Aitenda pools the procurement volume of several companies and negotiates it as one bloc. Members remain independent, and every member gets the same supplier terms.
Text version of the video: Most companies negotiate their purchasing volume alone. Aitenda combines the volume of many companies into one negotiating bloc. Every member gets the same supplier terms and remains independent. Better prices, stronger agreement compliance, better processes give lower total cost. Combined procurement volume, negotiated as one.
A procurement collaboration is a network of independent companies that pool their procurement volume and negotiate supplier agreements as one bloc. It is also known as collaborative purchasing, a form of group purchasing. Read the article: What is a procurement collaboration? →
Almost every mid-to-large company has the same five problems.
Fragmented volume weakens the negotiating position. Every supplier relationship demands time and resources.
An overlapping, uncontrolled product range increases inventory costs and makes standardisation and negotiation difficult.
Procurement teams are too small. Time goes to ordering, firefighting and compliance, which leaves too little time for tenders and strategic work.
Even large enterprises lack sufficient volume in many categories to reach the best prices.
A large share of purchases happens outside negotiated agreements. The saving is realised only at each individual order.
Enter three numbers from your own accounts and one assumption about the reduction, and the calculator works out the rest.
How Aitenda works, in four steps.
Aitenda is a strategic procurement collaboration, not a traditional GPO, a procurement consultancy or a supplier. In every category, the tender carries the combined volume of all members. Aitenda is not a trading company: ordering, delivery, invoicing and payment run directly between member and supplier.
Aitenda pools the members’ procurement volume at article level and establishes a category strategy.
Aitenda runs tenders on the combined volume using recognised procurement methodology. Tenders are run category by category, with prices at article level instead of general framework agreements. Suppliers compete for the category.
The awarded suppliers publish the agreements in aitenda.net, a shared purchase to pay e-commerce platform. All employees at all members follow one order and approval process, and the platform is integrated with ERP.
Every price change from a supplier triggers a renegotiation based on the facts from aitenda.net and external indices. That is how the tender price and the paid price are kept together.
Procurement is about facts and insight.
Through aitenda.net we analyse every member’s order and invoice data and the suppliers’ enriched product data. Together with prices, trends and results, this forms one factual picture, and that is what the agreements are negotiated on.
Beyond market intelligence, the analysis gives insight into each member’s needs and requirements, spend and supplier terms. AI tools classify articles, match products across suppliers and surface price trends at a scale a manual team could not manage.
The insight is used for tenders at category scope, specified at article level, so that suppliers price exactly what the members actually buy. Tailored articles can also be priced at article level.
All orders, invoices and product data give insight into needs and requirements. Members remain independent, with the full right to export their own data.
The hub of the model.
A signed agreement delivers only half the result. Without one shared order and approval process, the gain is smaller, agreement compliance stays low, and the data set does not improve.
Aitenda.net closes that gap. Suppliers present and maintain their catalogues, every employee orders in one place, and goods receipt and invoice are approved in one flow that is integrated with each member’s ERP.
Purchase to pay is more than a platform. It is the method for the entire flow from need to paid invoice, also called procure to pay: ordering against the agreement, approval, goods receipt and invoice matching in one flow. The method makes the processes efficient and builds the data from which the next tender starts. Combined with tendering (source to contract), it gives Aitenda coverage of the full source to pay cycle.
Suppliers own the catalogue. The awarded supplier maintains and enriches the product data at the source, instead of every member keying it in again. The same data serves tenders, safety data sheets and product sheets, e-commerce and invoicing to the members’ own customers.
One entry point. Each member reaches aitenda.net through a button on its own intranet. Every employee orders there, and goods receipt and invoice approval run in the same flow.
One data flow to ERP. The platform is integrated with SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, IFS and other ERP systems, and nothing is entered twice on the way from order to posted invoice.
Agreement compliance rises when aitenda.net is the easiest way to order. The negotiated prices become the prices actually paid, and every order costs less to process.
Enter four numbers from your own operation. The fields show typical values, which you can adjust to your own.
A lean organisation. Insight straight from the source.
Aitenda knows its members’ needs directly, without account managers or surveys in between. The insight comes from two sources: the transactions that accumulate in aitenda.net, and tender teams where Aitenda’s procurement professionals and analysts work together with employees from the member organisations.
Every order and invoice in aitenda.net documents what the members actually buy and need, category by category. Tenders start from that factual picture.
Every category goes through the full source to contract process, from category strategy to signed agreement, using established, recognised procurement methodology. The same discipline applies in every tender, so results are comparable and repeatable across all members.
Every tender is run as a procurement project with employees from the member organisations in the project. Requirements therefore come straight from the source, and category knowledge stays current.
When insight comes straight from the data and the tender teams, no extra layers are needed to gather, interpret and translate member needs. The organisation stays small, and running costs stay low.
Every member gets the same supplier terms, on a transparent and fact-based basis.
Members remain independent. Each member holds full ownership and control of its own transaction data at all times, with a full right to export in machine-readable format and no lock-in. Aitenda works with the data, but never owns it.
Every member gets the same prices and terms on every supplier agreement, without exception.
The supplier agreements contain no large customer with special terms, no volume tiers and no preferential terms. All members have the same product prices and terms, regardless of a member’s volume in the category.
Equal treatment applies to the supplier agreements. Aitenda’s fee is agreed openly with the members and scales with volume, and this is deliberate: large volumes pay relatively less. Every member benefits when high-volume companies join and enlarge the bloc.
Built for companies that buy a lot, but not enough alone.
When each company buys alone, procurement is an operational cost function. With one combined volume and better insight, procurement becomes a competitive advantage.
Combined procurement volume delivers lower prices within tendered categories. How much depends on the category and the starting point, and in some categories the gain is substantial. The potential is reviewed with each company individually. The effect continues and reinforces itself: categories are renegotiated again and again, and each round starts with better insight than the last.
Price is set by the volume a supplier competes for. When the members’ volume is negotiated as one, the supplier faces a volume none of them has alone, and the price is set accordingly, for every member.
Each category is put out to tender at article level using recognised methodology, with the members’ own buyers in the tender team. Suppliers compete on facts, and the agreement is awarded on facts. Categories are renegotiated at every price change, so the gain lasts.
A negotiated price is worth something only when it is used. When everyone orders through aitenda.net, the agreed price becomes the price actually paid, the process cost per order falls, and the transaction data provides the facts for the next tender.
The same model, adapted to the sector’s value chain.
Aitenda organises the procurement collaboration sector by sector. Members in the same sector buy the same categories and deal with the same suppliers, which gives tenders weight where it matters most. In addition, Aitenda negotiates the categories every company buys, across sectors. Every member receives the same prices and terms.
Companies that design, manufacture and maintain technical equipment, often with several production sites and service units.
The same components and materials are bought at each site, under separate agreements. Aitenda negotiates the categories across all sites and all members, article by article, and brings the ordering together in aitenda.net.
Property developers, main contractors and subcontractors. Three links in the same value chain, governed by the same project cost estimate.
The categories are negotiated once on the volume of the whole chain, instead of project by project. The developer applies the agreements in its projects, and the contractors buy under them with their own volume.
The categories every company buys, whatever its sector. Individually small, together a significant cost.
Aitenda negotiates them as one across all members. Fewer suppliers and fewer invoices, and agreements that are actually used, because ordering runs through aitenda.net.
Suppliers are partners in the model.
Aitenda represents the combined volume of the bloc, but agreements only work when both parties gain from them. Aitenda calls it win-win: we pool volume and raise compliance with the agreements, and with it the supplier’s contribution margin. This is the basis for long-term supplier relationships: less bureaucracy, combined volume, low selling costs and a professional negotiating counterpart.
Every member orders on the agreement through aitenda.net. Agreement compliance is built into the ordering flow, which gives the awarded supplier the opportunity to realise the volume described in the tender. The volume follows from the members’ actual purchases.
One tender gives access to the combined volume of the bloc, awarded as one or several agreements per category, as the category requires. With one negotiating counterpart, one catalogue and one order flow, the cost of serving the members is significantly reduced. Orders, deliveries and invoices run directly between the supplier and the legal entity that places the order.
Tenders are specified at article level and awarded on facts. The supplier knows its sector and what it takes to win. If it loses, it knows why.
The agreement partner maintains its own catalogue in aitenda.net and has one professional point of contact for the agreement throughout the agreement period. We work together with the awarded suppliers on assortment, standardisation and service, and performance is reviewed jointly.
Tor founded Aitenda to give mid-to-large companies the negotiating position to reduce total procurement cost. This is achieved through lower prices and efficient purchase to pay processes, and the companies keep both their independence and their data.
He led Gress Gruppen for five years: a procurement collaboration with NOK 4.5 billion in procurement volume, and a subsidiary running NOK 10 billion through its purchase to pay platform. Before that he was a serial entrepreneur, as founder and CEO of ISTINN, later INTUNOR, a Visma-certified outsourcing business in ERP software and finance. For 15 years he was also subject lead in supply chain management at Østfold University College. Through NBI he has trained hundreds of procurement and logistics managers.
Every enterprise buying as well as the world’s best.
Aitenda accelerates the transformation of procurement, from cost line to strategic advantage, through collaboration.
Shared procurement infrastructure for Europe’s mid-to-large companies.
Procurement in mid-to-large companies is extensive, fragmented and weakly negotiated, and no single company can solve that alone. Aitenda brings it together in one transparent system: aggregation, article-level tendering, purchase to pay and a shared procurement organisation, based in Oslo, with a European perspective and global reach.
Thinking in public.
Procurement costs can be reduced in three ways. Most companies know the measures. What they lack is the volume, the capacity and the facts to carry them out.
Read the article →Companies have coordinated their purchasing for centuries. What sets the collaborations apart is how deep they go, from sharing volume to sharing resources, and it is depth that determines the result.
Read the article →The saving is fixed on the day the supplier agreement is signed. The price that was competitively tendered stays fixed in the agreement, while the price actually paid begins to rise from the day of signing.
Read the article →Few functions affect operating profit more than procurement, and few receive less attention in the boardroom. The gap between significance and attention is one of the largest untapped sources of improvement in most companies.
Read the article →Every procurement collaboration promises equal treatment, but few can demonstrate it. Equal treatment must therefore be built into the structure, with equal terms and open reporting to all members.
Read the article →A large percentage discount on a list price you do not control is not a price. What counts is what each member pays for the items it actually buys, weighted by its own purchasing pattern. That can only be measured at article level.
Read the article →Procurement data is among the most sensitive commercial information a company holds. Some purchasing networks are, on closer inspection, data businesses: the membership fee is paid in data.
Read the article →The question comes up in almost every first meeting: can competitors collaborate on purchasing? The competition rules do not prohibit procurement collaboration as such.
Read the article →Both promise better prices through combined volume. The difference lies in who negotiates, who owns the agreement and who earns from it.
Read the article →Join the team.
Aitenda is built by people who know procurement from the inside and want their work to make a difference for many companies, not just one. We want to hear from strategic buyers who run categories and tenders, from controllers and analysts who read the numbers behind an agreement, and from commercial leaders who build relationships with members and suppliers. At Aitenda you work close to decision-makers in many companies at once, with facts as the basis and results that can be measured. Feel free to call our CEO directly on +47 917 52 463, or introduce yourself.
Five measures have the greatest effect: (1) consolidate volume with fewer suppliers and across fewer articles; (2) put each category out to tender at article level, and renegotiate at every price change; (3) make sure the agreements are actually used, through one shared purchase to pay flow for ordering, approval and invoice matching; (4) use the transaction data as the fact base for the next tender; (5) where a company’s own volume is too small to reach the best prices, combine it with other companies’ volume through collaborative purchasing. Aitenda does all five for its members, in one model.
When independent companies combine their purchasing volumes and negotiate them as one, suppliers compete for a volume none of the companies has alone, and the price is set accordingly. The collaboration also shares what few companies can carry alone: procurement expertise in every category, a shared purchase to pay platform and a fact base at article level. The effect requires that the collaboration is binding, that the agreements are used, that every member receives the same prices and terms, and that the collaboration works upstream in the value chain, towards the suppliers. This is how Aitenda is organised.
Aitenda is a strategic alliance between independent companies, organised as a strategic procurement collaboration, the form of group purchasing known as collaborative purchasing. The members combine their purchasing volumes, and Aitenda negotiates them as one, category by category, at article level, using recognised methodology and with the members’ own buyers in the tender teams. The collaboration is binding and long-term: every member receives the same prices and terms, orders through the shared purchase to pay platform aitenda.net and owns its own data. The collaboration works exclusively upstream in the value chain, towards the suppliers. Aitenda is not a supplier or a trading company: each member orders in its own name, and delivery, invoicing and payment run directly between member and supplier. Aitenda is not a procurement consultancy engaged project by project: the work is done on the members’ combined volume, and the result is supplier agreements under which every member buys. Nor is Aitenda a traditional GPO with pre-negotiated catalogue agreements: tenders are run on the members’ own volume, and the fee is agreed openly with the members.
A traditional GPO typically resells pre-negotiated catalogue prices, and the revenue from the suppliers is usually not disclosed to the customer. Aitenda runs its own tenders on the members’ combined volume, category by category at article level, and awards agreements with the same product prices and terms for all members.
No. Which categories are covered is set out in the membership agreement. Aitenda splits categories into several agreements where that serves the members, and competition stays alive because the switching cost between awarded suppliers is low.
Each member owns its own transaction data. Aggregated facts are used to specify tenders and are reported back to members as insight. A member’s own data is never sold and remains the member’s property.
Every supplier agreement carries the same product prices and terms for the whole bloc, regardless of a member’s volume in the category. Allocation, prices and terms are reported transparently to all members.
Aitenda’s fee is agreed openly with the members and scales with volume, so that larger volumes pay relatively less. The fee is set out in the membership agreement.
Mid-to-large companies with significant procurement volume. Aitenda is based in Oslo with a European perspective and global reach, and welcomes members across the Nordic region.
Aitenda.net is a standard cloud solution (SaaS) and the shared purchase to pay platform where every employee at a member company orders on the negotiated agreements, and goods receipt and invoice approval run in the same flow. It integrates with SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, IFS and other major ERP systems.
Purchase to pay, also called procure to pay, is the flow from need to paid invoice: ordering against the agreement, approval, goods receipt, invoice matching and payment. Source to pay also covers the work before the order: category strategy, tendering and contract award (source to contract). Aitenda covers the full source to pay cycle for the categories in the collaboration: tenders follow recognised methodology, and aitenda.net is the shared purchase to pay platform.
No. The member orders in its own legal name, the supplier delivers to and invoices the member directly, and payment goes directly from member to supplier. Aitenda negotiates the supplier agreements and operates aitenda.net.
Book meeting now.
Tell us about your company and what it buys. We respond with a mapping of your categories against the combined volume and a description of how the collaboration works, based on a review of your needs and requirements.
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Aitenda Group AS (Foretaksregisteret no. 938 729 530) is the controller of the personal data described in this Privacy Policy.
Address: Seljeveien 1, N-0575 Oslo, Norway · E-mail: mail@aitenda.com (please mark your enquiry "Privacy").
The processing is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR), as incorporated into the EEA Agreement and implemented in Norwegian law by the Act of 15 June 2018 No. 38 relating to the processing of personal data (the Personal Data Act). As our establishment is in Norway, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet) acts as our lead supervisory authority for cross-border processing within the EEA.
This Privacy Policy applies to aitenda.com and aitenda.net. It also applies to our processing of personal data relating to contact persons at members, suppliers and business partners in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and other EEA countries.
Aitenda is a procurement organisation serving businesses. We primarily process personal data relating to individuals in their capacity as employees or representatives of an organisation. We do not request national identification numbers, and our services are not directed at children.
| Data subjects | Personal data | Purpose | Legal basis (GDPR) | Retention period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contact persons at members and prospective members | Name, position, organisation, e-mail address, telephone number, correspondence | Entering into and administering membership agreements, conducting tenders, reporting and financial settlement | Art. 6(1)(f) (legitimate interest in managing the contractual relationship with the organisation) | Term of the agreement + 5 years |
| Contact persons at suppliers, bidders and prospective suppliers | As above, and information contained in bids | Maintaining our supplier register, conducting tenders, negotiating and administering framework agreements | Art. 6(1)(f) | 5 years after the most recent contact. Bid documents not resulting in an award: 3 years |
| Users of the procurement platform (aitenda.net) | Name, e-mail address, role, username, log-in records, activity log | Access management, security and traceability in ordering and approval workflows | Art. 6(1)(f) | Duration of the active user account + 12 months |
| Website visitors | IP address, device and browser data, cookies | Operation and security (strictly necessary). Statistics and improvement (optional) | Strictly necessary: Art. 6(1)(f). Optional: consent, Art. 6(1)(a) | As stated in the consent solution on the website |
| Persons contacting us | Name, contact details, content of the enquiry | Responding to and following up the enquiry | Art. 6(1)(f) | 12 months after the enquiry is closed |
| Recipients of newsletters and professional information | Name, e-mail address, organisation. Open and click data only with consent | Providing information about Aitenda, tenders and events | Distribution: Art. 6(1)(f), or consent under Art. 6(1)(a) for recipients in Denmark. Open and click tracking: consent, Art. 6(1)(a) | Until you opt out or withdraw your consent |
| Participants at events and supplier fairs | Name, organisation, contact details, attendance | Planning and conducting the event | Art. 6(1)(f) | 12 months after the event |
| Job applicants | CV, application, references, interview notes | Recruitment | Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) | 6 months after the recruitment process is concluded; longer only with consent |
| Invoice recipients and payment contacts | Name, contact details, transaction data | Accounting and payment | Art. 6(1)(c) (statutory bookkeeping obligations) | The periods required under the Norwegian Bookkeeping Act, currently up to five years after the end of the financial year |
Information about dietary requirements or allergies in connection with events is processed only with your explicit consent pursuant to Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR. It is deleted no later than 30 days after the event.
"Most recent contact" means the most recent communication between Aitenda and you or your organisation by e-mail, telephone, video conference, meeting or equivalent means. Newsletters and other one-way communications from Aitenda do not constitute contact. When we are informed that you have left the organisation, we delete or update your contact details.
Where we rely on legitimate interests, our interest is to operate and manage the procurement collaboration with the organisations we have agreements with. For suppliers, inclusion in our supplier register is also in the supplier’s own commercial interest. We have assessed that this interest is not overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms, because the data relate to you in your professional capacity and are limited to what is necessary.
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We obtain personal data from you or from the organisation you represent, for example when your employer registers you as a user or contact person. We may also obtain data from public sources, such as the Brønnøysund Register Centre and equivalent Nordic registers, and from the organisation’s website.
Providing personal data to us is voluntary. Without contact details, however, we cannot enter into or administer agreements, conduct tenders, grant access to the procurement platform or respond to enquiries. Invoicing data are necessary for us to comply with our statutory bookkeeping obligations.
We never sell personal data. Personal data are disclosed to:
(a) Members and suppliers, to the extent necessary to conduct tenders and administer concluded agreements. Contact persons at a member may be visible to suppliers and to other members participating in the same tender or category collaboration.
(b) Processors providing services to us, including the procurement platform, cloud services and e-mail, website, customer relationship management, accounting and IT support tools, including tools based on artificial intelligence. Processors act solely on our documented instructions and are bound by data processing agreements pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR.
(c) Advisers and public authorities: auditors, where appointed; legal advisers; and public authorities where we are under a legal obligation to disclose.
An up-to-date list of our processors is available on request.
As a general rule, we store and process personal data within the EEA. Some providers may process personal data outside the EEA. Any such transfer takes place only where one of the following conditions is met:
(a) The European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision for the recipient country. For the United States, this includes transfers to organisations certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.
(b) We have concluded the standard contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission, with supplementary measures where required.
Certain processing on the procurement platform is carried out on behalf of the member organisation, for example where the member’s own ordering and approval data are processed in the member’s internal workflows. In such cases, the member is the controller and Aitenda acts as processor under a separate data processing agreement. Enquiries concerning such data should be addressed to your employer, and we will assist them in responding.
We use analytics and artificial intelligence to conduct and follow up tenders and procurement data. We require providers of such services not to use personal data received from us to train their own models.
We do not make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR.
We protect personal data by means of technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk, including:
(a) access control on a need-to-know basis
(b) two-factor authentication
(c) encryption in transit
(d) data processing agreements and supervision of providers
In the event of a personal data breach, we notify the supervisory authority unless the breach is unlikely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals. Where a breach is likely to result in a high risk, we also inform the data subjects concerned without undue delay.
You have the right to:
(a) access the personal data we hold about you
(b) have inaccurate personal data rectified
(c) obtain erasure
(d) obtain restriction of processing
(e) object to processing based on legitimate interests
(f) data portability where the processing is based on consent or contract
(g) withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal
You may object at any time to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes, in which case we will cease such processing. You may also opt out via the link included in every e-mail.
Please send enquiries to mail@aitenda.com, marked "Privacy". We will respond without undue delay and in any event within one month of receipt. Where necessary, taking into account the complexity and number of requests, this period may be extended by two further months, in which case we will inform you within the first month. We may ask you to verify your identity before disclosing personal data.
We encourage you to contact us first. You nevertheless have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in the country of your habitual residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement:
(a) Norway: Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet), datatilsynet.no
(b) Sweden: Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (IMY), imy.se
(c) Denmark: Danish Data Protection Agency (Datatilsynet), datatilsynet.dk
(d) Finland: Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman (Tietosuojavaltuutetun toimisto), tietosuoja.fi
Aitenda has not designated a data protection officer, as the conditions set out in Art. 37 GDPR are not met. The CEO is responsible for data protection within the company.
We update this Privacy Policy in the event of changes to our services or to applicable law. The current version and its effective date are stated at the top. We notify members and suppliers directly of material changes.
The English version of this Privacy Policy is the governing version. Any translation is provided for convenience only. In the event of any discrepancy between the English version and a translation, the English version shall prevail.