Ecommerce platform from OMNIA Partners enables users to satisfy their procurement needs all in one place

OMNIA Partners, a firm that provides its members with access to group purchasing contracts with leading national suppliers, has introduced OPUS, an ecommerce platform. With OPUS, public sector agencies get access to more than 650 competitively solicited, publicly awarded OMNIA Partners contracts.

The new platform streamlines and simplifies the purchasing process for local governments in several ways, says Denise Woodside, executive vice president, operations and digital strategy at OMNIA Partners. “Historically, a sales representative was tasked with meeting with a prospective customer, collecting their information, filling out relevant paperwork and setting up an account. This cumbersome process could take anywhere from days to weeks to complete. OMNIA Partners OPUS revolutionizes this process, automating it so that members can use one login to access more than 6 million products across 120+ categories—all on one platform.” 

She explains how public buyers benefit: “With OPUS, local government procurement officials can see real-time pricing and inventory, connect with suppliers, and execute a purchase all in one place and at one time. Time and money saved allows these officials_—who often have many responsibilities and are increasingly tasked with doing more with less—to spend more time and resources on strategic, higher-value tasks.”

The OPUS setup enables users to search across multiple suppliers and see real-time product availability and pricing. Woodside explains how OMNIA Partners helps OPUS users achieve great value in their transactions: “We leverage economies of scale to negotiate the best value, often helping members achieve lower pricing than they could obtain by making direct purchases from vendors on their own.” All the suppliers in OPUS are tied to OMNIA Partners’ cooperative contracts.

No question, local government buyers can save a sizable amount of time by using the OPUS platform rather than contacting individual vendors for price quotes and product availability. OMNIA Partners’ Woodside offers the following calculation: “The standard process for basic product purchases can take government agencies several days as they reach out to vendors, compare pricing and execute a purchase. Through OPUS, this process can save members an average of two hours a day, equating to 10 hours a week, 40 hours a month and more than a thousand hours per year.”

Officials in Polk County, Texas reported time savings of up to two hours a day after they began using OPUS for their procurement needs. Woodside tells Co-op Solutions: “As a result, they achieved significant cost savings, improved efficiencies and reduced the burden on the central procurement office. Perhaps most importantly, they were able to focus more of their time and energy on more strategic tasks, empowering them to better support the county’s residents.”

OPUS is accessible to a variety of users and user agencies—not just procurement department personnel. Woodside explains: “We recognize that there are many people who procure materials for their organizations. Whether they are in a procurement department or otherwise, OPUS is for anyone who needs to buy products or services from a competitively solicited and publicly awarded supplier or vendor.”

Woodside notes OPUS’ comprehensive availability: “Many OPUS users fall outside of a traditional procurement function and include teachers, board members, facilities managers and IT directors, among others. We recognize that these professionals wear many hats, and OPUS can help them dedicate more time to their non-procurement-related responsibilities.”

Yes, OPUS provides government departments with a user-friendly, centralized ecommerce platform that allows them to take care of their procurement needs all in one place. The system allows users to research and buy from multiple suppliers with a single login and a single shopping cart. OMNIA Partners OPUS was designed so that members can go through the entire procurement process from start to finish on one webpage.

Woodside says OPUS was purposefully built with OMNIA Partners’ “one access, one location” mantra in mind. “Our primary focus was to help our members seamlessly and efficiently connect with and procure what they need from the right suppliers. We’ve set the industry standard by enabling users to not only directly connect and transact with suppliers, but also to directly request incremental services that are the cornerstone of their needs.”

The OPUS QuickConnect function enables efficient and effective communication. “QuickConnect enables direct communication between buyers and vendors, enhancing efficiencies and improving collaboration. QuickConnect works by allowing users to request information—whether it be quotes, services or bundle requests—directly from our suppliers with the single click of a button,” Woodside tells Co-op Solutions.

Woodside says that her team recognizes that users often have the same request for multiple suppliers, and finding the right fit is crucial to their operations. “QuickConnect simplifies this process, allowing users to send a single request to multiple suppliers while ensuring they’ll receive information directly aligned to our OMNIA Partners contracts.” Through OPUS, the buying team can quickly obtain multiple quotes for the same product. This can help ensure a fair and competitive comparison without the tedious task of independently sourcing vendors. 

OPUS is continuing to evolve, says Woodside. “We know first-hand the difference strategic procurement can make when it comes to an organization or agency’s success. We also know that all our customers, especially local governments, have to find ways to do more with less. Our intent is to continuously listen and respond to our members with product enhancements and innovations—including but not limited to providing additional product categories, offerings and contracts. We also intend to broaden our features and functionality based on feedback from our members to best serve OPUS users. OPUS will evolve alongside and in support of OMNIA Partners and our members. As our members’ needs evolve, we will too.”

Go to the following link to sign up for OMNIA Partners’ OPUS.