Higher education procurement has become increasingly complex. As colleges and universities navigate severe funding challenges and continuing uncertainty, things need to change.
“The solution to this mounting complexity isn’t more complexity—it’s thoughtful simplification.”—Higher Ed Dive
eProcurement tools simplify procurement, enforcing compliance and contract terms while improving visibility into your campus’s spend. The trick is finding the right eProcurement tool that matches your digital maturity.
There is a range of eProcurement tools available, from P-card systems to fully integrated eProcurement platforms that tie into your ERP and financial systems. An integrated system will connect all aspects of procurement into a centralized workflow, including:
These systems are designed to reduce paperwork and save time. They also make compliance and decision-making easier across departments and campuses. One more thing—you can also significantly reduce noncompliant spend by directing users to approved catalogs and items that are on contract. This can make a big difference, as off-contract spend (maverick spending) can be a significant part of your total expenditures.
When selecting an eProcurement tool for your institution, you want to focus on solving real-world pain points in higher ed. For example, the best platform should be intuitive for users across departments while providing the in-depth tools that procurement and finance teams need for analysis.
High on your shopping list should be:
Due to regulatory constraints, it helps if any supplier you talk to has experience specifically with higher education. It’s also a good idea to involve stakeholders from procurement, finance, IT, and academic units early in the process to make sure the tools work for everyone.
One more thing,whether or not you’re ready for full-blown integration with finance and ERP systems, you should consider a solution that does just that for when the time is right. Some additional nice-to-have features include mobile access, AI-driven recommendations, contract lifecycle management, and customizable tracking to target specific initiatives or categories of spending.
A critical consideration for higher education institutions is how well eProcurement tools integrate with cooperative contracts.
Utilizing a cooperative contract can help you streamline procurement even further, avoiding the lengthy RFP process and still saving up to 10 to 15% by leveraging aggregated demand across other colleges and universities. You can also embed hosted and punchout catalogs from cooperative contracts into your eProcurement tool to increase contract utilization and save more.
E&I Cooperative Services has hundreds of ready-to-use cooperative contracts, designed specifically for higher education, that you can integrate with eProcurement platforms to gain efficiencies and significant bottom-line savings.
You need to match your eProcurement platform to your institution’s size, complexity, and digital maturity. As a general guideline, consider:
Maturity Level | eProcurement Tools |
Entry-Level | P-card marketplaces, basic catalog enablement |
Intermediate | Requisition systems with routing, integrated supplier catalogs |
Advanced | Full procure-to-pay platforms with analytics, contract management, and AI capabilities |
The best tools will be modular and scalable, so you can start wherever you are on your digital journey and then grow over time without having to overhaul your infrastructure.
With today’s budget pressures and worries about funding, choosing the right eProcurement tools can dramatically simplify procurement across campuses. You can free up staff from manual processes, much of the tedious policy compliance requirements, and unlock new savings.
E&I Cooperative Services offers scalable eProcurement solutions tailored to higher education, along with competitively solicited, compliant cooperative contracts. E&I is the only nonprofit member-owned cooperative that focuses solely on education, aggregating demand from 6,000 member institutions to achieve significant volume discounts.
View eProcurement solutions for E&I members, including a no-cost, P-card marketplace, custom eProcurement platforms, catalog enablement services, and eProcurement consulting and implementation help from industry-leading firms.