Reinventing the GPO in the Age of the Digital Community

If you are a procurement professional who has been around for a reasonable amount of time, what do the words Group Purchasing Organization mean to you? Have you considered reinventing the GPO?

Foundry Sourcing is our take on the old school GPO (Group Purchasing Organization) – Foundry Sourcing is essentially GPO 2.0. so, Foundry Sourcing is a Community Assisted Sourcing (CAS) program designed to help the companies for which our PF’ers work. – Michael Cadieux (PF Watercooler)

Not wanting to make this into a history lesson focusing on the checkered past of the GPO model, we figure it would be a better idea to focus on what today’s Community Assisted Sourcing (CAS) program is all about. In this context and for the remainder of this article, we will no longer use the acronym GPO but instead CAS.

So, what is a CAS? 

No Longer a Rose 

We have all heard the saying that a rose by any other name is still a rose. Regarding the differences between a GPO and a CAS, we are talking more than a semantical title shift. For the gardeners out there, we are talking about a whole new species of flower here.

To start, we are developing a program that will “help Foundry Sourcing suppliers/partners to offset some of their marketing expenses” by allowing them to “self-fund” their Procurement Foundry “Permanent Residence” marketing programs and conference sponsorships.

In addition to the above, because Foundry Sourcing is not the only method by which Procurement Foundry obtains revenue, we can be very competitive with our suppliers/partners, passing that value onto our members and their organizations.

These are not the only differences of the CAS model, but they do stand out for all of the right reasons—including creating a true transparent win-win program for all stakeholders.

Need and Agility

Our original plan was to hold off activating the program until December, at which point we are planning to have more partner/sponsor agreements in place.

However, speaking to the quality of the suppliers/partners we are bringing on board and our agility to respond to a pressing need in the market, we will share one of the agreements that we have currently in place today.

With this in mind, we are thrilled to announce our new partnership with Proven Pass.

Proven Pass is an industry-leading COVID-19 Health Compliance & Testing firm. They offer full-service COVID testing, employee test fulfillment and logistics, lab partnerships, and a result tracking and reporting system. 

Based on recent OSHA mandates in the US, many Procurement Foundry members are being asked by their HR partners for solutions. They are calling us for help, which is why we are moving up our timeline to help address this immediate requirement.

Having this agility to secure the right suppliers/partners to meet a pressing need is another key differentiator of the CAS program. In short, we are leveraging the power of the community to not simply drive down prices—which was the focus of traditional GPOs. What we are doing is leveraging the diversity and expertise of our communities needs to develop partnership relationships with suppliers who deliver value and knowledge to ultimately achieve mutually beneficial outcomes every time all of the time. Now that is what we call a Community Assisted Sourcing.

So, if you are looking to resolve your COVID-19 Employee Testing program needs or are worried about what the new OSHA mandates might mean for you please send us an email at info@foundrysourcing.io