Five campuses merge their wallets, not their names.
Five universities, one member-owned buying consortium, $66M in managed spend, and the savings stay with members.
OC Reilly and Protoco Collaboration Group (PCG) designed and stood up a self-governed buying consortium for five independent universities, engaged through their manager, The Hill Group. The structure lets members keep the savings their own spend generates rather than routing them to a third-party operator.
Most group-purchasing arrangements send a share of member savings to whoever runs them; WPHEC was built to do the opposite. OC Reilly provides the strategic and operational oversight that turns five independent universities into a single functioning buyer across every major spend category. That meant designing the collaboration strategy and building the operational, business, and contracting infrastructure for a self-sustaining model. The launch followed a deliberate path — 15 institutions vetted over two years before five went live in early 2026.
The challenge
Five universities, each with its own governance and culture, had to act as one buyer — and keep their own savings doing it. Higher-education consensus-building made that harder than any rural-hospital equivalent.
Five universities needing to act as one buyer
Standard models route savings to a middleman
No infrastructure for a self-sustaining consortium
Higher-ed consensus harder than rural healthcare
Our solution
OC Reilly built the model around member ownership and proved it before launch. Two years of validation came first.
Self-governed structure; members keep their savings
Oversight across every major spend category
Built the operating and contracting infrastructure
Validated over two years before launch
Key results & impact
OC Reilly took WPHEC from concept to a launched, self-governed consortium of five universities now actively managing tens of millions in spend — a model proven through two years of validation before going live.
Member spend managed
~$66M
Institutions launched live
