OMNIA Partners: OPUS for 14,000+ public agencies
Discover how Virto Commerce enabled OMNIA Partners — North America’s largest group purchasing organization — to launch OPUS, a cloud-based procurement marketplace that connects thousands of public agencies with 630 suppliers and 7+ million SKUs.
In short
OMNIA Partners, North America’s largest group purchasing organization, needed a way to serve small and mid-sized public agencies that were too costly to reach through manual sales. With Virto Commerce it launched OPUS in 2023: a cloud-based procurement marketplace with 7M+ SKUs from 630 suppliers that now serves 14,000+ U.S. public agencies. Buying commodity items dropped from about 3 hours across several days to 10 minutes, and the platform runs a 48% repeat order rate.
We’ve been able to overcome industry challenges that have stalled other platforms. It’s been a true collaboration of expertise and flexibility.
Challenge: reaching smaller public agencies
Even with OMNIA Partners’ extensive reach as North America’s largest GPO, a significant portion of the public sector — specifically small and mid-sized agencies — struggled with systemic procurement inefficiencies:
- Smaller agencies, while numerous, have lower individual spend, making them unprofitable to serve through manual sales processes
- Fragmented local regulations created procurement delays even for routine purchases
- Traditional punch-out systems required users to navigate multiple supplier websites, creating fragmented workflows
Solution: OPUS, built for public buyers
OMNIA Partners selected Virto Commerce after a competitive evaluation of more than a dozen platforms. Virto stood out for its composable architecture, agile customization, and ability to support OMNIA’s complex multi-vendor, multi-agency procurement model. Virto Commerce also led the implementation in-house, ensuring full alignment with OMNIA’s unique requirements.
Together, they launched OPUS — a cloud-based procurement marketplace designed with direct input from procurement professionals and purpose-built for government buyers.
Key features:
- QuickConnect technology: instantly connects buyers with the right supplier contact trained in public sector procurement
- Connect to Contracts: centralized access to a library of publicly awarded cooperative contracts
- Multi-level approvals & flexible payments: corporate card support and supplier-provided lines of credit
Result: 10 minutes instead of 3 hours
OPUS has transformed how public agencies procure goods and services. Within just over a year of launch, the platform delivered measurable impact across the public sector and large infrastructure purchases — timeline reduced from 9–12 months to just a few weeks.
Business Benefits
- QuickConnect technology bridges the gap between buyers and suppliers instantly, freeing hours spent on research and ensuring public sector compliance is built into every connection.
- One-stop procurement hub eliminates the need for multiple supplier logins and punch-out systems, reducing training burden and simplifying workflows for agencies with limited staff.
- Flexible payment support, including corporate card and supplier-provided credit lines, makes OPUS accessible regardless of agency size or budget structure.
- Composable architecture means OPUS can absorb new suppliers, categories, and use cases without structural rework, supporting OMNIA’s scheduled expansion into 35 private-sector industries.
Related: Procurement marketplace · Virto Marketplace · Punchout catalogs
