“When you take the aggregate buying power of all local government and put that together, everybody’s going to benefit from it,” said Steve Fisher, BuyBoard’s program manager.

Denton County Purchasing Agent Beth Fleming routinely compares prices between BuyBoard and other sources. “We place orders with BuyBoard,” she said. “We know we save money because we have shopped them against other co-ops.”

“BuyBoard is usually low bidder,” Grimes agreed.

The most popular “big ticket” items purchased through BuyBoard are vehicles and trucks, including road and bridge equipment such as motor graders, wheel loaders, backhoes, utility tractors and large and specialty mowers. Other outdoor products include fertilizers, turf conditioners and irrigation systems. On the law enforcement side are police units, sport utility/police packages, mobile command equipment and emergency management/bioterrorist vehicles.

But Fisher emphasized that BuyBoard is not limited to large purchases. “Counties can also get everything from pens and pencils to janitorial supplies. Members have ordered instructional materials for a Head-Start type program all the way up to buses that are converted for prisoner transport,” he said.

BuyBoard had its genesis during the dot.com boom of the mid-90s when a small start-up in Austin developed the electronic government bid board concept. They joined with a coalition of the Texas Association of School Boards, the Texas Municipal League and the Texas Association of Counties to form a co-op called the Local Government Purchasing Cooperative, which introduced the electronic purchasing process for local government entities. When BuyBoard’s financial backer pulled the plug in 1999, the coalition underwrote the co-op until they were able to not only become self-sufficient but to earn a profit as well.

Over time, BuyBoard has become member-driven. “If a member says they’d like to see a particular product, we try to get it,” said Fisher. “Members ask for all kinds of things we might not think about. Here in Austin, we wouldn’t think of sand-spreading equipment, but that’s what members in North Texas needed, so we went and found it.”

BuyBoard has grown so rapidly over the past eight years (they now have more than 1,900 members and generated $314 million in sales last year), that they were able, for the first time, to pay dividends to qualifying member counties, based on purchase amounts.

Janelle Duchamps, Orange County’s purchasing agent, was pleasantly surprised when she received a check for nearly $1,400 from BuyBoard last month. “It came as a nice surprise on top of the savings we usually get,” she said.

The rebates paid to counties ranged from a little more than $100 to $10,200. A total of $1.25 million was returned in December.

“We’re a co-op, and it’s only right that when we bring in more revenue than we spend, we give it back,” Fisher said, adding that BuyBoard generated more than was needed to run the co-op, so the excess revenue was rebated to eligible members.

As another result of BuyBoard’s rapid growth, membership is now free to all Texas counties.

Joining is simple. After executing an interlocal agreement, the county will designate which staff members have the authority to access the BuyBoard, as well as what level of access they have. All authorized county personnel will receive a username and password. The usernames are tied to the amount of access the county has given each employee, from just being able to browse the items available through BuyBoard to being able to purchase orders.

After logging on with the assigned username and password, it’s simply a matter of choosing the commodity, opening the electronic catalog, locating the exact item, adding it to the shopping basket and checking out. Once the requisition is released, the process is complete.

“It couldn’t be any easier,” Duchamps said. “We locate the item, cut a purchase order, release the order and we’re done. Lately we’ve used BuyBoard for several copiers, some playground equipment, tires, a grader and a truck. They’ve been very pleasant.”

At first, several county purchasers expressed doubts. They worried about the legality of buying big items without the bid process. Would they be complying with state regulations? They worried about using a computer interface. How would this compare to seeing their vendors face-to-face? They worried about accountability. Who would ensure they received what they were promised?

Fortunately, those purchasers discovered that state regulations were being followed to the letter – that the 600+ vendors selling through BuyBoard had submitted their bids in response to specs the BuyBoard had sent out, and were awarded contracts after a thorough review by the co-op board.

Purchasers also discovered that using BuyBoard didn’t mean losing control over the terms of a purchase. Once a county selects a vendor, purchasing agents deal with that vendor directly and are able to negotiate with that vendor. They receive the invoice from the vendor and they send payment to the vendor; BuyBoard does not ask counties for money.

Grimes said when she negotiated the work on the soccer field, she had the vendor sign her usual county contract. “One thing counties need to be conscious of when you’re doing a public works project is to check for bonding, payment bonds, workers’ comp, those things,” she said.

In addition, counties are able to continue working with the vendors with whom they are familiar or with whom they have an established relationship. “We also strongly encourage our members to have their preferred vendors register with BuyBoard to give themselves the opportunity to bid on future projects,” Fisher said.

Purchasers said they were also happy to discover that BuyBoard would be there to help resolve any issues they might have with vendors. While Fisher said he encourages BuyBoard’s members and vendors to try to resolve issues themselves, he said BuyBoard is willing to step in if needed.

Fisher said most disputes involve the vendor unexpectedly adding shipping costs to the invoice. “We check the vendor’s bid to confirm no shipping should be applied and then call the vendor on behalf of the member to get a credit issued or a new invoice sent that reflects no shipping,” he said.