Case Studies

Case Study 1: Centralized Distribution

Problem:

A medical college had mulitple schools that were ordering supplies as individual companies. Many of the schools were ordering from the same distributor, but not from a combined account, and some of the schools were using multiple vendors from an assortment of catalogs and websites.

All of the schools had an identical curriculum, but had never considered combining their ordering power to generate huge savings. Additionally, they had no purchasing manager who was centralized, or even a consistent person ordering at each location.

CPO Advantage Solution:

We first analyzed each program and each location, and created a standardized ordering guide. We then compared them with the other schools to create a master-ordering template, which was uploaded to the web. The multiple vendors were combined into a single place for ordering: CPO Advantage.

Results:

Directors and teachers now had a simplified way of determining the status of supplies and prices. A single portal allowed procurement to be managed part-time by an internal employee of the school, saving thousands of dollars in wasted salary time from multiple employees at multiple locations. The single portal eliminated redundancies, out-of-stock orders, the delayed arrival of supplies, and cost overruns.

Excluding salary, management, overall time and energy, the school is saving up to $10,000 at each location in supplies alone. That's about $70,000 a year that goes right to the school's bottom line.