Purchasing Programs & Services

Cooperative Purchasing

Purchasing administers and operates a cooperative purchasing program used by over 100 municipalities both in and outside of the County. This program allows municipalities to combine purchase volumes of certain commodities to obtain more favorable pricing. This has proved to be of great benefit especially to smaller townships and villages, where retail prices are often charged because of their small usage.

eCommerce

Purchasing has changed the County's business model to move from a conventional business process to a web-based procurement program. A third party Web site host is used to advertise bids and RFPs.

Contract Administration

Currently, Purchasing's Contract Administration has responsibility for a number of blanket contracts.  Since more than one County department uses the blanket contracts, Purchasing serves as the administrator. Some examples of these contracts are office products, janitorial supplies, laboratory supplies and tools.  All items are ordered by user departments through the vendors' Web site. Each blanket contract requires an administrator to make changes to the terms and conditions, monitor the Web order process, and oversee the pricing and invoicing process.

P Card

The Procurement Card program allows for the use of a specially regulated credit card to make small item purchases. This program is expanding to include some aspects of travel as well. This is intended as a method of making small purchases that do not require a purchase order. The administration of this program includes training of users, monitoring daily reports, expanding the card use to other departments, and coordinating with the credit card bank.