Advancing UC’s economic impact goals
In a major step toward advancing UC’s economic impact goals, Systemwide Procurement (SWP) and UC Berkeley launched a pioneering purchasing integration between Fisher Scientific and Possible Missions that will be duplicated at other campuses.
This collaboration, led by SWP procurement systems manager, Terese Merrell, and supported by teams from UC Berkeley, SWP, Fisher, and Possible Missions, is part of UC’s broader economic impact strategy. Possible Missions is a certified small and woman-owned business founded by Paula Mendoza in 2001.
This strategic move supports the UC system’s 25% economic impact and green spend target while keeping pricing stable for end-users and preserving patronage fees.
But this isn’t just about dollars. It’s about smarter systems. A new technology enhancement allows campus shoppers to seamlessly create multiple purchase orders from a single punchout session—with no extra clicks and no extra work by the shopper. This not only streamlines the process but also ensures purchases are routed directly to our economic impact partner.
Valuable outcomes from this project:
- Increased economic impact and green spend across the system
- A new and simple ordering pathway for products from via Fisher punchout catalogs to be fulfilled by small business affiliate, without extra work by the shopper
- New functionality integrations into campus eProcurement systems tailored to each ERP
- Effective change management/communication plans with special messaging and targeted campaigns to drive awareness and adoption
- A scalable model that other campuses and suppliers can easily adopt and follow.
And this is just the beginning! Thanks to the success at UC Berkeley, UC Davis is gearing up to launch its own version with a new technology solution in October 2025, and UCLA is planning for a launch in early 2026. It has also inspired other large supplier/small business partnerships across the system.
This project is a win for expanding UC’s economic impact spend, a win for inventive procurement solutions, a win for piloting and scaling up viable projects systemwide, and a powerful example of how innovation and inclusion go hand in hand at UC.