Strategic Sourcing Assessment

At the direction of the Executive Vice President, Procurement Services engaged Huron Consulting Group to perform a strategic sourcing assessment of five critical areas of University expenditure. The analysis of each area was facilitated by a Procurement Services staff team and focused on key supplier relationships:

In August, Procurement Services hosted a kick-off luncheon for this important project in which key stakeholders from departments across campus were introduced to the goals of the assessment. A business case was developed for each of the areas and several key findings and recommendations were presented to an executive committee chaired by John Affleck-Graves, Executive Vice President. The findings, recommendations and the subsequent action plans for improvement are currently being communicated to University leadership, management and area stakeholders. Over the next several months, Procurement Services will be actively working with stakeholders in each area to address the identified opportunities for improvement.

Procurement Services is working with the Office of Sustainability to define what green products are at Notre Dame. There are many shades of green and through the vigorous efforts of the Office of Sustainability we are undertaking the task of analyzing and defining the “greenness” of some high volume products purchased at Notre Dame. Once the products or product categories have been identified, the University will be able to measure and trend the “greenness” of the buying patterns at Notre Dame.

In October, Jim Mazurek, Director of the Office of Sustainability, addressed more than 40 preferred supplier representatives at the 2008 Supplier Expo, sponsored by Procurement Services. Jim shared the University’s mission of sustainability and some of the initiatives underway. He also encouraged suppliers to share and promote their sustainable products and services.

Procurement Services hosted the Fall Supplier Expo on October 9th. Over 450 campus users visited the various suppliers present at the Expo. We had 46 suppliers present to showcase their products and services to the campus community. See the list of suppliers at http://buy.nd.edu/supplierexpo.

As part of the event, we congratulate the winners of the various prize drawings. See the list of winners on the Procurement Services website.

Lenovo has introduced a new line "eco-friendly" desktops with the M58 series. These desktops are Energy Star 4 compliant and have earned an EPEAT gold medal rating for environmental performance. They use ThinkVantage and Intel vPro chip technologies to decrease power consumption and enable users to control their electricity consumption remotely via the Power Manager tool. These products not only provide excellent computing capabilities but also support the University’s sustainability efforts.

Procurement Services is pleased to announce that Notre Dame faculty and staff will soon be eligible for an additional 10% discount (excluding technology products) off retail prices for personal purchases. More information will be made available on the Procurement Services website as details are finalized.

Procurement Services is constantly striving to provide additional value to the University through campus wide contracts and price agreements. Click on the supplier name below to read more about the relationship.

• Bruker Corporation
• Emergency Radio Services
• Contract renewed with Office Depot
• Frame Factory (available to ND employees also)
• Space Management

The following features are now available in buyND:

• Preview sub-tabs when browsing the main navigation tabs (home, product search, req/order history, etc., implemented in version 8.3)
• Ability to withdraw a requisition (implemented in version 8.2)
• Filtering capabilities in hosted catalog product search results (implemented in version 8.2)
• Rejection note added to email notification for requestors (implemented in version 8.1)
• Enhanced recording in the History tab of the requisition (implemented in version 8.1)

Visit the “Upgrade News” section of the buyND website to read more about these and other enhancements.

We are pleased to announce two new additions to our team:

Javier Hernandez (left) joined the Procurement Services' team in October of 2008 as a Procurement Specialist. He is responsible for office equipment, office supplies, and outsourced printing. Prior to the position at Notre Dame, Javier worked for the Adjustable Bed Division of Leggett & Platt Inc. as a Buyer. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology.

Toni Schurrer (right) joined the Procurement Services team earlier this year as a temporary employee, but in December Toni accepted her new responsibilities as a Procurement Agent. In this role, she will be providing support to the various procurement programs currently in place as well as contributing to the goals and objectives of the Sourcing Team. Toni has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lakeland College, and prior to Notre Dame, Toni worked as a Purchasing Agent at Utilimaster.

Meet the rest of our staff on the Procurement website.