Introducing the Digital GPO
Mulberri’s mission is to enable small to mid-size businesses to enhance enterprise value by unlocking value from their spend on goods and services. This is achieved by lowering purchase costs and digitizing procurement processes through to payments.
Mulberri is designed to serve Private Equity firms and their portfolios of SMBs in North America and Western Europe with an evolved digital GPO platform called eGPO. The platform provides discounted purchasing content from preferred suppliers and delivers an enterprise-grade procurement system with workflow approvals, purchase orders, invoice matching, and payments.
Mulberri’s eGPO solution disrupts the traditional GPO market by introducing a more advanced and comprehensive digital GPO. SMBs benefit significantly because procurement spend as a percentage of revenue is higher than at enterprise organizations. On average, SMBs pay 20 percent more on purchases compared to enterprise peers, which negatively affects EBITDA margins by more than 2 basis points.
The Problem Mulberri Is Solving
Small to mid-size businesses are disadvantaged when compared to larger enterprises. Enterprise firms have large procurement teams, specialist technology, and higher purchase volumes that allow them to lower purchase costs. Procurement at enterprise firms is optimized and enhances EBITDA performance.
SMBs lack the capability, expertise, and technology needed to strategically source both direct materials and indirect spend such as IT, MRO, marketing, and transportation. As a result, SMBs experience higher purchase costs and rely on manual, inefficient purchasing processes.
Technology at SMBs is typically limited to ERP or MRP systems focused on inventory and reordering of direct materials. Advanced spend analytics and procurement technology used by enterprise organizations are often too expensive and require skilled teams to operate. Because spend is rarely competed, businesses tend to stay with incumbent vendors and accept periodic price increases. SMBs are also exposed to higher supply risk due to limited know-how in mitigating price increases, tariffs, or disruptions.
Attracting procurement talent is a challenge for SMBs. Procurement professionals gravitate toward enterprise organizations where they manage larger spend volumes, gain exposure to advanced tools, and have better career paths. As a result, procurement capability at SMBs tends to be lower.
Mulberri Surpasses Traditional GPO Offerings
Traditional GPOs provide access to preferred suppliers at lower purchase costs across indirect spend categories such as IT, office products, MRO, and packaging. Portfolio businesses must become GPO members and sign up to individual supplier deals. Purchasing is done directly through each supplier’s ecommerce site using voucher codes, which is cumbersome.
Traditional GPOs are limited in scope. They offer access to only a handful of suppliers covering roughly 10 to 20 percent of a business’s total spend. Higher value direct materials and indirect categories such as consultancy and audit services are not addressed. This leaves major gaps in procurement optimization.
GPOs themselves rely on basic analytics and benchmarking, often using spreadsheets. They lack digital customer offerings, which makes the market ready for digital disruption. Traditional GPOs provide limited or no digital procurement capabilities.
How eGPO Works
eGPO is deployed to the customer with users trained on how to access purchasing content and raise requisitions.
All indirect spend categories such as MRO, IT, and office supplies are managed within eGPO. Users access online catalogues of goods and services through the platform.
eGPO includes requisition workflow approvals and embedded payments through Mulberri’s virtual payment card. Mulberri acts as the master vendor, issuing approved purchase orders to the supplier. Goods are received by the customer as usual, while Mulberri manages expediting and supplier performance.
Direct spend, which accounts for more than 70 percent of total spend, is strategically sourced through Mulberri’s digital eRFX platform. Agreement terms and pricing are entered into the customer ERP or MRP system. The customer then orders and pays vendors as normal for direct spend.
eGPO includes Spend Analytics that profiles and analyzes total customer spend to identify optimization opportunities. Analytics also monitors compliance to preferred suppliers and reports savings back to the customer.
Customer spend and contract data is uploaded into the Spend Analytics platform, where it is cleansed and classified into a procurement taxonomy. This enables Mulberri to identify duplicate suppliers, non-negotiated spend, pricing gaps, compliance issues, and rebate opportunities. Opportunities emerge for portfolio-wide agreements and specific item-level sourcing events.
eGPO Purchasing Content
Purchasing content from preferred suppliers sits at the core of the eGPO value offering. Content is sourced through direct supplier agreements and through collaborative partnerships with other GPOs. This allows Mulberri to scale purchasing content rapidly while building its own supplier relationships.
Suppliers benefit by gaining access to a broader base of small to mid-sized businesses through a lower cost-to-serve model. Suppliers also gain value from Mulberri’s analytics which help drive compliance and spend through preferred suppliers, something traditional GPOs cannot offer.
Mulberri Solutions
1. eGPO
Mulberri eGPO is a Services as Software technology platform offering discounted purchasing content from preferred suppliers delivered through a digital procurement platform.
eGPO lowers purchase costs and improves the buying experience. It also incorporates advanced analytics and embedded sourcing services to address a much larger portion of indirect spend compared to traditional GPOs.
eGPO integrates with customer ERP or MRP systems and includes:
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Digital purchasing content from preferred suppliers.
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Vendor management and payments, with Mulberri acting as master vendor.
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Spend Analytics for identifying opportunities and tracking savings.
2. eGPO PRO
eGPO PRO is designed for Private Equity firms.
It delivers:
• Portfolio Spend Analytics
• Opportunity Assessment using AI
• Managed Sourcing Events via the eRFX platform
• Savings Tracking through reporting dashboards
• Contract Management with automated metadata extraction and renewal alerts
Direct spend accounts for more than 70 percent of total spend and is not addressed by traditional GPOs. eGPO PRO provides deep insight into total portfolio spend, identifies optimization opportunities, and executes sourcing events to accelerate savings and increase enterprise value.
Ready to Transform Your Procurement?
See how Mulberri can help your business lower purchasing costs, improve process efficiency, and unlock measurable value across your portfolio. Request a Consultation Today.
