EverDriven is excited to continue our nearly 10-year cooperative Alternative Student Transportation partnership with Region 4 Education Service Center through OMNIA Partners.
In 2015 , Region 4 Education Service Center awarded EverDriven a contract through OMNIA Partners as a preferred Alternative Student Transportation provider. For nearly 10 years, we have built a trusted relationship with them and their districts by familiarizing ourselves with the needs of their districts, parents, and students. Our extensive history, proven track record for reliable service and additional safety innovations we launched in the last decade has resulted in Region 4 Education Service Center awarding us the contract for the third time, securing EverDriven a spot on their preferred vendor list for another five years.
Who is OMNIA Partners?
With nearly 30 years of experience delivering exceptional service and industry-leading suppliers to their participants, OMNIA Partners is a cooperative dedicated to optimizing procurement for the public sector. Their purchasing power, and superior suppliers, have resulted in a comprehensive portfolio of cooperative contracts and partnerships. All of this has made OMNIA Partners one of the most valued and trusted resources for organizations in the public sector, nationwide.
Through OMNIA Partners, participants have access to an extensive portfolio of competitively solicited, publicly awarded contracts making the daunting task of selecting and contracting with a new vendor easy and quick. OMNIA Partners offers added value and resources to state and local government, higher education, K-12 education, and non-profits all over the country.
What is a Cooperative Purchasing Organization?
Cooperative purchasing organizations exist to reduce the time and money it takes for government agencies, public and private schools/colleges, tribal governments, and nonprofit organizations to find and enter a contract with vendors for virtually any product or service. Existing at both the state and national levels, participation is free with no obligations to their participants, so there’s no downside for the public sector entity to join. Cooperative purchasing organizations work by awarding qualified vendors through their extensive Request for Proposals (RFP) process where they take the time to vet vendors, negotiate, and enter contracts with so that their participants have a readily available list of qualified vendors for upcoming projects or service needs.
How Does OMNIA Partners Cooperative Purchasing Work?
Cooperative purchasing through OMNIA Partners is unique as it utilizes a lead agency model for its contracting process. This model is the foundation of OMNIA Partners and is what sets them apart from other cooperatives. OMNIA Partners works with a lead public agency to ensure that industry best practices, procedures and processes are applied so that participants can feel confident knowing they are getting the best value offered by cooperative procurement.
The cooperative contracting process is similar to a traditional RFP process. It begins with a lead agency preparing and issuing the solicitation, incorporating language to make the agreement accessible nationally to public agencies. The lead agency conducts a pre-proposal meeting to address any questions from suppliers who intend to submit a response to the solicitation. Once the suppliers submit their responses, the lead agency evaluates and negotiates the final terms and ultimately awards a contract to the supplier(s) that best meet the criteria in the RFP. After the contract has been awarded, OMNIA Partners promotes the contract publicly and nationally on their website to all participants.
What Are the Benefits of Cooperative Purchasing Agreements to School Districts?
Nothing is more important to a school district than ensuring the safety of its students. Finding, vetting and contracting with vendors can be a long and tedious process taking resources away from already understaffed district teams. Joining a cooperative, like OMNIA Partners, could save district staff 500 hours (about 3 weeks), per category they are sourcing vendors from, because it eliminates the need for the district to run a time-consuming RFP process. This allows school districts to focus on what really matters—their students. Let’s recap the benefits of joining a cooperative like OMNIA Partners:
District Resource Efficiency
- When a district chooses to participate in a cooperative purchasing agreement, they are selecting a more efficient way to procure vendors. OMNIA Partners’ contracting process takes the time and resources to evaluate vendors and select the suppliers that can be trusted to care for student populations so that other districts don’t have to. In turn, this saves districts money through significantly lower administrative costs associated with the RFP process.
Comprehensive Vendor Vetting
- OMNIA Partners’ lead agency model ensures that vendors have been evaluated through the same criteria the district would evaluate—factors like:
- Safety,
- Price,
- Experience,
- Value,
- Compliance,
- Service offerings, and
- Capabilities.
K12 Expertise
- OMNIA Partners understands the unique needs of K-12 educational institutions and has dedicated subject matter experts who properly evaluate districts’ needs and match school districts with the appropriate leading national supplier. The subject matter experts help facilitate a discussion with the provider and develop customized solutions to best meet the unique needs of the district.
Standardized Contracts and Pricing
Partnering with OMNIA Partners enables visibility into vendor contracts and pricing and making it standard for members of the cooperative. All suppliers of OMNIA Partners commit to not to exceed the published pricing and may even offer participating school districts exclusive discounts.
How Can School Districts Work With EverDriven Through OMNIA Partners?
Procurement of EverDriven’s Alternative Student Transportation services through OMNIA Partners is simple.
Step 1: Become a member of OMNIA Partners. To find out if your district is a member of OMNIA Partners, contact 866-875-3299 or email info@omniapartners.com .
Step 2: Reference EverDriven contract number R230901 when submitting your purchase order.
Step 3: Gain peace of mind. EverDriven will safely and efficiently transport your students with unique transportation needs to and from school.
