Strategic Sourcing: Save big bucks through JOSE

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Timothy Moore
  • 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany --  When shopping personally, many people seek ways to save money. They may use coupons, compare vendors' prices, or buy in bulk to receive discounts.

The military also looks for ways to save money while shopping, and the Joint Office Supplies in Europe (JOSE) program has the capability to possibly save the Department of Defense more than $1 million per year.

This is expected to happen as the program aims to revamp how U.S. Air Forces in Europe's and U.S. Army in  Europe's Government Purchase Card (GPC) cardholders buy office supplies without taking advantage of discounts.

The idea for the program's creation began when service component contracting offices reviewed the fiscal year 2014 office supply purchases.

"The services executed repetitive office supply purchases without receiving any discount," Marianne Seufert, Air Force Installation Contracting Activity and USAFE Strategic Sourcing Chief.

During the past year, the 1,600 GPC cardholders in USAFE bought office supplies from more than 400 different vendors, effectively negating any benefits that would normally come from bulk purchases.

USAREUR's approximate 900 GPCs were similarly spread out, making more than 9,000 purchases through 380 vendors, said Peter Deibert, 409th Contracting Support Brigade procurement analyst and acquisition planner.

After looking at their numbers, both organizations realized they spent approximately $13 million over nearly 20,000 purchases, again with no discount realized because of the lack of leveraging the buying power.

After getting approval from U.S. Air Force Col. Ronnie Doud, AFICA director, and Dr. Paul Michaels, 409th CSB, a joint team studied the potential benefits of a European-wide contract to buy office supplies. 

"We advertised to global industry and invited business partners to an Industry Day at Ramstein Air Base ," Seufert said. "We need an acquisition solution at the strategic level in Europe."

At the event, the joint team gathered information from the industry experts to determine how to combine customer needs, organizational goals and market conditions to get the best product and service at the best value.

From the information gathered, the team planned a future strategy to move both USAFE and USAREUR from buying tactically to strategically which formed the foundation of JOSE.

The new concept provides online ordering at discounted prices and delivery within three business days directly to the customer.

Since the new method of purchasing office supplies will be different from what has been done before, the GPC programs are scheduled to inform cardholders by email once JOSE is fully running, and tailor training to instruct cardholders on the new process.

The Strategic Sourcing team expects the contract to be awarded in Mar 2016 and companies to have their websites tailored to the JOSE program in May.When shopping personally, many people seek ways to save money. They may use coupons, compare vendors' prices, or buy in bulk to receive discounts.

The military also looks for ways to save money while shopping, and the Joint Office Supplies in Europe (JOSE) program has the capability to possibly save the Department of Defense more than $1 million per year.

This is expected to happen as the program aims to consolidate the locations where U.S. Air Forces in Europe's and U.S. Army Europe's government purchase cardholders buy office supplies in order to take advantage of discounts on bulk purchasing.

The idea for the program's creation began when service component contracting offices reviewed the fiscal year 2014 office supply purchases.

Before the creation of JOSE, the approximate 1,600 cardholders in USAFE bought office supplies from more than 400 different vendors, effectively negating any benefits that would normally come from bulk purchases.

"We found that we purchased office supplies 10,000 times without receiving any discounts because of  these tactical purchases," Marianne Seufert, Air Force Installation Contracting Activity and USAFE Strategic Sourcing chief.

USAREUR's approximate 900 cardholders were similarly spread out, making more than 9,000 purchases through 380 vendors, said Peter Deibert, 409th Contracting Support Brigade procurement analyst and acquisition planner.

After looking at their numbers, both organizations realized they spent approximately $13 million over nearly 20,000 purchases, again with no discount because of the lack of standardization.

"An important factor is these purchases weren't all done online," Seufert said. "A lot of them were done downtown or going to the Exchange."

After getting approval from U.S. Air Force Col. Ronnie Doud, AFICA director, and Paul Michaels, 409th CSB, a joint team hosted office supply industry partners during "Industry Day" at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, in June 2015.

"We advertised to global industry," Seufert said. "We said, 'We need a better system than what we have.'"

At the event, the joint team gathered information from the industry experts to determine how to combine customer needs, organizational goals and market conditions to get the best product and service at the best value.

From the information gathered, the team made a plan to move both USAFE and USAREUR from buying tactically to strategically which formed the foundation of JOSE.

The team requested that office supply companies create a website, or part of an existing website, where cardholders could easily purchase supplies that would be delivered within three business days directly to the customer, at a minimum discounting prices based on the number of anticipated purchases.

"The purchasing will still be done tactically because the cardholders will still have to (make purchases as needed), but they will have a system in place where we'll only have one to five vendors whose websites they will go to, purchase supplies and have it delivered," said Matt Josefowicz, AFICA Strategic Sourcing procurement analyst.

Since the new method of purchasing office supplies will be different from what has been done, the USAFE and USAREUR Government Purchase Card programs are scheduled to inform cardholders by email once JOSE is fully running, and tailor training to instruct new and old cardholders on the new process.

The Strategic Sourcing team expects the contract to be granted in January 2016 and companies to have their websites tailored to the JOSE program by March.