or call us at 877.710.0413.SciQuest Announces Key Findings of Innovator's Circle Benchmarking Study at NextLevel 2007
Back to News ReleasesThe purpose of the study was to identify those factors that enabled select universities to stand out as the most innovative best-in-class procurement practitioners. The Innovator's Circle was initiated by SciQuest and ten of its university customers to set a benchmark for themselves and their peers. The Circle meets on a regular basis to share best practices and initiated the current benchmark study to set a baseline for the measurement of future procurement achievements.
Original goals of the benchmarking study included:
- Measuring and evaluating current spend and trends within higher education procurement
- Assessing the rate of adoption and performance of leading procurement trends
- Identifying best practices institutions have employed
- Developing a framework to perform a multi-year repeatable procurement benchmarking process for future use
"We're excited to share resulting best practices at our sixth annual user's conference," stated Steve Wiehe, president and CEO of SciQuest. "Higher education institutions are often faced with budgetary restraints that prevent important collegiate programs from implementation. The results of this benchmark study will provide guidance on improving purchasing programs to enable intelligent spend management for campuses of all sizes."
One of the key findings from the study includes the observation that the existence of a clear institutional policy that recognizes the value that the procurement function contributes to the overall program success. Other findings common to best-in-class universities include the practice of selectively applying strategic sourcing where it can make the best contributions, making a clear departure from transactionally-centric purchasing by embracing technology-based solutions, and the establishment of metrics that drive appropriate behaviors by procurement and its internal customers.
The study found that those institutions demonstrating the best performing procurement activities are those that have a clearly articulated policy that promotes the value that can be realized by the entire organization. Specifically, this requires university leadership to have a clear understanding of the value that can be added far beyond the traditional purchase price variance. This is related to the second finding whereby rationalization, or a reduction in the supplier base, allows for increased economic leverage, while also enabling improved relationships and the robust exchange of information.
"We're excited to see SciQuest take an interest in the procurement needs of higher education institutions. A study of this magnitude is needed to help amend the most common budgetary mistakes often made within institutions," replied Ralph Maier, director of purchasing services, University of Pennsylvania and Charter Member of the Innovator's Circle.
IBM's Public Sector Procurement Consulting Practice facilitated the design of the survey questionnaire and managed the data collection process using the IBM Benchmarking Tool. The IBM Center for the Business of Government funded the current benchmarking study. The Center for the Business of Government is dedicated to stimulating research and facilitating discussion of new approaches to improving the effectiveness of government in the United States and across the world.
Pennsylvania State University's Center for Supply Chain Research performed data analysis on the study results and is responsible for delivering the final report summarizing trends, observations and significant findings. The Center for Supply Chain Research is one of the nation's leading institutions dedicated to supply chain management research and education. For more information, visit: www.smeal.psu.edu/cscr/.
The findings of the Innovator Circle Benchmarking study will be distributed later this year. If you are interested in receiving a copy of the report, please register your contact name on the Website at www.sciquest.com/value/va_contact.php and request the Innovator's Circle Benchmarking report.
About IBM
IBM, the world's largest consulting, services
and information technology company, helps improve education throughout
the world. For more than 80 years, IBM people and solutions have been
helping schools and institutions of higher education innovate for
greater achievement, productivity and efficiency. IBM draws on its
world-class portfolio of services, software and hardware solutions to
help clients realize the full potential of their technology
investments. For information about IBM's solutions and experience in
education, please visit: www.ibm.com/industries/education. For
information on partnering with IBM, please visit:
www.ibm.com/partnerworld.
About SciQuest, Inc.
SciQuest provides on-demand
supplier enablement and procurement automation solutions that reduce
operating costs, drive end-user adoption, bring more spend under
management and increase visibility into organization-wide spending.
Through SciQuest solutions, organizations gain immediate cost savings
and rapid ROI.
Organizations can quickly enable a critical mass of suppliers through the SciQuest Supplier Network (SQSN) and leverage SciQuest Managed Services to fully manage catalog data and order delivery on an ongoing basis, significantly reducing the need for in-house IT and support resources. With an integrated supplier base, organizations can maximize on-contract spending and gain real-time visibility and reporting capabilities throughout the entire order process. In addition to a source-to-settle suite of e-procurement applications, SciQuest also offers supplier and order management modules that seamlessly integrate with existing ERP and enterprise financial systems, driving greater return from existing investments.
For more information about SciQuest, please visit www.sciquest.com, or call 919.659.2100.
Media Relations:SciQuest
Laura Grover
919.659.2159