Ellucian PURCHASE – powered by ESM Solutions

How Digital Procurement Powers Scaled Projects

Building big, spending smart: How Central Community College leverages digital procurement for scaled projects

What started as a way to simplify day-to-day campus purchases nut has evolved into a powerful solution for transformation at Central Community College.

Digital procurement now drives major initiatives, from streamlining capital projects to modernizing facilities and aligning programs with workforce needs, all with the ultimate goal of supporting student success.

Key projects include:

Welding Technology Building, Grand Island Campus –
Groundbreaking in early 2025 for a purpose-built facility designed to expand technical training capacity and support industry-aligned instruction.

Holdrege Center Renovation –
Campus –Groundbreaking in early 2025 for a purpose-built facility designed to expand technical training capacity and support industry-aligned instruction.

Automotive Careers Training Center at Hastings Campus –
A new state-of-the-art facility replacing an outdated structure originally built in the 1940s when the campus served as a Naval ammunition depot. The new center reflects the college’s focus on modern workforce skills and evolving automotive technologies.

Supporting strategic capital projects

In the 2024–25 fiscal year alone, the College executed major construction activity across multiple campuses, demonstrating how procurement modernization supports institutional growth at scale.

Each of these projects required coordinated purchasing across products, services, and furnishings, often involving multiple departments, approvers, and timelines

Managing complexity with confidence

Historically, projects of this scale placed significant administrative burden on both departments and procurement teams.

For example, the Welding Technology Building alone required more than 50 individual requests, each with multiple approvals and strict deadlines, but not any more.

Despite the volume and complexity, not a single approval or deadline was missed. Just as importantly, the college maintained clear accountability across a diverse mix of funding sources, including federal ARPA and American Rescue Plan funds, donor contributions, institutional budgets, and campaign funding through the CCC Foundation. Digital procurement provided the visibility and controls needed to ensure every dollar was tracked, compliant, and confidently managed, regardless of the funding source.

A consumer experience with institutional control

Today’s faculty and staff expect purchasing experiences that are fast, intuitive, and transparent mirroring the consumer tools they use every day. By aligning internal procurement processes with those expectations, the college removed friction and empowered users to focus on teaching, learning, and outcomes.

Automated workflows, real-time f inancial visibility, and a user-friendly interface significantly simplified financial management. Users no longer need to navigate multiple systems or wait days for reports.

Instead, they can track spend, monitor budgets, and make informed decisions directly within the solution. A key differentiator is embedded budget visibility throughout the purchasing experience.

Budget status is visible at the point of requisition, and approvers can validate spend at the point of approval, supporting faster decisions, stronger accountability, and improved budget discipline.

Reaping the Benefits of Purchase

ESM extends Ellucian’s Banner and Colleague solutions by delivering modern spend management tools that simplify the path to purchase.

As an award winning Ellucian Advanced Build Partner, ESM’s Ethos-supported integrations automatically synchronize the touchpoints that matter to procurement. The result, customers can accelerate procurement processes, reduce risk, analyze spend, and deliver better service across their entire education community.

• Ellucian Purchase by ESM
• Ellucian Supplier Management by ESM
• Ellucian Experience
• Ethos-approved integration for Banner Finance
• Ethos-approved integration for Colleague Finance

For more information, visit: www.ellucian.com/solutions/ellucian-experience