Major Arizona Arts Center Meets Tight Deadline with Cooperative Purchasing

Do you ever feel like you are putting together a 1,000-piece puzzle when you are working on major projects? As a procurement professional you are expected to put the pieces together and provide solutions for multiple end-users and make sure they are the right fit. On top of this, you are most likely under a major time crunch, adding even more pressure and preventing you from dedicating the appropriate attention to each piece of the puzzle. 

Because of these major obstacles involved in procurement for large projects, Robby Elliott, Director of Production for Mesa Art Center, saw an opportunity to largely avoid this pressure and stress by leveraging a cooperative purchasing organization. 

Challenge

Mesa Arts Center is Arizona's largest arts center and home to fourteen art studios, four theaters and five art galleries. When this project first kicked off in the beginning of 2020, the team had plans to refurbish the seating and flooring of two of their theaters. However In March 2020, the project was shut down due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Once they were able to resume in February of 2021, Elliott and his team aimed to finish the project by their official reopening date of October 1, 2021, leaving them only 9 months to do the planning, bid, order, and installation. Although they had already decided to tackle this renovation on a tight deadline, cooperative purchasing is what made the faster pace possible. 

“Using OMNIA Partners allowed us to bypass the normal competitive RFP process that our purchasing department typically requires,” says Elliott. “That process would have easily taken a year, and OMNIA Partners allowed us to narrow down our chair selection to 2-3 weeks. Quite frankly, without OMNIA Partners and the solution we chose, this project would not have happened, and we would be planning for the project to take place 2-3 years from now just to allow for timing.”

Project Strategy & Completion 

By leveraging a cooperative purchasing organization, the Mesa Arts Center was able to complete their project in a streamlined, cost-and time-efficient way without needing to hire an outside consultant or be delayed by the RFP process. Partnering with a cooperative gives you immediate access to a portfolio of industry-leading suppliers with hundreds of vetted cooperative contracts in every category, serving as your long-term, full-service solution. That's exactly what Elliott had been searching for- a partner that will support their ongoing projects for years and not just for the one installation. 

Elliot and his team were able to choose a cooperative solution that best fit their needs to complete the project on a tight deadline. Without cooperative purchasing, Mesa Arts Center would’ve faced severe supply chain delays and other bumps in the road, ultimately leading to a different experience and later completion date.  

The Value of Cooperative Purchasing 

“We are all too busy to needlessly put out RFPs and we are also way too busy to shortchange ourselves trying to avoid the RFP process,” says Elliott. “OMNIA Partners allows me to spend less time on the purchasing bureaucracy and more time elsewhere. " 

By leveraging a cooperative purchasing organization, you gain access to a robust portfolio, an experienced team of public procurement professionals, and immense time and cost savings. Want to learn more about how cooperative purchasing could fit into your strategy? Click the button below to get in contact with us! 

Read the full story to learn how supplier partner Irwin Seating Company helped The Mesa Arts Center complete their project on a major time crunch: Arizona Arts Center Meets Rapid Deadline with Hundreds of Thousands in Savings