Q & A with Rob Blaker

Optimizing Costs and Expanding Access: A Conversation with Entegra’s Rob Blaker

In today’s fast-paced business environment, building strong supplier relationships is essential to maximizing efficiency and staying competitive. Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) play a crucial role in facilitating these relationships while delivering added value to their members. To delve deeper into how GPOs enhance supplier collaboration and create strategic partnerships, we sat down with Rob Blaker, National Account Executive at Entegra. Rob shares his insights on how these partnerships benefit both suppliers and members, ensuring long-term success and driving innovation.

Q & A with Rob Blaker, National Account Executive

Are you looking to strengthen supplier relationships and improve procurement efficiency? To help you explore the advantages, Entegra's National Account Executive, Rob Blaker, shares his insights on how GPO membership fosters strategic supplier partnerships that benefit both suppliers and members.

Q. Building Strategic Partnerships: How does your GPO develop and maintain strategic supplier partnerships that benefit both suppliers and members?

A. At Entegra, building strategic supplier partnerships is a priority because it directly impacts the value we provide to our members. We focus on long-term, collaborative relationships with our suppliers, ensuring they understand our members’ needs and industry trends. By creating a win-win environment, we help suppliers grow their business while delivering consistent quality and pricing advantages to our members.

Our approach includes regular supplier performance reviews, fostering open communication, and working together on innovation initiatives. These partnerships allow us to negotiate favorable terms that result in better pricing, product availability, and new product introductions, benefiting our members through a more efficient and value-driven procurement process.

Q. Enhancing Supplier Collaboration: How does your GPO facilitate collaboration with suppliers to ensure alignment with member needs and market demands?

A. We place a strong emphasis on aligning suppliers with our members’ needs and market demands. Entegra facilitates this collaboration by maintaining an ongoing dialogue with both suppliers and members. We regularly gather feedback from our members to understand their evolving needs, which we then share with suppliers to ensure they can adjust their offerings accordingly. 

This proactive communication allows suppliers to stay ahead of market trends and provide relevant products and services. By ensuring alignment between what suppliers offer and what our members need, we help create a streamlined, efficient procurement process that benefits everyone. Our goal is to drive value for our members while giving suppliers a competitive edge in serving a broad network of buyers.

Are you ready to get products, pricing and support for your purchasing department? Contact us to see how you can transform your business to deliver results.