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Let me give you a brief history of Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO). They have been around for decades. Do you know what types of businesses get the best pricing on all of the goods and services they purchase? The answer is healthcare facilities. Do you know why? I’ll tell you. Nearly any healthcare facility in the nation that is making a profit belongs to a buying group. The average healthcare facility belongs to two GPOs . Thousands of facilities join together to negotiate contracts with their vendors. Vendors aggressively compete to get awarded the group’s contracts. As a result each group member saves money on everything they purchase. Annual membership fees range from $250.00 - $20,000.00. The concept is slowly evolving into other industries. Today there are National GPOs for Universities, Engineers, Cable Television/satellite Installers and one for Small & Medium Size Companies. Smaller GOPs have formed at the regional, state and local level for a variety of industries.

Pros and Cons of the National GPOs

The benefit to the national buying groups is that their size gives them the volume to negotiate bigger discounts with national vendors. But there are many problems with the national buying groups. They have gotten greedy and charge their vendors ever-increasing percentage of their revenues generated by their members. This reduces the amount of the discounts offered to their members. The national GPOs do not backup their annual membership fee with a money back guarantee on member's savings. Some of these GPOs force their members to use their vendors exclusively. This has caused a backlash against GPO's because members maybe forced to use vendors that offer poor products and services.

Pros and Cons of the Smaller GPO's

With the exception of a few state GPO's most non-national GPOs are local. A group of businesses in a city in a particular industry get together and form a GPO. The advantage is that each member has say in the vendors that are selected by the GPO. The other advantage is that the GPO is free. The problem is that a few dozen members of a local GPO don't have the purchasing power to receive really big discounts from vendors. To get any decent level of volume all of the members are forced to use the same vendors exclusively. Thus the members do not have total freedom to select their vendors. The other major problem it that it takes lots of time and coordination by the members to manage the GPO.

There is One National GPO for Small Business That is FREE!

The Hospitality Buying Group, www.hospitality-buying-group.com, is a national buying group for any small & medium size business that has a totally FREE lifetime membership. Unlike all other GPOs, the Hospitality Buying Group does not charge their vendors any fees or commissions on purchases made by their members. Don't let the name fool you! The focus of this GPO started in the hospitality industry, but so many non-hospitality vendors started participating in this GPO that any small business would be able to use any number of the hospitality buying group vendors. Members have total freedom of using the GPO vendors or using their own vendors. The founder of this buying group was the committee chairman for a health care GPO for six years. This GPO is a value-added service for customers of several GPO vendors. To get a FREE lifetime membership to the Hospitality Buying Group all you need to do is email customer service at questions@hospitality-buying-group.com and tell them you are considering becoming a customer of DHL Shipping Services or CFOToday Payroll Services. Provide your name, company name, street address, phone number and fax number in the email and you will be added to the Hospitality Buying Group database. You can then immediately start contacting the Hospitality Buying Group vendors of your choice and get access to the GPO discounts.

When selecting a GPO consider the cost of membership, vendor selection, how long they have been in business, and if you are forced to use their vendors. For small and medium size businesses the Hospitality Buying Group is a good no risk approach to get familiar with a GPO.

About The Author

Paul Joseph BuissonI was the committee chairman for six years for one of the largest healthcare buying groups in the southeast. For the past four years I've been president of the only FREE national buying group dedicated to small business. I have 12 years in healthcare management and six of those years were at the department head level. Feel free to republish this article.questions@hospitality-buying-group.com

This article was posted on July 05, 2004some content courtesy ArticleCity.com

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