Submitted on behalf of Robert Cree, Associate Vice President for Business and Finance
Given that the academic year is coming to a close, I wanted to take this opportunity to update the campus community on the progress to date of the Strategic Sourcing initiative.
Director of Procurement Services Dean Casterline has already begun working with many departments across campus in an effort to assist with their specific procurement needs. These efforts have already started to produce positive results with departments beginning to recognize real savings. Additionally, Irene Scott has joined this department and will continue to provide the campus community with support on IT related purchases.
Implementation of the College’s new eMarketplace solution, “IC Marketplace”, is moving along. While our initial goal of having this solution up and running for the entire campus by June 1st is somewhat delayed, we are beginning to ask specific departments to pilot test this initiative. As departments are added on to the IC Marketplace, we will continue to reach out for more departments to participate. We are hopeful that we will have the entire campus up and running on IC Marketplace by the start of next academic year.
The efforts of the originally established advisory committees will be transitioned to establish an ongoing Strategic Sourcing Advisory Council. The council will have representation from each of the four advisory committees as well as newly identified participants. This group will meet a couple times each semester in an effort to provide our procurement department with advice and consult around strategic sourcing activities, processes and communication efforts. More information on this advisory council, and its representatives, will be posted on the Strategic Sourcing website by the end of August.
It’s important to note that this initiative is not a one-time effort. In other words, as we progress through the implementation of various sourcing agreements for each of our commodities, the work doesn’t end there. Strategic Sourcing will become a constant effort on behalf of the institution to ensure that we are properly managing the new relationships formed throughout this process, as well as identifying new measures for cost savings.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20150512132050929