From Tech Transfer Newsletter, Spring 2006 » printer-friendly

Save Money With the U.S. Communities Government Purchasing Alliance

The U.S. Communities Government Purchasing Alliance can reduce the costs of purchased goods and save your agency's precious taxpayer resources.

Program Elements

U.S. Communities is a non-profit instrumentality of government established by public agencies to reduce the cost of purchased goods and to streamline the purchasing process. This program is nationally sponsored by the National Association of Counties, National League of Cities, the Association of School Business Officials International, National Institute of Governmental Purchasing and U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Through U.S. Communities, counties, cities and other public agencies such as schools and special districts can centrally join in competitively solicited contracts to take advantage of the enormous collective purchasing power of thousands of U.S. local government agencies.

Designed in cooperation with an Advisory Board of local government purchasing officials, U.S. Communities pools the purchasing power of public agencies, achieves bulk volume discounts on behalf of public agencies, competitively solicits quality products through a lead public agency and provides a purchasing forum for public agencies nationwide. Today more than 14,000 public agencies are participating in U.S. Communities including counties, cities, school districts and other public and nonprofit agencies in all 50 states.

Products

U.S. Communities offers a variety of commodity lines, as well as services, on their contracts. Some of the companies that supply goods under existing U.S. Communities contracts include Office Depot (office supplies), Ricoh (Office Machines), Steelcase (Office Furniture), and The Home Depot Supply (MRO Supplies).

Advantages of the Program

The key advantage is cost savings for public agencies. Public agencies gain access to the national purchasing power of all local government public agencies through U.S. Communities. Public agencies secure the following key advantages:

• Competitively solicited contracts by a lead public agency
• Most favorable public agency pricing
• No cost to the public agency to participate
• Nationally sponsored by leading associations and purchasing organizations
• Broad range of high quality products
• Aggregated purchasing power of public agencies nationwide
• Managed by public purchasing professionals
• Available to all counties, cities, schools, special districts, townships, villages, boroughs, other local governments and state agencies, as well as non-profit agencies that support local and state governments.

U.S. Communities works closely with public agencies to understand their buying needs and the needs of thousands of other public purchasing agents, purchasing managers, purchasing directors, and procurement officers. U.S. Communities is constantly expanding its product offering to public agencies and acts as a strategic sourcing option for local government.

The purchasing function plays a critical role in helping local governments save money on the goods purchased by their agencies each year. U.S. Communities is a successful, proven tool to help counties, cities, schools, and other public agencies achieve this important mission.

Getting Involved

Pooled contracts can cross state boundaries. So, a public agency is California can take advantage of a contract negotiated by another agency anywhere in the country. Several of the major contracts offered through the program—including a contract with Office Depot—were competitively solicited by Los Angeles County. Any local agency that is part of the U.S. Communities program can make purchases under this contract. Many entities in California are already profiting from the savings offered by the program.

Getting involved is simple. To take advantage of the contracts this program offers to public agencies, visit www.uscommunities.org or e-mail info@uscommunities.org.

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