SciQuest Customers Win NAEP 2009 Excellence in Procurement Award

University of Missouri and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Honored for Transformation of Spend Management Practices through a More Strategic Approach to Procurement

CARY, N.C., April 29 /PRNewswire/ — SciQuest, Inc., is proud to announce that two of the company’s customers have been honored with the National Association of Educational Procurement (NAEP) 2009 Excellence in Procurement Award for their vision and leadership transforming the procurement operations at their universities into strategic, high-value functions.

William (Bill) M. Cooper, C.P.M., the associate vice president and chief procurement officer at the University of Missouri (UM) System Management Services, and Paul W. Martin, assistant vice president for administration at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), were honored for their achievements at the NAEP Annual Meeting held in Providence, Rhode Island. UM and RPI were also featured in the March issue of College Planning & Management.

“Purchases on goods and services are often the largest portion of the operating budget behind payroll,” said Stephen Wiehe, president and CEO of SciQuest, the global leader empowering enterprises to realize the potential of strategic procurement. “As Bill and Paul have shown, implementing the right people, processes and technologies to achieve a more strategic approach to procurement provides a powerful catalyst for change in today’s economy–enabling universities to bring spending under management and generate millions in savings as well as countless process efficiencies. Bill and Paul are standout leaders in their field, and we are thrilled to see them get the recognition they deserve.”

Once viewed as a transactional back-office function, procurement has emerged as one of the most strategic departments within higher education, providing financial leaders with unprecedented visibility over where, how and with whom money is being spent and generating savings on average of between five and 20 percent on all items purchased under management. Cooper and Martin are among a handful of leaders who have demonstrated the pioneering spirit, leadership and dedication required to bring about the dramatic change responsible for procurement’s rise as the one function ideally suited to achieve cost containment.

University of Missouri – From ‘Order Shop’ to Procurement Leader Saving Millions

Cooper oversaw an enormous multi-phase procurement initiative at UM that brought four campuses under a single purchasing organization. Via the implementation of an entirely new set of processes and technologies, the procurement department was transformed from a transaction-oriented “order shop” to the source of millions of dollars in savings, while also realizing significant improvements in the delivery of goods and services. SciQuest’s eprocurement solution played a key role in UM’s procurement transformation, providing the intuitive online shopping experience the University needed to encourage user adoption, free faculty and staff from administrative tasks, drive spending with preferred suppliers, and track university-wide spending.

The initiative’s success has resulted in more than $30.7 million in savings and positioned the procurement department as a high-value function at the University. These savings are just the beginning in terms of what the University expects to save as more suppliers are enabled for online shopping. With universities and colleges receiving fewer endowments and public aid, UM’s approach to strategic procurement represents a paradigm shift in how public universities manage spending.

“This award is wonderful recognition of the hard work of every team member and the success we have achieved,” said Cooper. “As economic conditions place increased pressure on institutions to reduce costs, it is imperative for procurement leaders across the country to look at how a more entrepreneurial approach to procurement and the use of new technologies can help stretch the value of taxpayers’ dollars and ensure that a higher education remains accessible.”

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – A Leading Pioneer for Procurement Automation

Martin was among the earliest pioneers for eprocurement, recognizing the potential of procurement automation to eliminate costly, time-consuming paper-based practices and provide institutions with the ability to aggregate their buying power and manage spending more effectively. When Martin embarked upon the journey to transform RPI’s procurement practices in the late 1990s, he learned there were no technologies available at the time to facilitate eprocurement in higher education.

In the decade since, Martin and other leaders at RPI, including Director of Materials Management Ann Crislip, have worked tirelessly to bring the benefits of eprocurement to RPI and use this experience to drive the developments in eprocurement technology that now benefit numerous institutions.

Over the years, RPI has achieved many technological firsts, including the first use of SciQuest’s eprocurement solutions, the first automated requisition solution, the first use of an eprocurement suite that is pre-configured to quickly integrate with the most common enterprise resource planning system in higher education, and now new technology that significantly streamlines the receiving and invoicing process.

“RPI is known for a tradition of innovation and the support I have received over the years in our effort to explore how procurement technologies could benefit the university is perhaps the greatest reward,” said Martin. “We were given full leeway to take the necessary risks to implement eprocurement before many in the industry knew of the term. So this award is really a tribute to everyone–from my colleagues in the department to the highest levels of leadership at RPI–who continue to support our vision for strategic procurement.”

About SciQuest

SciQuest’s procurement automation and supplier enablement solutions empower leading organizations to realize the potential of strategic procurement. The company’s specialized knowledge, on-demand software, and service-first approach enable public and private enterprises across the globe to manage spend, drive ROI, and advance their critical missions.

SciQuest’s deep understanding of its served vertical markets combined with a broad supplier network and intuitive, online shopping experience increase user and contract adoption while improving operational efficiencies. Through software-as-a-service (SaaS) deployment, organizations can quickly implement the right eprocurement solution to augment existing ERP investments or fully enable all aspects of purchasing from sourcing to settlement.

For more information about SciQuest, please visit www.sciQuest.com or call 877-710-0413 in the U.S. or +44 1794 341182 in Europe.

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SOURCE SciQuest, Inc.