University of Queensland Reduces Time to Tender by 50%

The JAGGAER One Platform enabled the university to automate processes and remove the manual effort involved in the journey from planning, tendering to contracting

Executive Summary

With only a small team handling procurement planning, tendering, and contracting, the University of Queensland (UQ) needed an automated and user-friendly way to manage these processes. By implementing the JAGGAER One platform, the university centralised a web-based procurement hub and interface, guaranteed stellar data collection and analysis with actionable insights, and increased compliance with UQ policies and government requirements.

Addressing the Clutter of Word Docs and Spreadsheets in Procurement

With procurements of around AUD750 million per year, the University of Queensland (UQ) handles 9,500 suppliers, dozens of major tenders, and around 1,200 other planning and exemption transactions each year. All these are managed by a small team of employees, who were slowed down by lengthy manual processes.

Any procurement plan, whether a $25,000 purchase or a $10 million construction project, was created by buyers in a Word document, emailed back and forth, and stored in various folders and spreadsheets, while addendums were created as PDFs and emailed to suppliers.

“It was generally inefficient and everything we did was very manual,” says Andrew Ferguson, UQ’s Procurement Manager. “I had one staff member just receiving Word documents, putting it all in a spreadsheet, and sending off for approval. So, we really needed a system to deliver a user-friendly, web-based procurement hub and interface that automates processes and links up everything—planning to tendering to contracting.”

This new solution also had to improve data collection and analysis to enable better procurement outcomes and increase compliance with policy and governance on university and governmental levels. The solution had to be configurable to suit any potential changes in UQ’s requirements.

Investing In An Intuitive Procurement User Experience

The university released a detailed RFP with multiple technical and functional requirements, and it soon became obvious that JAGGAER, a leader in this space, was a good match for UQ’s needs. After a successful demo and a sandbox testing environment, JAGGAER was the clear choice. The JAGGAER One platform—combining Supplier Management, Sourcing, Contract Management, and assistive AI capabilities—was rolled out in stages, by faculty and geographic area, with JAGGAER’s local project management support.

The platform ticked all the boxes on UQ’s list of requirements. “We wanted an intuitive user experience and, with JAGGAER, we’ve created a fantastic hub that is very user-friendly. We now have dashboards that can tell us what we’re spending, what categories it’s in, what’s going to tender, or what’s just going through as an exemption. And we’ve been able to use JAGGAER, combined with other systems, to create dashboards for analytics,” says Andrew.

The value for money in the solution is significant at UQ. Having easily accessible and up-to-date information on things like spend data, allows the team, as well as the leadership, to make more informed decisions.

Automating Processes for Shorter Tenders

Now, the university has just one portal for all its procurement activities. “It’s been a massive win for us,” says Andrew. There are no more Word documents, emails, and folders. Instead, everything’s streamlined and connected into one workflow.

The portal also became a repository of knowledge, including guides and policies, to make processes easier for over 400 requestors. Now, if anyone submits a procurement request, they can do it easily and automatically, while having an overview of where that request is in the workflow stage, adding clarity to the process. “And getting in-system approvals has just been a game changer, so the visibility is enhanced terrifically. This also means that JAGGAER has become a one-stop shop for audits, which is great from our governance perspective.”

In essence, JAGGAER One is the source of everything procurement-related and a main work tool for Andrew and his team. “The first thing I do in the morning is open the portal. I can see where all the tenders are at and where the volume of work is, and based on that, I can also manage workforce planning.” At the same time, UQ is reaping the benefits of JAGGAER’s flexibility and adaptability. “We’ve really been able to configure the system so that it suits our needs, users, policies, and processes.”

Even small changes have made a big difference. For example, the Q&A option inside the platform replaced the need for PDF addendums. They’re visible to everyone, ensuring fairness, and allowing collaboration and negotiation to happen right in the portal. The feedback from suppliers has been very positive, tying a neat bow of improved experience on both ends of the process.

Everything is automated, faster, and smoother. The university can now put out a volume of tenders that’s 60% larger than before and finalise them in half the time, reducing manual labour and eliminating unnecessary effort. “JAGGAER saved us 0.75 of an FTE (full-time equivalent) in admin work. The system is really efficient, so we can focus on more value-adding tasks,” explains Andrew.

Conclusion

For UQ, JAGGAER One replaces unnecessary manual labour with streamlined processes in an intuitive and user-friendly hub that provides at-a-glance visibility of all planning, tendering, and contracting activities.

“The biggest benefits for us have been through the tendering, the automated planning, and the flow. And the pre-JAGGAER admin involved in putting a tender out, getting the responses back, evaluating, and communicating with suppliers was very long. With JAGGAER, time to tender has been halved,” concludes Andrew.

“We wanted an intuitive user experience and, with JAGGAER, we’ve created a fantastic hub that is very user-friendly.”
– Andrew Ferguson, Procurement Manager, the University of Queensland

Download the Success Story