Revolutionizing Procurement at the University of Central Missouri

Three students on a bench look at a laptop

Customer Profile

The University of Central Missouri is a comprehensive public university located in Warrensburg, Mo., 50 miles southeast of Kansas City. This mid-sized institution enrolls nearly 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students in one of 150 programs of studies. It employs 450 full-time faculty members and has an annual budget of $180 million.

University of North Carolina

“The technology creates efficiencies which create opportunities for cost savings.”

Ben J. Roberts, Ph.D.,

Vice President, Administration and Finance,

University of Central Missouri

Challenge

University of Central Missouri (UCM) found itself facing many of the same challenges as other mid-sized institutions – increasing expenses coupled with a stagnant budget and the need to do more with less. To complicate matters, UCM had a complex procurement environment with multiple purchasing methods in place and little control or direction over spend.

Dr. Betty Roberts, vice president, administration and finance, knew the university needed a new direction. “We had three buyers handling thousands of purchase orders. The process was slow because we didn’t have the people to handle the volume of work,” said Dr. Roberts. “Automating our purchasing system was imperative to help us not only do as much as we were doing before, but to do it better. We had to elevate the way we thought about procurement from tactical to strategic.” said Dr. Roberts.

The university and Dr. Robert’s procurement team wanted more competitive pricing and control over where to direct spend. This needed to provide end-users with the product selection and order delivery speed they required.

The Solution

UCM selected the eProcurement solution with Banner Express integration from JAGGAER for its ease of use and best-practice functionality. The new system went live only 16 weeks after implementation kick-off.

The school immediately realized dramatic improvements in efficiency. During the first quarter of use, 85 percent of purchase orders were processed the same day or within one day of placement.

More savings are coming from the discounted, collective buying power across the UCM campus. This gives UCM greater negotiating power with vendors to get the best possible prices. “We knew it wasn’t enough to just put vendors into a system,” said Dr. Roberts. “It had to be the right system to support our strategic goals.”

End-users appreciate the solution’s ease of use, records management, comparison shopping functionality and ability to tie into existing software.

Student raising his hand in a university lecture hall

Bottom Line Results

  • Using JAGGAER eProcurement, The University of Central Missouri:
  • Achieved considerable efficiency results
  • Realized immediate discounts and ROI, specifically on office supplies and scientific equipment
  • Received JAGGAER’s customer award for fastest implementation—project kick-off to fully integrated solution in only 16 weeks

The Future

UCM continues to leverage the power of eProcurement and the ability to pull together across the university for deeper discounts. Vendors will now need to compete more and negotiate on the university’s terms in order to do business. “This solution and the competitive supplier marketplace it provides will help us realize more savings across all areas of the university,” said Dr. Roberts.

“This is one of the best things the university has done in years — to take something that was outsourced and out of control and see significant cost and process improvements.”

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