What does it mean to Facilitate Quotes from Trusted Suppliers?

Facilitating quotes from trusted suppliers involves securing high-quality products or services at a competitive price. Products could include rooftop PV, batteries, heat pump hot water or other energy efficiency products.

You would need to research potential suppliers, request quotes, negotiate terms and conditions, evaluate quotes, select a supplier or suppliers, and maintain strong relationships with them. By following a structured process, a community organisation can save time and resources, ensure reliable delivery, and make informed decisions when procuring products or services.

To take a less hands on approach, you can partner with an installer, or for a more hands on approach you can organise a bulk buy.

Benefits of Facilitating Quotes from Trusted Suppliers

Purchasing energy products requires households and businesses to invest time and energy to decide on a reliable product, a trustworthy supplier, and an acceptable price. Much of this hassle can be reduced via acting as an intermediary between the supplier and customer. This can deliver:

• Improved quality: Working with trusted suppliers can ensure high-quality products or services.

• Reliable delivery: A trusted supplier will be more likely to deliver on time and to the required standards.

• Better terms: Negotiating for a large number of customers can lead to better payment terms and warranties.

• Strong relationships: Building strong relationships with suppliers can lead to better deals and more favourable terms in the future.

• Streamlined processes: Having a reliable supplier can reduce the time and resources spent on procurement.

• Better decision-making: Having detailed records of quotes, negotiations, and agreements can help the organisation make informed decisions and track its spending.

If cost savings through facilitating scale in purchasing for a large number of customers at once is a key priority, it may be worth considering a bulk buy.

Some challenges of Facilitating Quotes from Trusted Suppliers

• Resource intensive: Facilitating quotes from multiple suppliers can be time-consuming, as it is resource intensive, requiring personnel for product research, negotiation and evaluation.

• Negotiation challenges: Negotiating terms with suppliers can be challenging, particularly if the organisation lacks bargaining power or expertise.

• Scale: Larger suppliers may not be interested in engaging with a relatively small group, as the implementation scale will be limited.

When is Facilitating Quotes from Trusted Suppliers a good choice?

• Resourcing: The group is able to manageme the process (enough people and skills).

• Community interest: sufficient scale of interest from the community is needed to attract good suppliers engagement.

• Local suppliers: The smaller and more local the product supply chain, the more likely such an approach is to succeed.

• Risk: If the group wished to avoid any risks (actual or perceived) of selecting suppliers on behalf of households, as is the case in a bulk buy, facilitating quotes may be a good option.