Over the past two years, K-12 students across North America have had to transition back and forth between virtual and in-person learning. For many, ongoing disruptions to learning routines have had a negative impact on mental health and academic success.

A recent survey conducted by EdWeek found that high schoolers are getting lower grades, procrastinating more, and feeling more distracted by anxiety than they were before the pandemic. And in October 2021, three leading pediatric health organizations declared that the pandemic-related rise in child and adolescent mental health issues is a national emergency.

Given the challenges elementary and high school students are facing right now, K-12 procurement teams have a unique opportunity to make a positive impact through their purchasing decisions.

Today on the blog, we’re sharing how eProcurement can help you deliver that impact and make student-first buying decisions. These tips will help you eliminate roadblocks in your procurement process, so you can support the success of young learners during the pandemic and beyond.

Student-first buying decisions are collaborative

Many procurement teams are geographically distant from the schools they support. And they may also be removed from the day-to-day realities of virtual learning. That can make it difficult to understand the needs of students in the classroom.

If procurement teams and internal clients don’t have a strong system in place to support collaboration, the result can be purchases that aren’t aligned with student needs, lengthy project timelines, negative relationships between stakeholders, and even rogue spending.

An easy-to-use procurement platform can alleviate these issues by providing a central place for procurement teams and educators to work together. With internal discussions and online evaluations directly within Bonfire, stakeholders can collaborate to define and respond to student needs with the best possible purchasing decisions.

Student-first buying decisions are responsive

With public health measures changing frequently throughout the pandemic, procurement teams and internal stakeholders have had to pivot to help students learn safely and effectively. On top of that, educational technology is always evolving. Students’ future success will depend on having access to the latest tools and software.

When procurement teams and K-12 stakeholders rely on manual methods, staying on top of those needs is a challenge. Along with being labour-intensive and time-consuming, manual bidding processes that involve multiple systems and complex tabulations increase the risk of information being missed or miscalculated. That can translate to low confidence in the decision-making process, poor audit trails, and student needs being overlooked.

With eProcurement, teams spend less time managing administrative burden and more time working with vendors and educators to make efficient student-first buying decisions. In Bonfire, all evaluators review and score submissions in one central place and auto-tabulated results ensure that bids are always reviewed and scored accurately.

Student-first buying decisions are compliant

K-12 schools rely on grants and government funding to deliver the best possible learning experience for students. To continue receiving support, they depend on procurement partners to maintain compliance in the bidding process.

The more time procurement teams spend on the administrative burden of demonstrating compliance, the less time they have to spend on optimizing outcomes for students. While it may seem far removed from the student experience, these inefficiencies can have a negative impact.

With eProcurement, K-12 purchasing teams and internal stakeholders get an airtight audit trail of all interactions without extra administrative effort. Bonfire lets you centralize your current workflow in a customizable platform, ensuring every step of the procurement process is tracked and easy to export.

Boost collaboration, responsiveness and compliance with Bonfire

eProcurement empowers your K-12 procurement team to make student-first buying decisions every time. See how Bonfire can help.