Key Trends in Higher Education Procurement for 2024
The National Association of Educational Procurement (NAEP) surveyed chief procurement officers, chief business officers, and higher education procurement managers or directors about their top focus areas in 2021. Here are the priorities they found: Business process transformation Building strong teams Contracting & risk management Financial resource management Strategic alignment of sourcing and contracting Diversity, equity […]
Higher Education Procurement Demystified
Colleges and universities are facing significant challenges. Declining enrollments are forcing educational institutions to take an even closer look at spending and budgets. Many schools are seeing cutbacks and budget constraints they have never seen before. Understanding the Higher Education Procurement Process Outside of procurement teams, most people do not understand the difference between procurement […]
Why Cooperative Buying Is Important for Higher Education Procurement
Higher education can be both big and surprisingly small. It is a supportive culture where teams learn from each other and build upon their successes. This is true across multiple departments and disciplines, including higher education procurement. That spirit is embodied in cooperative buying. With declining budgets and increasing pressure to find efficiencies, higher education […]
How to Leverage E&I’s Cooperative Buying Benefits in Higher Education
While buyers can purchase goods or services, procurement teams have to manage the entire procurement vs purchasing process. This means end-to-end sourcing, negotiating, contracting, and managing vendor relationships. Cooperative buying streamlines the entire process by making pre-negotiated contracts available, generally at significantly discounted prices. E&I Cooperative Services® is a member-driven organization that focuses exclusively on […]
How Does Higher Education Procurement Work
The landscape in education is changing rapidly. Colleges and universities are dealing with declining enrollment and lower tuition fees. While overall enrollment rose in the fall of 2023, freshman enrollment numbers continue to drop. Inflation, higher supply costs, and staffing challenges are all eating away at budgets. For everyone involved in procurement and purchasing, there […]
Smart Lockers: The Future of Student Parcel Delivery
As the Number of Students and Parcels Grows, So Does the Need to Modernize Student Parcel Delivery Our digital lifestyle has reshaped campus life, and no one has felt it more than the campus mail centers. As the number of students and parcels grows, so does the need to modernize student parcel delivery. For colleges […]
How Do the New DOE Lighting Standards Impact Your Organization?
An Overview of the General Service Lamp Regulation The Department of Energy (DOE) recently adopted new regulations regarding the types of light bulbs that can be sold within the U.S. In accordance with these new rules, a number of older light bulb technologies will be phased out entirely in favor of more energy-efficient options. This […]
Modern Seating Solutions for the Future of Education
Five Characteristics of a Future-Focused Lecture Hall, Auditorium or Classroom This blog was originally posted on the Sedia Systems blog. When you hear the word future, what comes to mind? For most, the future evokes a sense of optimism. We view it with hope. We see it as a frontier full of opportunities. We believe […]
Esports: Creating Spaces That Turn Gaming Fun into Learning
It’s Much More Than Child’s Play This post originally appeared on the Smith System blog. The meteoric rise in high school esports shows it’s much more than child’s play. Esports has blossomed into a hot topic of conversation, spanning from K–12 to higher ed. How popular is Esports? As of early 2020, 17 states and […]
CMMC: What It Is and Why It Is Important
Breaking Down the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is a security framework implemented by the US Department of Defense (DoD) to improve protection of the defense industrial base. Like other security frameworks, the CMMC has a collection of controls for processes and practices with the goal of achieving a certain […]
