In the Beginning…
Campus department users were constantly asking for “contract pricing,” but, with contracts widely dispersed among university entities, it was difficult to help them navigate to a contract site, identify the right contract, and tie their purchase to the contract pricing. The result of this was staff shopping on the “Wild Wild Web.”
California State University Needed To:
Reduce off-contract spending
Consolidate multi-campus spend to common vendors
Share marketplace expenses and reduce administration costs
Improve spend visibility - need line item detail
This project has helped us to show real savings along with improved efficiencies. We were able to move quickly and this resulted in better benefits than we had even expected.
~ Kathleen Prunty
Director Procurement & Support Services
EASE OF USE
active users in just 7 months
How We Did It
We’ve already improved our ability to negotiate favorable terms with vendors as they realize they have visibility cross multiple campuses versus just one. At the same time, better spend visibility is improving our reporting and compliance activities.
~ David Taylor
Director of Procurement & Support Services
Like-minded campuses partnered for initial rollout
No need to train.
Focus on marketing. Users do the right thing
System-wide Marketplace
Common website, catalogs and contracts
Existing p-card program ensures control
No need to change established and understood processes
Carts automatically route to the right people for approval
Existing workflows and approval hierarchies remain in tact.