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Inside Teachers College , Columbia University ’ s transition from manual to e-procurement
The answer to these questions turned out to be Unimarket , one of the largest e-procurement specialists in the high-ed domain . Despite being based in New Zealand , its main activities are in the US and Teachers College is one of more than 40 educational institutions based across the States using the platform .
“ Ariba , Jaggaer and Oracle are huge platforms that maybe have more tools to offer , but they are designed more for the corporate world ,” Tony outlines .
“ The good thing about procurement these days is that it ’ s about teamwork , especially now we are working on e-procurement platforms . We attend lots of conferences bringing the best schools together , so we can piggyback on their best practices and exchange information . You meet with peers and you end up doing the same things as other schools . There ’ s no need to reinvent the wheel when it ’ s already available . That ’ s how we ended up on Unimarket . Their team is very supportive and it ’ s growing every year , with more and more universities coming to the platform due to its specialism in high-ed .”
Cross-department collaboration One of the biggest changes Tony has observed over the course of his 20 years in procurement is the increasing importance of crossdepartment collaboration .
He points to the relationship between the procurement department at Teachers College and the OGC , which supports the school ’ s mission by providing legal advice and counsel .