Six Steps to Procurement Optimization

There’s an obvious connection between supply chain efficiency and financial sustainability. Here are six areas critical to helping colleges and universities optimize P2P operations:

1. Information/Insight/Intelligence
It all begins with data. Make sure you have a solid handle on analytics/data across the entire enterprise. Quality data is the foundation for any successful procurement organization.

2. Strategy/Policy
A defined policy must be established to ensure your procurement organization is strategic in its sourcing efforts. This policy must be adopted cross-functionally across the entire organization.

3. People/Culture
Are you staffed adequately and do you have the right people in the right positions? It’s important to review staff expertise levels and conduct a skill-level assessment to identify gaps or overlaps in these resources.

4. Process/Organization
Look closely at the operational design and organizational structure of the procurement function. All things must be aligned so that people, process and technology are optimized toward efficiency.

5. Technology Adoption
This includes p-card utilization, P2P automation and e-commerce initiatives. An effective e-procurement system can significantly improve process efficiencies by eliminating paperwork, expediting contract fulfillment and controlling compliance.

6. Monitoring and Controls
Institutions must identify ways to monitor and measure these efforts in order to determine ROI. This ROI should be benchmarked against business objectives to drive cost containment, revenue enhancement and performance metrics management.

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

About the Author

Tom Fitzgerald is CEO of E&I Cooperative Services, the nation's premier purchasing cooperative serving the needs of education. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Tennant Company Launches Autonomous Floor Scrubber

    Cleaning equipment and solutions provider Tennant Company recently launched the new X6 ROVR, a mid-sized robotic scrubber designed for large commercial and light-industrial environments, according to a news release. The autonomous machine can clean up to 75,000 square feet peer cycle with minimal needs for manual assistance.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Introduces Claude for Education

    Anthropic has launched a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2025 New Product Awards

    Spaces4Learning is now accepting entries for the 2025 New Product Awards! The program’s goal is to honor the outstanding product development achievements of manufacturers and suppliers whose products and services are particularly noteworthy in helping to improve K–12 and Higher Education learning environments.

  • KnowBe4 Releases Report on Education Sector’s Preparedness for Cyberattacks

    Cybersecurity platform KnowBe4 recently released a new research report titled “From Primary Schools to Universities, The Global Education Sector is Unprepared for Escalating Cyber Attacks,” according to a news release.

Digital Edition