“ I ’ d worked for 18 years in procurement but only in the corporate world ; I wanted to try procurement in higher education ”
DRITON TONY SHALA , PROCUREMENT MANAGER , TEACHERS COLLEGE , COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea .”
Once thought of as a spending department , procurement is now seen as a strategic partner because of the way it impacts the wider organisation – especially since COVID-19 .
In launching the e-procurement transition , Tony was dead set on demonstrating to stakeholders how a singular electronic platform would actually speed up the purchasing process , help them better manage funds and result in enhanced transparency .
He explains that , in addition to the aforementioned academics , the key people to bring on board were the accounts payable ( AP ) team , the Office of the General Counsel ( OGC ), the Department of Finance and the Office of Facilities .
“ We had our plans but we wanted to attack things gradually and not as a ‘ wall ’,” says Tony . “ So we started with a small group of departments and grew things from there .
“ Now , after 10 years of being here at TC , we have everything going through e-procurement , including vendor management , which means 98 % of our transactions go through the platform .”
Enhancing operations Deciding to transition from manual to e-procurement is one thing ; choosing the right e-procurement for your organisation is another matter altogether .
“ There are tons of options out there , but we wanted to make sure our chosen platform was going to fit
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