Business Participation
SPP Benefits
The Vancouver Social Purchasing Portal (SPP) is a win, win, win…
Participating Purchasers target their existing purchasing of everyday goods and services, like office supplies, catering and couriers, to the SPP suppliers to meet their business needs for value, price and quality and they also leverage a social value.
Participating Suppliers of goods and services have access to new and expanding markets, and the opportunities to grow their businesses and increase employment opportunities in the community.
This is the simple way that the SPP-initiated business growth creates employment demand, generating opportunities for hard-to-employ persons looking for jobs.
A business value — the SPP utilizes existing business-to-business supply chain relationships to create social value, allowing companies to maintain the quality, value and costs of their goods and services. The engagement of the purchasing partners, the involvement of local businesses and social enterprises as suppliers, and the relationships of community based services, leverages the purchases into employment and economic development opportunities.
Purchasing Partners
SPP offers businesses an easy means to use their procurement practices to include social value. In addition to acquiring value, price and quality when purchasing goods and services, by using the SPP list of suppliers they are buying from businesses that will contribute directly to social and economic development as a result of such purchase.
Existing purchasing expenditures are leveraged into a direct and meaningful way to exercise corporate social responsibility.
For the suppliers every order helps grow their business, creating employment needs, and opening up job opportunities for the hard to employ person.
Purchasers may adopt a competitive bid program with a “best value” philosophy of procurement, which means that price will not be the only factor under consideration when buying decisions are made, but social impact weighs in such decisions. They agree to give consideration to suppliers and vendors that are recognized partners in the SPP.
As potential employers they will also consider providing an opportunity for participants in employment development training programs to apply for positions for which they qualify.
Supplier Partners
The Social Purchasing Portal is an opportunity for suppliers of goods and services to market themselves to a group of purchasing companies committed to buying through the portal. It is a simple principle and a natural economic cycle. It is through the procurement relationship that the SPP facilitates social value. As purchasing increases through the portal, the supplier business grows, and the economic and employment opportunities increase.
Suppliers sign a letter of commitment that outlines their readiness to give particular consideration to candidates from the SPP employment pool, allow SPP a “first look” at entry-level positions and provide feedback to SPP if they are not able to hire through the resume and candidate list provided.
For participating partners there are networking opportunities and the growing ability to make a difference in people’s lives by allowing them to rejoin the workforce in every city where the Social Purchasing Portal is being implemented.
Economic Development Value
The business-to-business transactions facilitated by the portal have a direct impact on the local economic and employment development goals of the community. Growing the suppliers’ businesses creates important community economic development impacts.
The targeting purchasing creates new capital expenditures from the purchasing partners. As the supplier business grows, they require additional staff, creating opportunities for the local employment service providers to provide trained candidates to fill local employment needs.
Using a business model rather than a traditional charity model approach to poverty reduction has proven to be effective — assuring long term sustainability and value. The Social Purchasing Portal is a tool that contributes to building a healthy local economy.
Community Value
The engagement of the purchasing partners, the involvement of local businesses and social enterprises as suppliers, and the relationships of community based services, facilitates multi-sector relationships and partnerships to address community development issues.
The SPP provides a tool to create a demand-based employment development strategy and brings new economic activity into inner city economies. The purchasers achieve corporate socially responsible objectives, blending business and social values in their purchasing and procurement. The suppliers are offered access to new and expanded markets and foster new employment opportunities by honouring their commitment to consider hiring local long-term unemployed or hard-to-employ people.