Force for Good: A Celebration of Collaboration

At Unimarket (formerly VendorPanel), we believe procurement is about more than transactions and approvals. Done well, it can drive innovation, strengthen communities and create genuine social value. That belief sparked our Force for Good fireside chat series – conversations designed to bring procurement leaders together to share what’s working, what isn’t and where collaboration can take us.

Our first session, A Celebration of Collaboration, featured an all-female panel of experts: Christina Guerra from Tennis Australia, Marnie Benney from the Municipal Association of Victoria, and Hayley Kudra from Unimarket. They explored collaboration from three angles – across industries, between regions and within organisations – and shared practical examples of how it can unlock better outcomes.

Across the discussion, one message came through clearly: collaboration isn’t a nice-to-have add-on. It’s a powerful lever for financial, operational and social impact.

Industry Collaboration: Unlocking New Possibilities

Christina spoke about the opportunity that comes from working beyond organisational boundaries. Drawing on her experience with Tennis Australia and an industry-wide procurement forum, she described how sharing approaches, tools and lessons prevents teams from “reinventing the wheel” in isolation.

When organisations in the same sector openly discuss what they’re trying, what’s succeeded and what hasn’t, patterns emerge. Common problems surface faster, innovative ideas spread more quickly and the group can co-design solutions that no single organisation might have reached on its own.

Industry collaboration also builds confidence to experiment. When others are facing similar challenges, it’s easier to test new models, pilot tools or jointly approach markets – knowing you’re not doing it alone.

Regional Collaboration: Doing More With Less

Marnie turned the spotlight to collaboration at a regional level, particularly for local councils and public bodies. Many face similar pressures: tight budgets, increasing expectations and limited resources. Trying to meet every requirement in isolation can feel like navigating rough seas with a small crew.

By collaborating regionally, councils can pool effort and expertise. Sharing supplier lists and contract information reduces duplicated work and delivers better value through aggregated demand. Instead of multiple councils running nearly identical tenders, they can coordinate, free up capacity and still maintain transparent, compliant processes.

Digital platforms play a key role here, providing a shared space to manage sourcing, contracts and supplier information – and making collaboration part of the normal way of working rather than an ad-hoc extra.

Internal Collaboration: Building Bridges Inside Organisations

Hayley focused on collaboration within organisations themselves. Procurement is sometimes seen as a gatekeeper or a blocker, especially when processes are manual, complex or poorly understood by internal stakeholders. Changing that perception requires both technology and mindset.

Modern tools can simplify buyer journeys, bake policy into intuitive workflows and make it easy for other teams to follow the right path. But the real shift happens when procurement steps into a partner role – listening to operational needs, designing pragmatic processes and communicating in plain language rather than jargon.

When buyers feel supported rather than policed, compliance improves naturally. Engagement goes up, data quality improves and procurement becomes an enabler of outcomes instead of an obstacle to them.

Collaboration as a Force for Good

The panelists all agreed: collaboration pays off at every level. Across industries, it spreads good ideas and accelerates innovation. Across regions, it helps organisations stretch limited resources and deliver better value to communities. Within organisations, it builds trust, lifts compliance and aligns procurement with strategic priorities.

The first step doesn’t need to be complicated. Reach out to peers, start a conversation, pilot a shared initiative or look for a process that could be co-designed rather than owned by a single team. Small experiments can build momentum over time.

If procurement is going to be a genuine force for good – financially, socially and environmentally – collaboration is one of the most powerful levers we have.