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PRODUCTS

NEOSO conducts extensive research and interviewing on an ongoing basis to identify potential Product offerings that will be of value to NEOSO's Members. What do we mean by Products? Very simply, things that our Members buy. For example, during the pilot project, the first three Product areas we evaluated included Auto Parts, Fuel, and Crack Sealing. NEOSO provides a range of services around buying, including facilitating aggregated purchasing processes and various value-added consulting services.

The bottom line is that local governments buy a lot of the same things, year in and year out. There is a range of leveraged opportunities for local governments to utilize, such as the State bid or existing consortia. Our job is not to compete with the State bid: if you can get 40% off of goods such as office supplies by going through the State, great. We're not going to try to beat the State. Indeed, if we find consortia that have achieved great values for their members, we'll try to collaborate with those consortia to extend that value to our Members. For example, rather than creating our own Workers' Compensation group pool, we partnered with the Ohio Association of Public Treasurers and took advantage of their existing pool of participants to provide additional savings to NEOSO Members that our Members could not achieve on their own.

What we will do is focus on Products that our Members aren't already buying in a leveraged fashion.

HOW DOES NEOSO IDENTIFY PRODUCTS TO OFFER?

We identify Products through listening, asking questions and conducting research. Our Members are highly experienced. They know the opportunities to create leverage or get a better deal, but often don't have the time to pursue those opportunities. That's where we come in.

We constantly seek feedback and input as to what the opportunities are for us to pursue. What frustrates our Members? Where are you constrained by time? What would you like to get off your plate so you can focus on more important activities? We also conduct research and interview vendors and suppliers. A great way to improve pricing and value is to buy Products in a manner that makes it easier for vendors to service you. If we make it less expensive for suppliers to do business with us, our Members benefit in the form of better pricing. Our subject matter experts are invaluable in helping us understand how to package what we want in a way that is less expensive for vendors to provide and therefore less costly to our Members.

what is the process for developing a product offering?

The process is straightforward. In the research and interviewing that we do, some Products rise to the top of the list. Why? It could be for several reasons: the greatest opportunity to secure better pricing, a large number of Members requesting that we pursue a particular Product, or even just that the timing is right.

Once we decide to develop a product offering, we work with our Members and subject matter experts to comprehensively define what it is that our Members want and that they will buy. We seek to be creative and innovative, sometimes bundling service into products to achieve greater value, sometimes unbundling products to achieve better pricing and cut out the fat.

Once we have a clear understanding of what it is that we are procuring for our Members, we go to the market.

HOW DOES NEOSO PROCURE PRODUCTS?

NEOSO develops a procurement process for each particular Product based on multiple factors:

The composite procurement requirements of our Members. Each of our Members has a unique set of procurement guidelines. We do our best to develop a process that achieves the intent of their guidelines while understanding that we can never meet the specific requirements of all of our Members simultaneously.
Any applicable statutory or legal requirements.

WHAT ARE NEOSO'S MINORITY AND DISADVANTAGED VENDOR GUIDELINES?

We work with our Members to submit bidding and proposal opportunities to minority and disadvantaged vendors to ensure their ability to compete. If the winning vendor is in fact a minority or disadvantaged vendor, we inform our Members so that they can take that into consideration in meeting their own guidelines.

However, each of our Members has separate guidelines. NEOSO cannot possibly meet each of those individual guidelines, much as we cannot meet each of the individual procurement requirements of our Members. Our role is to supplement the diversity objectives of our Members.

HOW DOES NEOSO ASSURE QUALITY CONTROL AND SERVICE LEVELS?

Our main job, once a contract is in place with a vendor or supplier, is ensuring that suppliers meet expectations and live up to their contracts. We are in regular contact with all suppliers as well as with Members, checking to see if there are any current or potential issues. The communication lines, particularly with our Members, are critically important. We can't solve a problem if we don't know about it.

Once a problem has been identified, we work with the particular supplier and Member to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We also have developed very specific terms and conditions for each of our contracts with vendors to provide mechanisms for contract enforcement.