the county offers a variety of other shared services throughout county government.
The difference between Cooperative Contracts vs. Piggybacking:
All local governments, school districts, and fire districts located in Westchester County can utilize contracts that are created by Westchester County, and that is called “Piggy Backing.” This saves the time and costs associated with bidding the needed items. A cooperative contract is created when all agencies establish their requirements and go out to bid together for those requirements in a coordinated effort.
Values of Cooperative Purchasing
- Cooperative contracts produce lower prices. By bidding similarly purchased items and aggregating requirements, governments can benefit from the combined economies of scale of multiple agencies. Cooperative contracts are especially advantageous for smaller governments because they benefit from the greater quantities required by the larger government consumers.
- The ability to use/share procurement professionals from Westchester County allows the smaller agencies to reallocate their own resources who may be performing various roles within their own agency.
- With one contract serving multiple agencies, cooperative contracts reduce administrative costs by avoiding duplication in advertising, reproduction and labor costs.
- Cooperative contracts are convenient. Instead of seeking quotes and bids, the agencies can place orders from the established contract. This saves the agencies time and effort.
- Citizens benefit from cooperative purchasing through lower total cost of government, better use of resources and more efficient government operations.
Get the details and find out how we can pool your purchasing requirements to save time and money. Ask to be added to our shared services e-mail distribution list so your agency is included in future cooperative contract bids.