Procurement teams in higher education are navigating one of the most complex and high-pressure environments in recent memory. You know it all too well: mounting financial constraints, rising compliance demands, and growing expectations for agility and transparency. Yet, many are still relying on fragmented, paper-based processes or separate systems that don’t work well together.
According to Bain & Company, 62% of procurement leaders say accelerating their digital transformation is their top priority, with a focus on improved control, real-time visibility, and faster decision-making across procurement. While reducing costs is always part of the solution, organizations are looking today for greater strategic value as well.
For colleges and universities, eProcurement is key to streamlining operations and achieving greater efficiency, compliance, and resilience. And, saving money, too.
eProcurement (or e-procurement) is a digital solution to manage the procurement lifecycle from sourcing and contract management to ordering, invoicing, and spend analysis.
Unlike traditional procurement, which relies on manual workflows and siloed systems, eProcurement solutions centralize and automate much of the purchasing process. Typically, this includes functions such as:
eProcurement systems, however, are not the same as enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms. While ERPs manage broader financial and HR functions, eProcurement platforms specialize in procurement control and supplier integration.
For colleges and universities, the ROI from eProcurement can be significant.
Automating tasks like PO generation, invoice reconciliation, and approvals saves procurement staff hundreds of hours annually.
By streamlining purchasing through centralized systems and cooperative contracts, institutions can reduce maverick and off-contract spend. Higher education institutions can often save 10–15% when they opt into cooperative contracts in their higher education eProcurement platforms.
eProcurement enforces purchasing policies through system rules, documentation trails, and built-in reporting. This helps resolve compliance concerns and provides the information you need to better manage audits.
Many eProcurement systems provide teams with real-time dashboards for spend analysis, supplier performance, and contract utilization.
Another key eProcurement benefit involves strategic sourcing. With consolidated data, it’s much easier to find cost-saving opportunities and refine category strategies.
Risk management has become a growing concern. A PwC study found that 57% of procurement professionals saw significant improvements in risk management through eProcurement platforms enhanced by automation, analytics, and AI.
The right e-procurement system should reflect the size, structure, and digital maturity of your institution. Depending on how far along you are in your digital transformation, you may be looking for simple solutions or a fully integrated eProcurement platform. Regardless, you should look for a solution that allows you to scale and grow as your needs evolve.
Some must-have features include:
According to EY’s 2025 CPO Outlook, 80% of procurement leaders plan to adopt AI tools in the next three years, with a focus on spend analytics and contract management. Yet, many institutions aren’t fully digitally mature—and that’s okay. Implementation should align with current capabilities while planning for the future.
That said, adoption is accelerating. A report from Wharton and GBK Collective found that 94% of procurement teams are now leveraging generative AI tools, up from just 50% last year.
E&I Cooperative Services offers cooperative contracts for eProcurement solutions tailored exclusively for education, supporting academic institutions of all sizes.
Solutions Include:
Leveraging collective demand across thousands of member institutions, E&I achieves significant volume discounts to lower the costs for higher education eProcurement.
With tight budgets, convincing campus leadership to invest in eProcurement systems can be a bit of a challenge. The key is to reframe the discussion not just as a software upgrade, but as a measurable way to improve procurement strategy and lower costs.
Maintaining the status quo often means manual routing of purchase orders, disjointed approval chains, and decentralized supplier relationships and adds hidden costs. These inefficiencies increase the amount of labor and expose your institution to compliance risk, missed savings, and process bottlenecks.
Data-driven procurement organizations are quickly pulling ahead. Institutions that invest in analytics-enabled eProcurement tools are outperforming their peers in key areas such as sourcing efficiency, contract compliance, and supplier negotiations. As a recent Procurement Leaders report noted, digital transformation is one of the most powerful enablers of operational effectiveness, particularly in complex, regulated environments like higher education.
Beyond efficiency, eProcurement solutions let you pivot more quickly when things change.
There’s also significant value in reducing administrative overhead. KPMG estimates that between 50% and 80% of procurement workflows can now be automated, eliminated, or offloaded to eProcurement platforms and AI tools.
Still, making the case to leadership involves more than citing cost savings or efficiency gains. It’s critical to show how eProcurement strengthens institutional oversight, aligns with strategic planning, and supports accountability across departments. The conversation should center on how eProcurement provides real-time visibility into spend, enforces compliance through policy-based workflows, and ultimately reduces institutional risk.
While eProcurement benefits are clear, successful implementation requires more than just choosing a platform. You need a structured approach to increase the likelihood of adoption and long-term value. Here are some of the best practices to help.
The implementation journey begins with an assessment of your current procurement practices.
What processes are already digitized?
Where are the biggest inefficiencies?
Are there decentralized buying habits that need to be addressed?
By understanding your current state, you can define what success looks like and prioritize which workflows or departments should be included in the initial rollout.
Equally important is identifying key stakeholders early in the process. Procurement, finance, IT, and department-level administrators all have a role to play.
Next comes selecting an eProcurement platform that aligns with your institution’s digital maturity and functional needs. Fit is crucial. Institutions that overbuild or jump too far ahead of their readiness often struggle with adoption.
While the majority of procurement leaders are eager to adopt AI tools within the next few years, the true impact comes from matching the technology to the current operating environment with a plan for growth as digital maturity increases.
Once a platform is selected, it’s often best to begin with a limited deployment. such as a single department, commodity category, or set of cooperative contracts. This allows procurement teams to test configurations, gather feedback, and refine workflows before scaling.
During this stage, training and communication are critical. End users must understand how the new system works, why it’s being implemented, and how it will make their jobs easier. Training and support at this stage are often the difference between success and failure.
After a successful pilot, broader rollout should follow a structured schedule, supported by continuous feedback loops.
You should also define your success metrics upfront and track them closely post-launch. This helps reinforce the value of your system and helps you report success. For example:
A systematic review of public eProcurement systems found that most institutions face three specific challenges in implementation:
Implementation can be complex, and you cannot afford to get it wrong. Many institutions benefit from working with partners that provide white-glove onboarding and ongoing support. For example, E&I Cooperative Services offers cooperative contracts with industry leaders for help with eProcurement consulting and implementation services.
In higher education, procurement doesn’t exist in a vacuum. As colleges and universities work to demonstrate fiscal responsibility, strengthen compliance, promote diversity, and meet sustainability mandates, procurement leaders are increasingly called upon to align their operations with these goals. eProcurement platforms offer the digital infrastructure needed to make that alignment tangible and measurable.
Strategic sourcing requires visibility. By consolidating purchasing data across departments and campuses, you can more easily identify patterns, uncover inefficiencies, and pursue opportunities for volume discounts or supplier consolidation.
When eProcurement platforms are tied to cooperative contracts, you can achieve greater savings by leveraging pre-negotiated pricing. Over time, this combination of smarter sourcing and streamlined processes contributes to stronger financial performance and reduces tail spend.
Supplier inclusion is an increasingly important priority across higher education, yet there remains a big gap between commitment and actual adoption. eProcurement systems can help close that gap by simplifying tracking and reporting on Tier 1 diverse spend.
You may also be able to highlight certified diverse suppliers within catalogs or create sourcing pathways that prioritize underrepresented businesses. This helps procurement teams meet internal diversity goals and demonstrates your institution’s commitment to supplier inclusion.
Sustainability is another area where eProcurement can drive measurable progress. Many platforms now allow institutions to tag or filter suppliers and products by environmental certifications, such as Energy Star, EPEAT, or Green Seal.
By steering your users toward preferred, environmentally responsible suppliers, guided-buying tools help reduce the carbon footprint of institutional purchasing. Just as importantly, the data captured by eProcurement systems supports sustainability reporting—helping you meet state mandates, LEED criteria, or internal climate goals.
At its core, eProcurement gives you the visibility, control, and agility needed to act as strategic partners across campus. Whether supporting a university’s transition to net-zero emissions, helping a college meet new grant compliance rules, or driving more inclusive local economic participation, eProcurement equips you with the digital infrastructure to address your priorities.
Cooperative contracts should be part of your procurement in higher education. Cooperative agreements enable you to:
E&I Cooperative Services offers hundreds of ready-to-use contracts across a wide range of categories that can integrate with your eProcurement system to streamline purchasing and lower your costs.
Aligning Procurement with the Future of Higher Ed
eProcurement is no longer one of those “nice to have” tools for higher education. A seamless system for handling your procurement process is crucial to meeting your goals and lowering your costs.
E&I Cooperative Services has multiple options to support your digital transformation, whether you’re a small school starting out or a large institution with multiple campuses. As the only member-owned nonprofit sourcing cooperative dedicated exclusively to the education sector, E&I competitively solicits contracts from leading suppliers. With over 6,000 academic institutions as members, E&I can achieve significant volume discounts to help colleges and universities save money, including with eProcurement solutions from no-cost P-cards and catalog enablement to eProcurement platforms and implementation services.
Ready to transform your procurement from reactive to strategic? Explore E&I’s comprehensive eProcurement solutions and see what’s possible for your institution.