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Procurement can be complicated and time consuming, as everyone from librarians to teachers to administrators navigate through multiple printed forms, thick product catalogs, numerous vendors, time-sensitive price lists, as well as purchase order requests.
E-procurement-with its automated system and Web-based interfaces-provides relief from such drudgery and headache.
A district can create a homegrown system, for example, that puts bids into an online database and can work with a single vendor, such as Gateway, giving access to the company's purchasing system. But many districts prefer to use e-procurement providers, which can bring multiple vendors together and reduce the amount of in-house programming and support needed.
Although the strategy of e-procurement is still relatively new, and requires training and commitment to implement properly, its advocates believe that it can manage costs more effectively, streamline ordering, and prevent errors. As long as a district is willing to expend the time, energy and upfront costs, long-term savings will result.
Once a district has everyone involved, the advantages can be numerous, says John Kost, an analyst at Gartner, an international technology-related research company. Reports can be generated by superintendents, chief business officers, or treasurers who analyze purchasing trends; suppliers can be compared against each other during both purchasing and price negotiations; and audits can be much more easily handled, since data can be downloaded from digital storage.
"E-procurement has tremendous potential, but at times the school personnel aren't trusted with the process," says Kost. "There are checks and balances put in that take the power away from the people, like teachers, who should be doing the ordering. For it to work well, districts need to think about delegation of authority, which could require a large change from a centralized system."
Gaining Purchase
At a basic level, e-procurement allows what Kost says should be allowed. Anyone from a secretary or teacher to an instructional technology director who needs supplies can compare prices among vendors and then order goods. The approval process usually ends with the superintendent of schools or accounting office.
With a system like Gateway Select, a district can access an online procurement tool for Gateway's products and services that supplies information about products, quotes, product tracking, and purchasing histories. Support is included, and upgrades are unnecessary, since Gateway hosts the site.
Districts can also use a service company such as Epylon or eSchoolMall to bring together multiple vendors the same way. For example, Coventry Local School District in Akron, Ohio, started automating its business processes three years ago. The district uses a Web-based interface, using software that is hosted at eSchoolMall, an e-procurement provider, so the district doesn't need upgrades or software support.
Every faculty and staff member can input a purchase request, which gets routed through the online system. A teacher at Coventry High School might want to order laptops for his students. Usually, this request would start with the chief business officer and end with the board of education, and would have to be ordered by someone else.
But eSchoolMall lets districts decide in advance-such as at a board meeting or through a superintendent-what purchases are potentially allowed and puts the purchasing power directly in the hands of teachers, to speed up the process. A teacher can go to his computer and access the procurement site that's been created for the district.
If the district does not allow laptop purchases, for instance, those devices will appear under the technology section but will be "grayed out" as options that aren't appropriate for ordering according to someone's position. An IT manager could get laptops, for example, but a teacher might not be allowed. If the laptop option were authorized, however, the teacher could insert a purchasing request, which would get routed to the high school's secretary before being sent to the school's principal for approval.
