Often, a forceful catalyst causes organizations to review entrenched processes and reconsider ways of operating. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be just that – an opportunity for UC operations to align more closely with already identified UC Procurement long-term goals. These include:
- Reducing UC’s reliance on state funds by growing external revenue
- Reducing the cost of goods purchased by UC
- Reducing redundancy and risk in business processes across UC
- Influencing and fostering collaboration within the UC community to enhance opportunities to drive innovation and value across the system
- Focusing on sustainability and supplier diversity.
The pandemic and its repercussions have forced the development of concrete strategies for procurement to support the University’s financial recovery as well as gain alignment on short- and longer-term actions to generate revenue or reduce costs in support of UC Procurement objectives. These conditions have resulted in agreements to move forward with these priorities:
- Promoting use of existing strategically sourced systemwide, campus and cooperative agreements
- Increasing systemwide competitive bid activity for procurement requirements
- Expanding Card Program adoption (P-cards and Travel cards) across all UC campuses
- Expanding Equipment Maintenance program by optimizing use of UC-funded maintenance contracts.
Other important Systemwide Procurement highlights include:
The UC Partnership Program (UCPP) revenue generation initiative is well underway. UCPP creates dynamic multi-campus and systemwide partnerships between UC campuses and businesses. UCPP works to find partners that value the brand association, community interests and business opportunities across the UC system.
Exciting recent milestones include the launch of a new UCPP website. This month, UCPP announced their first partnership with MetLife Auto & Home, one of the nation’s leading personal insurance groups that now offers personal auto, homeowners, and renters insurance products to the Berkeley, Davis and San Diego campus communities. Also, after meeting with leadership from each campus, UCPP has established a program pipeline to execute over the next nine months to drive toward their $20M goal.
This past year has brought increased focus on UC’s Lead Agency Marketing Program (LAMP) with OMNIA Partners. UC Procurement acts as a 'lead agency' for OMNIA Partners to create a portfolio of competitively bid contracts that leverage the vast scale of the University of California's purchasing power.
Supplier Relationship Management also has been a key objective. Effective supplier management means ensuring that UC receives maximum value for the money we pay our suppliers. It’s way of assuring that our contracts with suppliers support the needs of the University. As a first step, UC Procurement recently engaged consultants to assess and analyze UC supplier data, systems, and processes and recommend potential process and technology solutions to improve efficiency and reduce risk. The consultants are currently performing their analysis and are expected to conclude early next year.
Lastly, the UC Benefit team has been working hard to build on the concepts of ‘Projected’ and ‘Actualized’ benefits, seeking to add further detail to reporting capabilities. Work is also ongoing behind the scenes to enhance the user interface (UI) for an optimal user experience, while developing new functionality based on user feedback. They’ve also been busy updating training materials to align with the latest UI and functionality.
As we look toward 2021, we will continue to engage the campus to align on specific current and future Supply Chain priorities and identify how we can support those objectives.