January 18, 2023
When Runestone Electric Cooperative embarked on building a new headquarters, they faced a lot of decisions, as you might imagine. The IT team knew one of their bigger decisions would involve replacing their antiquated phone system with something that supported their current business needs.
Because Runestone is a nonprofit cooperative, this was a prime opportunity for an Sourcewell Cooperative Contract.
Taking Advantage of Sourcewell
Sourcewell is an organization whose sole purpose is to aid government agencies, school districts and nonprofit organizations in obtaining products and services in a more efficient manner.
Sourcewell works with vendors to get the best possible prices for their products and services. Then Sourcewell uses those vendor relationships to navigate the request for proposal (RFP) process and the competitive solicitations. This way, government agencies, school districts and nonprofit organizations don't have to sacrifice their time pursuing the products and services they need to continue doing what they do. In the situation of Runestone, the Mitel phone system that fit the nonprofit's communication needs had already been vetted and the price had been negotiated by Sourcewell.
Marco employee Kristi O'Brien recommended Sourcewell to Runestone. “If Kristi hadn’t recommended it, we would not have known about it,” says Sue Lundeen, Manager of Member Services for Runestone.
Saving Time and Money
The most significant savings, Lundeen explained, was time. By going with Sourcewell, her organization was able to avoid RFPs and the competitive solicitation process. All Runestone had to do was select the phone system needed and purchase it at the price negotiated by Sourcewell. All the RFP hoop jumping is eliminated.
By saving time, Runestone also saved money. Employee time is perhaps one of the most valuable resources many Sourcewell qualifying entities have. This new phone system removed one big hurdle from the organization’s plate as they continued construction of their new headquarters. “When you are constructing a new building, there are so many decisions that need to be made. And to free us up on that was a good thing,” says Lundeen.
Flexibility Creates Win-Win
Because they were able to save so much time during the procurement process, Runestone dedicated more time towards conversations with their installation partner, Marco. Because after securing the phone system they needed, it was time to ensure this phone system was set up to meet Runestone's specific needs.
A phone system is a generic piece of technology until it's applied specifically to meet the needs of any given business. Runestone found they were able to reapply their time towards customizations as opposed to applying their time toward the procurement process.
Lundeen says that working through Sourcewell made the whole process stress-free, and even when Runestone's needs changed during the process, the project had no glitches and no cost overruns.
An Ongoing Partnership
As an Sourcewell member, Runestone has continued access to products and technologies at lower prices. If Runestone is in need of additional phones or headsets, they can purchase that hardware at the price Sourcewell has negotiated for.
Similarly, Runestone can stay current and access newer, better technologies, with the help of Sourcewell pricing. At it's core, Sourcewell focuses on saving its members time and money through their cooperative process.
