This is a re-post. Original post from July 8, 2015 can be found here.

Long Island, NY, July 7, 2015 —Suffolk County Community College, the largest community college in the SUNY (State University of New York) system and Unimarket, an innovator in e-procurement and spend management solutions for higher education, have signed an agreement to implement Unimarket’s full suite of solutions, with integration to Suffolk’s ‘Banner by Ellucian’ finance system. Suffolk County Community College has selected Unimarket to provide their full suite of solutions, including e-Marketplace, e-Procurement Workflow, e-Invoicing, Supplier Registration, e-Sourcing and Contract Management.

Suffolk CCC President Dr. Shaun McKay says,

“The College is looking forward to the efficiencies of Unimarket’s e-Procurement solution. We expect a substantial change to our current procurement practices with special focus on streamlining our processes, expediting transactions, assisting with contract management and providing stronger visibility, reporting and compliance.”

– Dr. Shaun McKay, President at Suffolk County Community College

Peter Kane, Chief Executive Officer of Unimarket commented,

“We are delighted to add Suffolk CCC as our second SUNY college alongside Nassau Community College. This reinforces our continued commitment to provide comprehensive and affordable solutions to public colleges and Universities in the state of New York and across the country. We look forward to demonstrating the value that a fully integrated suite of procurement solutions on a single, easy-to-use platform can bring.”

– Peter Kane, CEO at Unimarket

The Unimarket eProcurement solution implementation will commence immediately and will leverage Unimarket’s unique community source Banner integration. The solution is expected to launch campus-wide by November 2015.

Author: Daniel Perry

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About Unimarket

Unimarket was formed in 2005 to deliver collaborative electronic procurement solutions for businesses using the latest technology to enable them to easily connect and transact with their suppliers in a single portal to save costs, improve efficiency, and reduce paperwork. The hallmarks of Unimarket’s solution are ease-of-use and an open-market philosophy of unlimited users and unlimited supplier connections delivered in a cost-effective manner.

To see the future of cloud-based Spend Management software in action, Unimarket will be hosting their 5th Annual User Conference on October 19-21 in in Chicago, IL.

For more information about Unimarket, visit http://www.unimarket.com or to schedule a demonstration, email: contactus@unimarket.com or phone toll-free:
1-888-868-5929 ext. 5.

This is a re-post. Original post can be found here.

I recently connected with Prof. Samuel D. Bornstein on LinkedIn and I’ve been following his summaries of nationwide government Strategic Sourcing initiatives with great interest. One in particular caught my attention, where it seemed that the state of Pennsylvania’s strategic sourcing savings were based on “cost avoidance” rather than actual measurable unit price savings. At first glance it’s easy right-off “cost avoidance” as not being true “savings”.

A real life example might be if I decided not to buy a $1000 suit. Have I just saved $1,000 in cost avoidance? Maybe not… What if I don’t need a new suit right now, but I find one on sale for $800. Am I therefore achieving unit price savings of $200 if I buy the suit just in case? These scenarios highlight why measuring savings can be trickier than you would think…

Moving from a purchasing policy of “just in case”, to “just in time” can help organizations spend less and help avoid unnecessary purchasing. When it comes time to audit the success of the purchasing policy though, it can sometimes be difficult to accurately frame the “savings”, particularly if your audience’s perception of savings is tied to unit price. Ultimately government departments will spend their budget whether or not they avoid unnecessary purchases, or purchase goods at lower prices. Where quantifiable savings can be made is in the process rather than simply driving the unit cost down.

As an example, let’s say I need a new desk chair, and after searching the internet and calling local vendors, I found a way to save my organization $50 on the desk chair I need. I can even save on shipping, if I drive the company vehicle across town to purchase the chair. When I get there, I find they have four chairs available at the special price, so I purchase all four (just in case someone else might need a new chair a a later date). Now I’ve saved the organization $200! Then I return to the office, submit the receipt/invoice to accounts payable to process a reimbursement/payment, which then routes to my manager for approval, and eventually a check is cut.

In this scenario, I have achieved lower prices for these goods, so by definition, I have just saved the organization $200, right? Not so fast… More likely I’ve just cost the organization well over $200 by incurring mileage and fuel cost on the company vehicle, plus I’ve spent half my day researching the chairs and driving across town. In addition I’ve taken multiple employees away from their day-to-day jobs, thus reducing their productivity and costing the organization at least a day’s time and materials. Plus, I now have three extra chairs gathering dust, taking up valuable storage space, that may never be used. Finally, the vendor is probably not on contract, so that opens up my organization to other potential risks down the line. While the process is certainly not optimal (approval after the fact), this practice of buying more than is immediately required is typically defined as “just in case” purchasing. This is likely what the State of Pennsylvania were talking about when they said, “avoiding unnecessary purchases is a cost saving”.

So let’s say my organization implements a new purchasing policy, backed by an automated system, that prevented these types of “just in case” purchases from happening. Now any purchasing of furniture is quick, easy, on-contract and in adherence to policy. Would we then be able to prove serious cost avoidance savings? Maybe… but we would still have a hard time convincing the average Joe. Trying to prove those savings gets muddy really quickly, and this is why it seems obvious to blame a screwed analyst when the numbers seem to good to be true. To prove these types of savings, you can end up wasting a lot of time and energy trying to define what “could have” happened, and what the purchasing process “might have” cost. Trying to calculate savings based on those variables could ultimately lead to an argument about the definition of “savings”, rather than discussing whether or not the new purchasing policy/process is a success.

Ultimately a lot of organizations (public and private) have antiquated purchasing policies (focused on control) and labor intensive purchasing processes (focused on auditablity). Procurement/sourcing professionals need to be incentivized to remedy these resource-draining issues, rather than be constantly measured on unit cost savings alone. In other words, why grade them on how well they can negotiate the cost of paper, if they can help your organization go “paper-less”?

Author: Daniel Perry

This is a re-post. Original post from January 12, 2015 can be found here.

Roswell, NM, January 12, 2015 —New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI), a state-supported military junior college, and Unimarket, an innovator in spend management solutions for higher education, have signed an agreement to implement full eProcurement and eInvoicing automation with integration to NMMI’s Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains finance system.

NMMI conducted a thorough search and selection process evaluating the features and benefits of the leading eProcurement providers and chose Unimarket as the one provider that meets all of their comprehensive requirements, including functionality, flexibility and cost.

COL Judy Scharmer, Chief Financial Officer at NMMI, says,

“One of NMMI’s strategic objectives is to employ the best available technologies to enhance sound fiscal policies and support the efficient use of personnel time. We think Unimarket’s eProcurement system is a significant step into NMMI achieving that objective. NMMI is excited about moving out of our antiquated time intensive paper process. Our users have been asking for an electronic solution for some time now and we finally found it with Unimarket.”

– COL Judy Scharmer, CFO at NMMI

Peter Kane, Chief Executive Officer of Unimarket commented,

“Unimarket is pleased to add New Mexico Military Institute as our first customer in New Mexico, reinforcing our continued national growth. This was a competitive and thorough, cross-campus process and we are delighted that once again a unanimous decision was underpinned by end-users preferring Unimarket as more user-friendly. The Unimarket solution has been built from the outset with ease-of-use as a key design element, as we firmly believe this drives adoption, which in turn drives value for the institution.”

– Peter Kane, CEO at Unimarket

The Unimarket eProcurement solution implementation will commence within the coming weeks and is expected to launch campus-wide by April 2015.

Author: Daniel Perry

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About New Mexico Military Institute

New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI) is a state-supported educational institution located in Roswell, New Mexico, United States. Known as “The West Point of the West,” NMMI remains the only state-supported co-educational college preparatory high school and junior college in the United States. Serving the educational needs of an international student population, the Institute has strict admissions standards that yearly result in an enrollment of approximately 1,000 students who come from 43 states, the District of Columbia, and 13 foreign nations.

NMMI grants High School diplomas and Associate of Arts and Associate of Science degrees. The Institute’s emphasis on qualities of honor, integrity, and responsibility, contributes to its unique educational philosophy.

For more information visit: http://www.nmmi.edu/

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About Unimarket

Unimarket was formed in 2005 to deliver collaborative electronic procurement solutions for businesses using the latest technology to enable them to easily connect and transact with their suppliers in a single portal to save costs, improve efficiency, and reduce paperwork. The solution uses a multi-tenant architecture and is provided on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model.
The hallmarks of Unimarket’s solution are ease-of-use and an open-market philosophy of unlimited users and unlimited supplier connections delivered in a cost-effective manner. Having great technology is just the enabler so Unimarket takes a unique partnership approach with all their customers to ensure they get the most from their product on an on-going basis, including proactive assistance with supplier enablement, organizational rollout, best practice process improvements, and more.

For more information visit: http://www.unimarket.com/

This is a re-post. Original post from December 12, 2014 can be found here.

Ithaca, NY, December 12, 2014 — Ithaca College, one of the top private Liberal Arts Colleges in the country, and Unimarket, an innovator in spend management solutions, have signed an agreement to implement Unimarket’s e-Procurement full suite of modules (including e-Invoicing, e-Sourcing, Contract Management and Supplier Registration), with integration via Unimarket’s Connector middleware to Ithaca’s R12 Oracle E-Business Suite Financials.

Rigorous and competitive bidding process

Bryan Roberts, Associate Dean at the Roy H. Park School of Communications, and Chair of the Information Technology Committee, explains,

“A critical component of our Strategic Sourcing Initiative has been the research, review and selection of an e-Marketplace provider.”

“After a rigorous and competitive bidding process, one which garnered participation from a large cross-section of the campus community, I am very pleased that Ithaca College has engaged with Unimarket to provide our first e-marketplace solution.”

“Already serving institutions such as Creighton University and University of New Hampshire, Unimarket’s “Amazon.com-like” electronic online marketplace will provide an intuitive and user-friendly shopping experience for faculty and staff. Leveraging our current spending habits, Unimarket’s e-marketplace will allow the campus to obtain contract pricing for products from the College’s preferred suppliers while cutting down on the costs associated with procurement card usage.”

– Bryan Roberts, Associate Dean at Ithaca College

Customer endorsements invaluable

Peter Kane, CEO of Unimarket adds,

“Unimarket is delighted to add Ithaca College to our growing list of New York State customers. While we had no interaction with Ithaca prior to the RFP, coming out the other end with an agreement in place I think speaks volumes, not only about Unimarket’s comprehensive solutions, reputation in the marketplace and experience, but also about Ithaca’s thorough process, particularly, the importance they placed on staff and faculty involvement.”

“As with any award, we are conscious that a key aspect of the selection process is the customer references. We have a very collaborative customer-base, and we sincerely thank our existing customers for endorsing our solutions, experience and the value we deliver on an on-going basis. Procurement excellence is a journey and Unimarket looks forward to supporting Ithaca every step of the way.”

– Peter Kane, CEO at Unimarket

The Unimarket eProcurement solution implementation will commence within the coming weeks and is expected to launch campus-wide in June 2015.

Author: Daniel Perry

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About Ithaca College

Founded in 1892, Ithaca College is a coeducational, private college located on the South Hill of Ithaca, New York. The college has a strong liberal arts core, but also offers several pre-professional programs and some graduate programs. The college is also known internationally for its communications program, the Roy H. Park School of Communications, which was most recently ranked as a top school for both journalism and film.

Ithaca College has been ranked among the top ten master’s universities in the North by U.S. News & World Report every year since 1996. Ithaca College is also consistently named among the best colleges in the nation by Princeton Review, with the annual guide also ranking the college at #1 for radio and #7 for theater.

For more information visit: http://www.ithaca.edu/

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About Unimarket

Unimarket was formed in 2005 to deliver collaborative electronic procurement solutions for businesses using the latest technology to enable them to easily connect and transact with their suppliers in a single portal to save costs, improve efficiency, and reduce paperwork. The solution uses a multi-tenant architecture and is provided on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model.

The hallmarks of Unimarket’s solution are ease-of-use and an open-market philosophy of unlimited users and unlimited supplier connections delivered in a cost-effective manner. Having great technology is just the enabler so Unimarket takes a unique partnership approach with all their customers to ensure they get the most from their product on an on-going basis, including proactive assistance with supplier enablement, organizational rollout, best practice process improvements, and more.

For more information visit: http://www.unimarket.com/

This is a re-post. Original post from August 11, 2014 can be found here.

Bethlehem, PA, August 11, 2014 — Lehigh University, one of the top private research universities in the country, has decided to replace its existing electronic procurement platform with Unimarket’s cloud-based solution to improve the performance of their procurement processes. The decision to transition from the previous service provider comes after a comprehensive market evaluation, which confirmed Unimarket’s superior functionality, broader feature set, improved automation and more flexible integration with their Ellucian Banner ERP.

“Unimarket will provide greater visibility of spend, helping ensure more control over the entire purchasing process. Purchasing through a single eMarketplace of approved suppliers reduces processing time, improves operational efficiencies and leverages negotiated contracts while promoting policy compliance and adherence to University financial rules.

The intuitive nature of the Unimarket platform and the ability to scale multiple functions across the campus community are two crucial components to a successful implementation at Lehigh. The many integration touch-points with Ellucian’s Banner ERP offers the ability to configure the solution to the various needs of our campus customers, enabling us to automate more functionality than we were capable of with the previous system.”

“Furthermore, administrative tasks to enable and train users are minimized by the well-designed dashboard and administration tools offered in Unimarket. We look forward to realizing the full benefits of the Unimarket procure-to-pay eProcurement solution.”

– Jane Altemose, Strategic Sourcing Manager at Lehigh University

With a particular focus on easing integration with suppliers, Unimarket is well known for its single-instance, multi-tenant architecture which allows for accelerated supplier enablement for new customers, with most projects achieving ‘Go-Live’ within a matter of months.

“Unimarket is delighted to add Lehigh University to our growing customer list. Our complete procure-to-pay solution will be integrated with Lehigh’s Banner ERP system using an open-source interface through our proprietary middleware.”

“Unimarket’s intuitive user interface and proven reputation for customer service will enable Lehigh to transition from its current eProcurement provider easily and efficiently”, continued Kane.

“We look forward to providing this prestigious university with many added functionalities including eSourcing, eInvoicing and Contract Management through our comprehensive platform.”

“Lehigh’s decision to change is a win for this university, and also offers an opportunity for other institutions to review their existing e-procurement solutions. While a number of universities have already invested in e-marketplaces, they often find themselves constrained by limited functionality, such as an absence of e-invoicing or integrated sourcing, or facing prohibitive costs associated with enabling additional suppliers.”

– Peter Kane, CEO at Unimarket

Author: Daniel Perry

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About Lehigh University

Lehigh University is an American private research university located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and has grown to include studies in a wide variety of disciplines. As of 2012, the university comprises 4,883 undergraduate students and 2,187 graduate students. Lehigh is considered one of the twenty-four Hidden Ivies in the Northeastern United States.

Lehigh is ranked 12th in the nation, according to The Wall Street Journal, in college return on investment (ROI) and Lehigh is ranked 41st of all Universities in the nation according to the 2014 edition of Best Colleges. The university has over 680 faculty members; awards and honors recognizing Lehigh faculty and alumni include the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, Fulbright Fellowship, and membership in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

For more information visit: http://www.lehigh.edu/

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About Unimarket

Unimarket was formed in 2005 to deliver collaborative electronic procurement solutions for businesses using the latest technology to enable them to easily connect and transact with their suppliers in a single portal to save costs, improve efficiency, and reduce paperwork. The solution uses a multi-tenant architecture and is provided on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model.

The hallmarks of Unimarket’s solution are ease-of-use and an open-market philosophy of unlimited users and unlimited supplier connections delivered in a cost-effective manner. Having great technology is just the enabler so Unimarket takes a unique partnership approach with all their customers to ensure they get the most from their product on an on-going basis, including proactive assistance with supplier enablement, organizational rollout, best practice process improvements, and more.

For more information visit: http://www.unimarket.com/

This is a re-post. Original post from June 10, 2014 can be found here.

Chicago, IL, June 10, 2014 — Wheaton College, a private, residential, and interdenominational Christian liberal arts college, and Unimarket, an innovator in spend management solutions for higher education, have signed an agreement to implement full procure-to-pay automation with integration to Wheaton’s Ellucian Banner finance system and WebWork work-order system.

Wheaton College conducted a thorough search and selection process evaluating the features and benefits of several e-Procurement providers and chose Unimarket as the one provider that meets all of their comprehensive requirements, including functionality, flexibility and cost.

Greg Doty, Director of Procurement at Wheaton College explains the decision,

“We feel that our partnership with Unimarket is the best choice for our campus. Unimarket is a good fit for our campus specifically for ROI, scalability, flexibility, support and both short & long term needs. We look forward to using eProcurement on our campus to drive savings and efficiencies that will take procurement to the strategic level today’s market requires.” – Greg Doty, Director of Procurement at Wheaton College

John Glass, the Facilities department representative on Wheaton’s selection panel adds,

“One of the advantages over their competitors lies with Unimarket’s value proposition. Unimarket provides an entire procurement solution for a reasonable price compared to other software solutions that offer modules and add on costs like supplier enablements.” – John Glass, Facilities at Wheaton College

Douglas Carrington, the project lead concluded,

“The College’s administration asked for a well-researched eProcurement recommendation and after a thorough search with input from representatives of all our various departments, the decision was made to recommend Unimarket… which I might add was a unanimous decision.” – Douglas Carrington, Purchasing Manager at Wheaton College

Peter Kane, CEO of Unimarket commented,

“We are delighted to add Wheaton College as our first customer in Illinois. The thorough campus-wide selection process that the Wheaton procurement team engaged in bodes very well for a successful implementation of our easy-to-use solution to drive the efficiencies, savings and ROI that our customers rightfully expect.
We are conscious that a key aspect to the selection process is always customer references and we thank our existing customers for endorsing the value we deliver on an on-going basis. Procurement excellence is a journey and Unimarket looks forward to supporting Wheaton at every step as they move forward.” – Peter Kane, CEO at Unimarket

 

Author: Daniel Perry.

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About Wheaton:

Founded in 1860, Wheaton College is a private four-year Christian liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb 25 miles west of Chicago. Wheaton College is intentionally residential for undergraduates. Approximately 88% of the 2,500 undergraduates live on campus. Wheaton has a diverse student body, with undergraduates from all 50 United States, 42 countries, and over 55 church denominations. Wheaton offers 40 majors in the arts, humanities, literature, foreign languages, social sciences, and natural sciences.

Wheaton is noted for its “twin traditions of quality academics and deep faith,” according to Time magazine and is ranked 20th among all national liberal arts colleges in the number of alumni who go on to earn PhDs.

For more information visit: http://www.wheaton.edu/

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About Unimarket:

Unimarket was formed in 2005 to deliver collaborative electronic procurement solutions for businesses using the latest technology to enable them to easily connect and transact with their suppliers in a single portal to save costs, improve efficiency, and reduce paperwork. The solution uses a multi-tenant architecture and is provided on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model.

The hallmarks of Unimarket’s solution are ease-of-use and an open-market philosophy of unlimited users and unlimited supplier connections delivered in a cost-effective manner. Having great technology is just the enabler so Unimarket takes a unique partnership approach with all their customers to ensure they get the most from their product on an on-going basis, including proactive assistance with supplier enablement, organizational rollout, best practice process improvements, and more.

For more information visit: http://www.unimarket.com

This is my very first post. Maybe the last… probably not.