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About Cooperative PurchasingNDESC collaborates with Cooperative Resources, Inc. (CRI) to provide a year-round purchasing program that allows members to purchase goods and services as they need them and at significantly discounted prices. As a result, members can save money, reduce the need for storage and do not need to spend money in August for items not needed until May. Products and services are available through many suppliers from whom you may already be purchasing. Most programs were established utilizing a formal bid process according to ND bid laws. As a result, you may purchase from these programs without having to go through the bid process on your own.
NDESC is also a member of The Association of Educational Purchasing Agencies (AEPA). This is a 21-state consortium that has collectively bid for a wide variety of products that are commonly used by schools and are often major purchases.
Members of NDESC/CRI have access to a number of contracts offering significant savings in a variety of areas:
Please click on the links above to access more information about Cooperative Purchasing services offered.
A member school district provided us with the invoices from their food service program for the previous month. Crossing these items over to our current food supply contracted vendor, we found that this district could have saved $421.44 in one month. That equates to a savings of 12.37%. A member governmental agency was ready to place an office supply order with two well known discount office supply companies. Before placing the order, however, they asked us to check the pricing with our contracted vendor. This produced a savings of $55.95 on an order that was originally $165.76 for a savings of 33.75%. A member needed to order some laboratory safety equipment. The initial order was written from a well-known national supplier of science equipment & supplies. Crossing the items over to the LCSC contracted vendor saved the member $1469.63 or 15.84% on an order of $7807.92 (Originally = $9477.55) Click here for membership information.
For more information about cooperative purchasing, please contact one of the following:
Doug Koch, Cooperative Purchasing Coordinator, 866-337-2005, dkoch@lcsc.org
Wayne Levang, Program Representative, 866-337-2005 or 701-323-0958, wlevang@yahoo.com