Transformation and Simplification By Teresa Mitchell Erman, Director of Marketing, MHEC
Transformation is never easy.
But when that path is chosen and leads to delivering on your mission, it embodies a sense of purpose that exhilarates and keeps you moving forward through the thickets and the winding paths. That’s what 2021 has been for the MHEC.
Growing pains.
MHEC is celebrating its 45th year as a not-for-profit Group Purchasing Organization (GPO). This year caps off four and a half decades focused on building a diverse portfolio of publicly bid contracts, representing over 600 suppliers, 25,000 products and services, and 6000 brands. As a not-for-profit GPO, our portfolio gives members an opportunity to have a one-stop shopping resource to meet the broad needs of their organization without having to go to bid. Simple! But perhaps, not SO simple. An extensive analysis of member needs in 2020, revealed that all that diversity came at a cost—complexity in the searching process. While our contracts took the burden of sourcing suppliers off the shoulders of our members, finding the product to meet an organization’s need was another story. Put simply (no pun intended), we had too much of a good thing. This feedback led to an intense year of looking at how we could simplify every major touchpoint with our members.
Your one thing to do today Become a MHEC member organization. It’s the simplest thing you can do to make a difference for your organization and its free, as in no cost – ever. Sign up and you will join your muni neighbors in Antrim, Carroll, Lebanon, Hampstead, Keene, Laconia, Litchfield, Manchester, Nashua, Pelham, and Salem who have become members of the MHEC. Website: Our website was redesigned to enable quick and easy access to content and provide individual landing pages for each of our contracts. These pages serve as information hubs for members to find contract updates and news, promotions, supplier features and more. Landing pages by sector (cities and towns, libraries, k-12, and higher education) are in the process of being built. These pages will include state related news for our New England members. Purchasing platform: We are changing our purchasing experience to be an online marketplace called MHEC’s i buy marketplaceTM. n
The i buy marketplaceTM is powered by a leading ecommerce platform that can stand alone and also integrate with an organization’s existing punchouts that are often in place. Now, instead of having to pull the contract, find the contract representative, and call for a quote; buying from our contracts will be a point and click experience to search on products/ services, brands, and suppliers. Members will be able to also make comparisons between product choices, styles, and prices similar to current popular online retail sites. This buying tool will save members time, while our contracts save them money. A win-win. n
Getting-to-simple.
As we looked at root-causes, we discovered that at the heart of it, were complications from the immense growth. Originally chartered in1977 as a purchasing arm for Massachusetts state higher education institutions, our organization had 84 member organizations who paid fees to participate. Then the charter was changed in 2013 and MHEC grew to become a GPO for any not-for-profit organization with an educational component located anywhere in New England. Plus, membership was made free. Great stuff, except our technology solutions no longer fit the needs of our burgeoning membership base in today’s ecommerce marketplace. As we mapped out our strategy for getting-to-simple, we narrowed our focus to 2 key things: 36
NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN AND CITY
An identity crisis
As we addressed our member needs through technology solutions, it was also time to rethink what our www.nhmunicipal.org
