Many small businesses don't have the resources to respond to different solicitations so that they can earn business with public sector agencies. This can be time-consuming and costly for the supplier as well as the agency. Partnering with a cooperative allows small businesses to build trust and confidence with larger agencies.
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The Challenge: The RFP Process is Difficult & Consumes a lot of Time, Money, & Resources
Guernsey Inc., first joined EPIC Business Essentials to take advantage of EPIC’s strong national accounts platform and its cooperative contract available through OMNIA Partners. By leveraging the OMNIA Partners contract as a resource, Guernsey has been able to help customers streamline the RFP process, while knowing the contract they are using was already competitively-solicited and awarded by a lead agency.
One of the challenges that small businesses face, like Guernsey Inc., is competing for a jurisdiction's business through an RFP process, which can be difficult to win at a profitable level. As a dealer for EPIC Business Essentials, Guernsey is able to provide a contract vehicle that is competitive and compliant with most jurisdictional procurement laws and guidelines as well as being profitable for the dealer.
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Generating separate proposals in response to public sector requests is a significant expense to small businesses. Not only does it consume resources to produce the proposal, but separate contract vehicles can be costly to monitor and maintain. A dealer can significantly reduce selling and administrative costs by leveraging a single cooperative contract, allowing a dealer to focus on simplicity, time savings, competitive pricing and compliance with procurement programs. In addition, the dealer can rely on EPIC Business Essentials to handle much of the contract management work.
The Benefit to the Agency: Streamlined RFP Process
Public agencies face similar challenges and through the use of a cooperative contract, they are able to save considerable staff time and expense associated with the RFP process. OMNIA Partners utilizes the lead public agency contracting model, which brings compliance, maximum value and unparalleled efficiencies to the local government purchasing process. Together this all translates to building trust and confidence in working with agencies.
"The agencies understand the value of procurement through the OMNIA Partners vehicles and are generally very receptive to reviewing the EPIC contract as a possible addition to their current list of approved vendors/contracts for availability to end users," says Gordon Thrall Guernsey, Inc. Executive Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer. "Ultimately taking the OMNIA Partners contract to market will open opportunities within public sector accounts that may have seemed closed for years."
"OMNIA Partners is the perfect vehicle, at this point in time, to compete for public sector business. With staffing levels down, and time at a premium, it streamlines the vendor selection process for procurement managers, while providing competitive pricing and great value. All with the benefits that are accrued by sourcing through a local, high-service dealer model.”
- Gordon Thrall, Guernsey, Inc. Executive Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer
About Guernsey, Inc.
Family owned with 50 years in business their mission is to provide the lowest cost solution for products and services used in the workplace. While offering amazing customer service and focusing on simple values of excellence, engagement, and innovation.
