Every year as summer draws to an end, families across the country start crossing items off their back-to-school checklists. Along with backpacks and school supplies, planning for the beginning of the school year includes ensuring immunizations are up-to-date and physicals are complete. As the start of the school year usually brings a wave of ‘bugs’ or infections, it’s essential to recognize the critical need to enhance cleaning and hygiene efforts in classrooms and school facilities.
In an evolving marketplace with several national challenges directly impacting procurement, supply chain and sourcing functions, more and more of these teams are being looped in to solve the largest organizational obstacles. Examples include assisting HR with talent shortage solutions and working with IT stakeholders on virtual course innovations at their colleges and universities.
As research continues to surface regarding the correlation between classroom design and student performance, it’s the perfect time to explore why this is the case. For students, parents, and educators alike (as well as those responsible for creating the spaces in which individuals learn), having a clear concept of how an environment can impact personal development and performance is vital. Not only are flexible and responsive furniture items like ergonomic classroom chairs, adjustable storage elements, and modular student desks changing the way that students experience learning, they’re also pushing forward the boundary of what students are capable of.
It’s no secret that procurement professionals nationwide are struggling with budgets, bandwidth and staffing shortages. These roadblocks reveal opportunity though, as teams look towardcooperative purchasing for relief. With the help of a cooperative purchasing organization, you can increase savings at your organization by leveraging pre-awarded cooperative contracts and streamlining your purchasing process, resulting in a stronger overall strategy.
May 5 is World Hand Hygiene Day as declared by the CDC and this year's theme is focused on how we can contribute to a facility's environment of safety and quality by encouraging people to clean hands at the right time with the right products.
The majority of your furniture purchases throughout the year may be sporadic. Maybe you choose to use any extra money at the end of the fiscal year to buy furniture products that you need but haven’t made a priority. Unless your procurement team has a major building renovation or school project, you likely haven’t dedicated the time and resources to budgeting for furniture needs that eventually always pop up.
Competitive gaming has grown tremendously over the last ten years, reaching $1 billion in revenue in 2021. As STEAM initiatives continue to pick up and projections for the market continue to grow, it's no wonder why many educational institutions have adopted esports into their curriculums. To streamline the steps in adopting an esports initiative at your district or university, procurement can team up with a cooperative purchasing organization for the planning phase and beyond.
As you align with administrators and the necessary IT stakeholders, a cooperative can connect you to industry-leading solutions and help you better understand purchasing for an esports program. This cost-effective and strategic route simplifies your process while ensuring you achieve your administration's goal of implementing competitive gaming at your schools.
Rural communities continue to find ways to obtain high-speed, reliable broadband internet, and post-pandemic lifestyles have elevated the need. With virtual learning and remote work, government agencies and schools heavily rely on internet access, and broadband plays a key role. Your town may be exploring the cost and scope of facilitating a broadband project, and as a leader in procurement, you’ve been tasked with identifying the route with the best value.
In dire need of high-demand school supplies and improved vendor communication and support, Elmore County School District education purchasing leaders turned to OMNIA Partners and Quill to procure classroom solutions and PPE/cleaning supplies. By working with Quill and OMNIA Partners, Celeste Tilley, Director of Federal Programs at Elmore County School District, and Cecile Sanford, Federal Programs Accounting Specialist, were able to maximize spend and use their ESSER funds quickly and efficiently.
