The pressure to increase efficiency and control costs, without sacrificing quality, is increasing by the day. Rising costs, shrinking budgets, uncertainty about enrollment, and government policy changes have made the job of procurement and finance leaders even more difficult.
Colleges and universities can no longer afford inefficient procurement. Modernizing your procurement management system and finding procurement software solutions to streamline your workload is essential. It’s time to take a critical look at how you manage your procurement.
Even in institutions that have digitized much of their procurement, you may still find significant inefficiencies, especially if you’re still doing some work manually. Manual processes and legacy procurement software solutions often create challenges.
In many cases, these have become so familiar that you don’t even think about them. But you need to evaluate them if you want to improve efficiency and cost control.
Procurement software solutions are designed to digitize and streamline purchasing, from requisition to payment. They serve as centralized platforms where procurement teams can manage sourcing, contracts, suppliers, and spend in one place.
The benefits?
Quite simply—buy smart and more efficiently.
By 2026, half of institutions will adopt AI tools across multiple functions, including procurement.
Procurement software solutions are increasingly incorporating AI to automate repetitive tasks to improve efficiency and reduce manual workloads. A KMPG study shows that AI can help cut the time it takes for basic procurement functions by up to 80%.
AI also excels at data analysis to uncover patterns, identify cost savings, and reduce operational costs.
The two biggest benefits of a modern procurement management system are efficiency and cost control.
With automated workflows, a procurement management system can dramatically reduce the time required for approvals, order processing, and vendor communication.
Procurement teams can:
This level of automation speeds up procurement cycles, reduces administrative burden, and enables staff to focus on strategic priorities rather than paperwork.
Procurement software solutions give you better visibility into how money is spent, by whom, and with which suppliers. With this insight, finance and procurement teams can identify patterns, consolidate vendors, and make better purchasing decisions.
Key features in best-in-class procurement software include:
Ultimately, these capabilities help uncover and reduce non-compliant spend and ensure you are maximizing your budget.
In higher education procurement, compliance is non-negotiable. At the same time, you have to meet a growing list of initiatives, from sustainability to diverse supplier sourcing. Procurement software can streamline your workflow with built-in controls and audit trails to reduce the risk of non-compliance.
This is especially important for public institutions that have strict procurement regulations, and for tracking grants and outside funding. Software systems can automate document storage, enforce bid thresholds, and track contract lifecycle milestones to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
By aggregating and analyzing procurement data, you can also uncover opportunities to align sourcing with broader goals. Analytics tools within a procurement management system can help you to:
By combining the power of technology with cooperative purchasing strategies, you can drive even greater efficiency and cost savings.
E&I Cooperative Services is the only member-owned non-profit sourcing cooperative that focuses solely on the education sector. With hundreds of competitively solicited contracts, E&I helps drive efficiency, compliance, and cost reductions for colleges, universities, and school districts.
From procurement software solutions to Strategic Spend Assessments to specialized insight into the unique needs of higher education, E&I Cooperative Services can help you find the solutions you need. Leveraging the aggregated demand of more than 6,000 member institutions, E&I’s cooperative contracts achieve significant volume discounts that individual institutions can rarely see on their own.
View available cooperative contracts and see the many benefits of becoming a member of E&I Cooperative Services.
