Q&A with Jeffrey Simmons, VP of Supply Management 

When you run a tight ship, every dollar in your operational budget has a dedicated job. But as costs rise, it can feel like your business needs to do more with less than ever before. In part one of this two-part series, we sat down with Jeffrey Simmons, Vice President of Supply Management and a 20-year lodging industry veteran, to discuss how a hotel procurement company can help operators accomplish more — even when margins are tight. 

Now in part two, we’ll dive into industry hot topics like how to navigate crude oil volatility, honor your sustainability commitments and improve your business performance with support from Supply Management experts. 

Don’t miss the upcoming webinar: Do More With Less: Improve Efficiency, Reduce Costs

How is crude oil volatility affecting non-food procurement? 

Simmons: With this geopolitical climate, it’s clear that the world still runs on oil, and its availability or restriction drives financial markets and global stability. That, in turn, impacts every part of the supply chain. 

The great majority of non-food products, which lodging operators heavily rely on, are manufactured outside the United States and are thus subject to the fluctuations of oil markets. This impacts global logistics, pricing, production inputs and outputs, market availability, scarcity and the transition of markets. 

The unavoidable truth is that there are some margin pressures that your business has little control over, but partnering with a hotel procurement company like Entegra can help you manage some of these costs. 

Read more: What crude oil volatility means for your business

When operators are stretched thin, sustainability often becomes deprioritized. How can procurement help operators continue to meet their goals, while keeping costs and operational requirements in mind? 

Simmons: Each operator is at a different stage of their sustainability journey, and they’ve likely taken steps over the last five years to begin or further that journey. Here’s how to get started: 

1. Confirm what sustainability means to your organization and discuss how your corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitment and strategy have been embedded into your business
2. Align on what has been implemented from that strategy, assess and document the value of those actions and then determine what’s next.
3. Determine a pragmatic pathway for the remaining actions, considering the largest return on investment, biggest operational gains, greatest impact to customer satisfaction and what fits into your overall strategy. 

Read more: Sustainable dining: Meeting consumer demand today 

How does the Supply Management team help operators achieve these sustainability goals? 

Simmons: Supply management has solutions that are either product-focused or value-added, resource-efficient solutions, such as water savings products, energy management solutions, managing your food and non-food waste better or looking at implementing a serious preventative maintenance program that leverages AI to predict outages or failures. 

A hotel procurement company like Entegra can help you build the right combination of technology, value-added efficiency suppliers and strategies to ensure you meet your sustainability goals — even when things get tough. 

Read more: [Free guide] How to boost operational efficiency for hotels in 2026 

When clients partner with Entegra’s Supply Management team, how does it impact everyday operational efficiency? 

Simmons: Ultimately, the everyday operational efficiency at a customer or unit level remains within that client and their team, but the Entegra Supply Management team is a force multiplier that exists as an extension of the client’s team. 

Today, it isn’t common to have a dedicated procurement professional at the unit level. Instead, those responsibilities and duties are decentralized and spread between roles that do not have the typical procurement background. A hotel procurement company can help teams that lack procurement expertise overcome this challenge. 

At Entegra, the Supply Management team does the heavy lifting, negotiating supplier deals and pricing terms, ensuring customer service levels meet expectations, helping to structure corrective actions, ensuring risk is mitigated and, finally, providing expertise and industry knowledge that informs and guides sound business decisions at the client level. Supply management is your partner behind the scenes, working to help your business win. 

Ready to boost your operational efficiency? Don’t miss Entegra’s upcoming webinar, Do more with less: Improve efficiency, reduce costs to learn more from Jeffrey Simmons and other operational efficiency experts. 

Frequently asked questions 

What does GPO stand for? 

GPO stands for group purchasing organization. 

What is a GPO, and how can it help my business? 

When you partner with a GPO, you join other buyers in leveraging your collective purchasing power — in Entegra’s case, totaling over $50 billion globally. That purchasing power enables your business to access better prices and a broader selection of high-quality items, services and support than would typically be accessible to an individual business. 

What is a hotel procurement company? 

A hotel procurement company, also called a group purchasing organization, is a company that provides you with everything you need to help your business deliver high-quality customer experiences. When you’re looking to reduce overall costs, securing more savings, deeper discounts and better contracts can make a significant impact on your margins. 

You can use a hotel procurement company to help you lock in cost savings on nearly everything your business needs, from the food on your hotel’s menu to the tables where guests gather to the uniforms your team wears (and so much more). While it’s certainly possible for hotel operators to negotiate directly with suppliers, the process can be extensive and complex, taking up valuable time and resulting in high retail costs. 

To reduce costs, save time and simplify the purchasing process, many operators leverage a procurement service. As your GPO, Entegra negotiates contracts on your behalf, helping you access better prices, more reliable supply agreements and deeper discounts. Entegra currently serves the following types of businesses: hotels, restaurants, golf, senior living, leisure, faith-based, education, acute care and more.