University Of Michigan And Virginia Tech Partner With CDW-G To Enable Strategic Online Purchasing For Improved Fiscal Management

Vernon Hills, IL - CDW Government, Inc. (CDW-G), a wholly owned subsidiary of CDW Corporation and leading source of Information Technology (IT) solutions to educators and governments, recently announced successful e-commerce partnerships at the University of Michigan and Virginia Tech. Working closely with e-procurement providers, CDW-G enables higher education institutions to improve the efficiency of their procurement programs with standardized purchasing campus-wide, automated purchasing approvals and timely accounting processes.

"Bringing procurement online and under one management system represents a huge shift for higher education institutions," said Julie Smith, CDW-G director for higher education. "In the past, purchasing was highly decentralized and it took weeks to approve requisitions. The purchasing department then had to manually tie purchases back to general ledger accounts – a tedious and time consuming process."

Today, however, these institutions can easily implement a simple e-commerce solution, such as e-invoicing, or scale all the way up to a fully automated e-procurement solution that incorporates purchase orders, approvals and complete reporting capabilities, Smith noted. "CDW-G's own business model and IT expertise enable us to speak directly to e-commerce best practices that our customers can use."

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan's procurement services department has 65 employees and is responsible for all university purchases, from construction materials to supplies for the university's hospital, spending about $1.4 billion per year. The university implemented a solution with CDW-G partner SciQuest in 2001 in order to improve visibility into university spending and ensure that the department is a good steward of the university's money.

Because Michigan was already utilizing CDW-G as a prime technology vendor, the university incorporated CDW-G's catalog of products and services into the SciQuest solution in 2006. "It made sense to integrate CDW-G into the e-procurement system and simplify the invoicing process," said Judy Smith, director of procurement services, University of Michigan.

Smith noted that the university has saved several hundred thousand dollars since adding the CDW-G catalog. "As a partner, CDW-G allows us to experiment with new products and services, particularly between suppliers and our technology departments. This helps us meet our ultimate goal of increasing the purchasing department's value-add within the university."

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech implemented the SciQuest solution to improve the university's complicated purchasing process. Before SciQuest, Virginia Tech relied on purchasing cards, which limited the amount of data the university could capture in its financial systems. The purchasing department was forced to type invoices into the financial management system before they could aggregate spending, significantly slowing down the purchasing process.

Virginia Tech spent a year developing its online marketplace and utilized CDW-G's consultative services to integrate the company's catalog into the e-commerce retail site. "Because CDW-G has a predominant place in the technology market, the company was active in the Web site production," said Tom Kaloupek, director of materials management at Virginia Tech. "CDW-G was well prepared to provide comprehensive product catalogs and support for its integration into the SciQuest solution. The system also reduced the ordering and approval process from days to just a few hours. Additionally, CDW-G delivers purchases directly to departments within the university rather than a central location, saving us even more time."

"Colleges and universities are facing tighter and tighter budgets," said CDW-G's Smith. "Purchasing managers need to have visibility into and control over spending. Higher education institutions like Michigan and Virginia Tech have been well served by moving from a traditional to a more strategic purchasing model with an increased focus on spend management, long-term goals and strategic vendor partner contracts."

SOURCE: CDW Government, Inc.