Procurement

Utah Valley University Adopts New Procurement Software

• By Michael Hart
• 10/19/16

Utah Valley University, the largest public university in the state, has begun using a cloud-based procurement software.

The Orem Valley university with nearly 35,000 students joins other members of the Utah System of Higher Education, like the University of Utah, Utah State University, Weber State University and Salt Lake Community College, in using SciQuest's spend management system.

SciQuest's software-as-a-service system is a collection of cloud-based business automation programs for managing spending, suppliers, contracts, sourcing, inventory and accounts payable, all intended to give university finance executives a way to identify potential savings and to work more efficiently with suppliers.

The source-to-settlement package has five elements:

• Sourcing Director, which automates the process of creating, managing and awarding bids;
• Total Supplier Manager, which provides data on suppliers and reduces risk exposure for the university;
• Total Contract Manager, a single repository for all vendor contracts;
• Spend Director, a program to save money by using preferred suppliers and ensuring spending compliance; and
• Accounts Payable Director, which eliminates manual data entry.

University representatives said they have already added 1,100 active users to the system and processed more than $21 million in purchase orders.

"For more than a decade, SciQuest has partnered with university procurement teams so they can attain real-time visibility into spend," said CEO Robert Bonavito. "We are driven to make Utah Valley University's procurement processes a strategic resource for the university that provides them a centralized source of truth, manages compliance and reduces overall spend to drive long-term cost savings."