How Procurement Teams Are Reshaping Buying

Late last year, Cara Hewitt, a Government Customer Advisor at Amazon Business, was joined by Denise Marcella, Quality Assurance Administrator for the City of Las Vegas and Jim Haining, Purchasing Manager for the Las Vegas Valley Water District, to discuss the streamlining the procurement process via Amazon Business for these two organizations.

The Problem

Without a centralized procurement department, it can be difficult for procurement leaders to manage organization-wide spend. Denise Marcella with the City of Las Vegas spoke to this difficulty by noting that prior to onboarding with Amazon Business, the City’s team members often made their purchases of necessary products with separate Amazon accounts. This presented several key issues for the organization, including the inability to receive receipts and tax charges.

With Amazon Business we have been able to get small dollar spend under control with total visibility. We are very happy we went this way; if you haven’t done so, you should really look into it. – Jim Haining, Purchasing Manager – Las Vegas Valley Water District

Similarly, an issue that Jim Haining with the Las Vegas Valley Water District pointed to within his organization was that individual employees were using their personal Amazon accounts to purchase products for the district, leading to an unorganized procurement environment. He also added that most of his employees’ purchases on Amazon fell under $1,000, and therefore are not typically a focus for the procurement team, because of the necessity to focus on larger contracts and spending across the organization. The result of this, though, is it prevents organizations from realizing opportunities for cost savings, finding efficiencies, and gaining transparency into this area of spend.

The Solution

By using Amazon Business, organizations like the City of Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Valley Water District are able to adopt a centralized purchasing experience to enable more efficient purchasing and transparency across their organizations.

For the City of Las Vegas, Ms. Marcella stated that the key benefits realized by the City when using Amazon Business are the tax-exemption program, the enhanced business analytics, and the ability to gain full transparency and enhanced management over organization-wide purchasing.

Mr. Haining highlighted that he values the familiar user experience and the minimal learning curve, as well as business-only shipping options, and centralized procurement as the main advantages of Amazon Business for the Las Vegas Valley Water District.

Marcella and Haining continued by discussing the importance and added value that Business Prime brings to their workplaces.

“When you consider all the different shipping costs you need to pay if you don’t have Business Prime, it was well worth it,” Haining stated. Marcella emphasized the impact Business Prime has had within her organization, sharing that it has allowed the procurement department to operate as efficiently as possible to serve their community.

Amazon Business makes our lives a lot easier and brings us tremendous convenience. We wish we had done it sooner. – Denise Marcella, Quality Assurance Administrator – City of Las Vegas

Amazon Business also offers several additional tools to increase efficiency in an organization. The Budget Management Tool helps procurement officers manage spend across the entire organization and creates a time-bound budget for various purchasing needs.

The Seller Certification Program enables small businesses and diverse business owners the ability to showcase their credentials. Amazon Business provides access to millions of customers, allowing credentialed suppliers from having to heavily invest in marketing or create a stand-alone website.

The OMNIA Partners Impact

Haining and Marcella both underscored the importance of OMNIA Partners’ role in making the switch to Amazon Business as efficient as possible. With the Amazon Business cooperative contract already in place, Haining and Marcella were able to utilize the Prince William County Public Schools contract as a result of a competitive RFP process through OMNIA Partners.

This simplified procurement process helps public agencies like the City of Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Valley Water District gain cost and time savings to focus their attention and efforts on other matters within their organizations. Haining added that using the Amazon Business contract through OMNIA Partners creates the best value for his organization with the non-strategic and miscellaneous purchases that they otherwise would not have the resources to create an RFP/RFQ for.

Team members in both the City of Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Valley Water District found streamlined efficiency and success in their organizations by utilizing the competitively solicited Amazon Business contract through OMNIA Partners. Learn more about how this contract can help your organization today.

Through OMNIA Partners, Amazon Business offers two competitively-awarded contracts through Prince William County Public Schools and the State of Utah. For additional information, visit https://www.omniapartners.com/publicsector/amazonbusiness