News
Contract Renewed with Ariba for eSourcing Software Services
BU Sourcing & Procurement has extended its partnership with Ariba Inc. for online sourcing services for another three years. Ariba provides BU with a fully hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) portal that allows vendors to electronically bid for BU business. Ariba has supported BU for the last six years with a broad set of online RFx bid tools, including RFI, RFP, Reverse Auctions, Index-based Auctions, Transformation-based Auctions and Rank-based Auctions.
In early 2004, the Sourcing & Procurement organization identified an increasing number of cost-saving opportunities within the University, but needed an automated procurement tool to take on these additional tasks and projects without adding headcount. BU also sought a way to increase transparency, openness, and trust with suppliers in order to assure them that the University makes fair and equitable decisions and hears suppliers’ responses. BU Sourcing & Procurement chose Ariba to meet these challenges and to provide a method to expedite the ‘bid to decision’ process.
Using Success to Foster Change Management
Online sourcing techniques were new to Boston University in 2004 — paper bid processes were the norm. The very first reverse auction event addressed office supplies and achieved savings of more than 20 percent. By demonstrating the success of that initial project, the Sourcing & Procurement organization proved that they could do the same amount of work in a quicker timeframe and still generate impressive savings.Now all Sourcing events are now done online. Ariba Sourcing has been used for a variety of online bid events including student loans, furniture, HR & benefit services, waste management, treasury & financial services, research supplies & services, IT hardware and software, and facilities management services. BU Sourcing & Procurement has saved the University several million dollars in budget and market price savings by using the Ariba toolset.
Hillary Rosenfeld, Associate Director Client Services at the Medical Campus, worked with Sourcing & Procurement during a recent bid process for new software. According to Hillary, “The Ariba system ensured an equitable opportunity and a sound structure for vendors to provide timely, consistent and complete responses. It also reduced the need to print the RFP and responses, thereby reducing the impact on the environment.”
Cost Savings through eSourcing
Sharing access to sourcing events through Ariba Sourcing has also enabled Sourcing & Procurement to collaborate online with internal University constituents during bid processes. One regular client of BU Sourcing & Procurement’s services is Paul Rinaldi, Assistant Vice President, Space Management. According to Paul, “…our bid processes thru Ariba go well, go quickly, and with the help of the Sourcing staff, add no burden to the effort …. and most important …. BU gets very good pricing through this process”.
If you have a need to reduce costs or would like assistance with a bid process, please contact a Sourcing Manager at: