How to Improve the Procurement Process & Increase Cost Savings
Work smarter and faster.
Expert tips for improving efficiency at every step of the procurement cycle and how a GPO eliminates the steps that consume the most time.
- 78% of CPOs cite cost reduction as their top procurement concern
- Nearly 60% of procurement professionals feel pressure to deliver savings faster
- Indirect spend is often the fastest path to efficiency gains; McKinsey says managing it can cut costs by 10–25%
- A single supplier search takes ~3 months and 40+ hours; a GPO eliminates this step entirely for indirect categories
- GPO members can skip steps 2, 3, 5, and 6 of the procurement cycle for common indirect categories
- ~50% of Una members connect to an initial contract and start saving within one month
GET STARTED
Skip the Supplier Search With Una
Pre-negotiated contracts across hundreds of indirect suppliers with free to access from day one.
Why Procurement Efficiency Matters
Over the past several years, procurement has evolved from a transactional function into the backbone of organizations around the world, reaching across departments to partner in ways that help entire businesses become successful. A recent survey found that 78% of CPOs are most concerned with reducing costs in the procurement process.
Rather than sticking to the traditional view of procurement, industry leaders are looking for savings and value that goes beyond just improving the bottom line. Procurement is on a mission to streamline the purchasing process, remove bottlenecks, improve supplier relationships, realign itself with organizational goals, and celebrate its successes along the way.
~60%
78%
Recent data from Una member surveys found that one of the main pain points procurement professionals experience is the length of time it takes to realize cost savings — particularly in indirect categories like shipping, office supplies, and facilities maintenance, where negotiating fair prices independently is difficult and category knowledge may be limited.
Direct vs. Indirect Spend
The procurement cycle must typically be followed for each purchase in each category, making it time-consuming and resource-intensive.
Understanding where to invest that effort is the first step to improving efficiency.
DIRECT SPEND
Up to 80% of total spend
Raw materials, components, and services that go directly into the final product. For this spend, honoring the full procurement process makes sense — energy should go into establishing key relationships with the top 10–20% of strategic suppliers.
INDIRECT SPEND
~20% of total spend
Everything else that keeps operations running: office supplies, IT, logistics, utilities, facilities. At scale, 20% can represent millions of dollars left unmanaged. And the bulk of your supplier relationships live here.
MCKINSEY RESEARCH
Managing indirect spend can cut product and service costs by 10–25%, reduce manual workloads by 30–50%, and slash time-to-market by 30–40%.
Indirect spend is beset with problems like fragmented categories, siloed data, lack of centralized control, and persistent maverick purchasing. Unmanaged indirect suppliers face less due diligence than direct ones, leaving organizations open to compliance risks, cybersecurity threats, operational exposure, and reputational damage.
The risk of leaving it unmanaged is getting harder to justify.
The 10-Step Procurement Cycle (With Improvement Tips)
The typical procurement cycle consists of about ten steps from determining business needs through contract performance review. Here's each step with specific tips for improving efficiency, and where a GPO can shortcut the process for indirect categories.
1.
Determine Business Needs
The procurement cycle begins when your organization needs something from an external supplier. Understand budget constraints, overall business objectives, and the priorities of individual departments.
HOW TO IMPROVE
Clearly defining needs enables better, more informed buying decisions. Seek input from cross-functional stakeholders and engage subject-matter experts early. This ensures compliance and reduces the need for buy-in later in the process.
2.
Complete a Market Analysis
A thorough market analysis gives you a robust understanding of available options, enabling you to compile a prospective supplier list based on costs, key players, market dynamics, and how the market is evolving.
HOW TO IMPROVE
GPO SHORTCUT
For small or resource-constrained teams, outsource this step to a third-party provider or GPO. Una can save your team weeks of effort by leveraging its own intelligence sources to gather all the data needed to make an educated supplier decision.
3.
Compile a Supplier List
With your market analysis in hand, you're equipped to shortlist suitable suppliers. Consider all relevant factors: innovation, sustainability, local sourcing, efficiency, cost, and the nature of the working relationship you want.
HOW TO IMPROVE
GPO SHORTCUT
Shortlist with your top priorities clearly defined before you start. For common indirect categories, a GPO has already done this work, eliminating the step entirely and giving members access to a pre-vetted supplier portfolio.
4.
Produce Tender Documents
Provide shortlisted suppliers with detailed specifications outlining your budget, volume requirements, timescales, SLA, and terms and conditions.
HOW TO IMPROVE
Distinguish clearly between specific requirements and personal preferences. This reduces supplier questions and shortens the response cycle. Involve key stakeholders at this stage to cut down on back-and-forth before submission.
5.
Issue RFI, RFQ, or RFP
Depending on the complexity of your procurement, issue a Request for Information, Request for Quote, or Request for Proposal to shortlisted suppliers. This step is lengthy and time-consuming but necessary for major strategic purchases.
HOW TO IMPROVE
GPO SHORTCUT
For indirect procurement needs, consider skipping the RFP process altogether by joining a GPO. GPOs already have established supplier relationships and leverage collective buying power to negotiate best pricing — no RFP required, access granted automatically through membership.
6.
Negotiate and Award the Contract
Negotiate contract terms that serve both parties by addressing costs, conditions, key deliverables, break clauses, and KPIs. A well-negotiated contract is the foundation of a healthy, long-term supplier partnership.
HOW TO IMPROVE
GPO SHORTCUT
Review similar past contracts to understand what's worked, what hasn't, and where costs can be reduced. Una members skip this step entirely for indirect categories with thousands of pre-negotiated contracts in place, you can start saving within weeks rather than months.
7.
Finalize the Purchase Order
The purchase order details the final agreed-upon specifics: goods and services description, volume requirements, timeframes, and costs. Once approved by finance, it's issued to the supplier to fulfill the order and issue an invoice.
HOW TO IMPROVE
"Measure twice and cut once." Purchase orders are legal documentation. Double-check that all specifics are clearly outlined so both parties are protected. Errors here create costly downstream reconciliation problems.
8.
Process Payment
Your supplier provides an invoice detailing the agreed-upon price and payment method. Pay attention to payment terms to ensure on-time payment. Late payment damages supplier relationships and can trigger penalty clauses.
HOW TO IMPROVE
Use payment technology to automate the process and eliminate the need to manually chase payments through accounts payable. Automation reduces errors, improves supplier relationships, and frees time for higher-value work.
9.
Audit Your Order
When your supplier delivers, keep a record of when it arrives and check its contents against the purchase order. Note any issues like shipping delays, poor quality, or incorrect inventory so they can be rectified quickly or referenced at contract renewal.
HOW TO IMPROVE
Organization is key. Keep complete records of all documents associated with each purchase — contracts, invoices, order audits. This enables accurate budget management, spend analysis, and meaningful process improvement over time.
10.
Review Contract Performance
Continually review and revise contracts to extract maximum value, ensure objectives are being met, and keep supplier relationships healthy. Supplier KPIs, workflow performance, and deliverables are the key evaluation inputs.
HOW TO IMPROVE
Maintain regular communication with suppliers and create structured opportunities for feedback from both the supplier and internal stakeholders. Schedule review dates in advance; don't let contracts renew automatically without a competitive assessment.
5 Ways a GPO Improves Procurement Efficiency
Making small improvements at each step of the procurement cycle adds up but the biggest efficiency gains come from eliminating steps entirely for indirect categories. Here's how a group purchasing organization like Una compresses the procurement timeline from months to weeks.
Acts as an extension of your procurement team
Partnering with a GPO instantly increases the resources available to your procurement function without the time and cost of hiring. In practice, this means delegating tasks like tail spend management, spend analytics, and category strategy to Una's Sourcing Advisors rather than stretching an already lean team.
Eliminates the need to search for suppliers
McKinsey found a single supplier search takes around three months, with sourcing professionals logging more than 40 hours of work through the RFP process. For common indirect categories like corporate services, office supplies, shipping, facilities, and food distribution, working with a GPO means finding and vetting suppliers is already done. Potentially months of work eliminated.
Allows you to skip the negotiation process
After weeks of supplier searching, procurement teams face another time-consuming hurdle: negotiation. Multiple rounds of back-and-forth proposals and counter-proposals can consume days. Una has thousands of pre-negotiated contracts already in place, meaning organizations can typically start saving within weeks of joining, not months.
Provides a cost analysis based on real data
As an extension of your procurement team, Una helps skip the RFP process entirely by providing savings projections based on actual contract terms, not estimates. The cost analysis starts with a picture of your current spend, then shows exactly what you could be saving using one or more pre-negotiated contracts.
Offers a seamless and repeatable process
Una offers an attentive end-to-end experience and ongoing support for future needs. Once onboarded and saving in one category, the same process can simply be repeated for additional categories. No re-vetting suppliers, no re-learning the system, no starting from scratch.
The Una Difference
Una is on a mission to increase organizational profitability using group purchasing. When you work with Una, you're choosing a partner in procurement. The process consists of a discovery call to define success, cost analyses to identify savings opportunities, and introductions to top suppliers.
It's fast, seamless, and applicable to almost any category of spend.
~50%
18-22%
Free
GPOs alone don't provide a comprehensive procurement outsourcing strategy. Una understands this. Rather, our team focuses on driving value across a broad set of indirect categories that can have meaningful impact for a large number of participants.
Partnering with Una generates hard-dollar savings in selected categories and enables corporate procurement to redirect freed-up resources toward higher-priority strategic initiatives.
Ready to Work Smarter
& Save Faster?
Contact Una today to request a comprehensive cost analysis and see how group purchasing improve your procurement process.
Download the full playbook here.