The goal

The goal

With the Smart Buy Purchasing Initiative, the Institute is consolidating the MIT community’s buying power to negotiate bulk pricing on goods and services. Participating vendors will offer streamlined methods for purchasing the highest-quality services at the best possible prices.

The Smart Buy Purchasing Initiative offers

• Top-quality vendors with improved services selected by teams of experienced MIT staff from across the campus.
• The tools and information to quickly compare and choose among complex commodities.
• Advantageous pricing with participating vendors.
• Streamlined and improved processes to make ordering quick and easy.
• Increased confidence about the quality of goods and services purchased.

As with most initiatives, the more that people use it, the stronger it grows. If the community makes use of the vendors and process improvements of the Smart Buy Purchasing Initiative, Institute departments will save both money and time—funds and resources that each office can then direct toward other needs.

The process

The Purchasing Initiative is a collaborative effort of the MIT community for the MIT community. Team members from across the Institute work together to share knowledge and experience, evaluate vendors, interview members of the community, and consult colleagues at neighboring institutions. Their shared goal: to develop and implement savings and improvements—a rigorous process resulting in advantageous partnerships with top-quality vendors, better services, and more streamlined processes.

Download a report about the process of selecting

printing vendors

shipping vendors

The result

By distributing business to a core group of vendors, MIT has been able to leverage discounts, ensure quality, and simplify buying processes. Procurement team members will oversee the performance of vendors, evaluate feedback from MIT consumers, and monitor costs and quality to ensure that the process is consistently serving the community.