Romantic

You need a new pen. The department’s copier paper supply is running low. You have to order food for a meeting on campus. What do you do?

Until now, it depended on where you work. In some Cornell departments, you posted a sticky note on your business manager’s computer, who then followed up with your needs. In others, you sent an email or filled out a form for the person in charge of purchasing for your department, who then bought what you needed with their procurement card, transferred the information to a department form or entered it in an automatic purchase order in the Kuali system or e-SHOP that the Financial Transaction Centers or Business Centers required.

Now, thanks to the work of a team from across campus, the process has been streamlined.

You can now go to the Procurement Gateway, where you will be presented with your procurement options in an individual profile. Many users will merely select the “I Want” button, fill in a few relevant fields and send it on for any necessary approvals and processing. For more complicated orders, use the page’s purchasing wizard for guidance.

“We wanted to improve the end-user purchasing experience, so we asked people outside our division to serve on the team,” said Tom Romantic, senior director of procurement and business services, who co-sponsored with Joanne DeStefano, vice president for finance, the team that developed the Procurement Gateway. “The team met for two weeks in May 2012 to establish easy-to-use processes that would meet a wide variety of purchasing needs, and then designed the gateway to logically bring all procurement matters together.”

Romantic and DeStefano then enlisted functional and technical resources to build and test the gateway. It has been piloted in the Vet College, Colleges of Human Ecology and Engineering, and Office of the Vice Provost for Research since March.

Romantic said he is grateful for the team members’ ongoing commitment to the project. Two team members are now project leads on an additional initiative focused solely on e-SHOP. He also said he is thankful to their supervisors for their flexibility, as both he and DeStefano had wanted the perspectives of end-users to drive the project.

The gateway is built to require as much data as the person making the request is authorized or able to give:

• All employees have access to the “I Want” document for submitting purchase requests and can fill in the information that they know and submit the form to their Financial Transaction or Business Service Center for approval and processing.
• Those authorized to use pcards or e-SHOP can make purchases through these services or, if required, submit a standard purchase order.
• Alternatively, the Procurement Wizard can walk staffers through identifying a vendor and determining the appropriate procurement method.

Also at this site: links to the preferred and contract supplier list, approved caterers list, Find a Supplier tool (which also allows the campus to find diverse suppliers), Cornell Asset Transfer System, the Facilities Services Reuse Program and procurement news articles. Additionally, staffers will be able to view the status of their orders, which will save numerous phone calls to find out when products or services will be delivered.

This summer, “Fast Tracks” will be implemented, providing an easy way to access and purchase the most frequently purchased items at Cornell. The final list is being determined, but computer equipment and supplies, laboratory equipment and supplies, office equipment and supplies, paper and toner are all likely candidates.