Contributed on behalf of Gerald Hector, Vice President for Finance and Administration.
Now that the start of the academic year is upon us, I wanted to take this opportunity to update the campus community on the progress of the Strategic Sourcing initiative.
As a quick reminder, the goals of this initiative are to streamline the purchasing process, to be more responsive to the procurement-related services and support required by the campus community and to fully leverage the value and benefits of our annual purchasing volume.
Achieving these goals will result in client-focused and performance-oriented service and support, tangible cost savings, and potential revenue that would be reinvested back into student programs and related activities.
Over the summer, several Advisory Committees comprising both faculty and staff worked collaboratively to pursue a number of strategic objectives.
The Supply Management Advisory Committee analyzed opportunities to leverage the College’s annual buying power for potential cost savings. Based on that effort, new commodity sourcing initiatives are currently underway for categories such as office supplies; managed print; audiovisual equipment; furniture; equipment maintenance; lab supplies; and desktops, notebooks, and computer-related services. We expect to award the first contract, for office supplies, to a chosen vendor later this month. More information will be shared once this contract award has been made.
The Information Technology Advisory Committee evaluated technologies that could streamline the current purchasing process and reduce requisition cycle time. In collaboration with the PCard Advisory Committee, this group developed and issued a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) for an “Amazon.com-like” electronic online marketplace that would provide an intuitive and user-friendly shopping experience for faculty and staff.
The eMarketplace will allow members of the campus community to obtain Ithaca College-specific contract pricing for products from the College’s preferred suppliers. It is expected that this technology will be integrated into the Oracle iProcurement system and be available to the campus community by June of 2015.
We will invite three selected vendors to campus for formal onsite demonstrations of their eMarketplace solutions on October 1–3. Members of the campus community are invited to test these solutions against their workflow and provide feedback. More details on the times and location of these demonstrations will be announced shortly.
A final initiative has been an evaluation of the College’s current procurement service and support requirements and the feasibility of creating a new customer-focused, performance-driven central supply management organization. This new unit, which is under development, will have responsibility for procurement and disbursements, providing high-quality services and response time, along with commodity and process expertise for departments requiring assistance with competitive bidding, project management, and contract execution.
In order to be successful, these initiatives will have to be supported by a change in culture and business practices by the entire campus community.
Implementation of the new eMarketplace technology is expected to result in a shift from the purchasing card to the Oracle purchasing system as the primary buying method. That does not mean the purchasing card program will be eliminated. It is a valuable buying method, but will only be used as it was originally intended, for unique purchase requirements and one-time, low-dollar purchases.
The strategic sourcing initiative will produce preferred contract supplier relationships for high-volume and most-commonly-ordered equipment, supplies, and services. In some cases, such as with office supplies, the result will be a single preferred contract supplier for the commodity. In others, more than one preferred contract may be awarded. In order to achieve the desired cost savings targeted for reinvestment, adoption and utilization of these contract suppliers by the campus community is imperative.
I also want to remind everyone that the College has established a formal Strategic Sourcing website at www.ithaca.edu/eareview/phases/strategic-sourcing/. This site provides the campus community with a central location for all information and communication regarding this initiative.
This is a major initiative for the College that will provide efficiencies and save money at an institutional level that can be repurposed to improve our students’ experience. Accomplishing these goals, however, will require the involvement of every department. As we move forward with the project, we encourage everyone to participate and provide feedback on how we can continue to improve the program.
In the meantime, please remember to “save the dates” of Oct. 1–3 for the eMarketplace demos, and look for more information to come.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20140915083006546