eProcurement Integrates with UTHealth Science Center ERP System

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Customer Profile

Located in the world-renowned Texas Medical Center, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHSC) is the oldest and most respected school of public health in the state, and has established a worldwide reputation as a leader in education and research.

Of the 36 accredited schools of public health in the country, UTHSC ranks fifth-largest in number of students and faculty and seventh in research funding. With more than 5,000 employees, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston performs a large variety of daily tasks from patient care to education, training and research involving a wide range of purchasing needs. Prior to implementing JAGGAER’s strategic procurement solutions, UTHSC followed a somewhat decentralized purchasing process in which each user was authorized to spend up to $ 5,000 within the existing ERP system. However the university was often faced with multiple challenges such as differential pricing among buyers for the same product or service, low user adoption and an increased number of preventable ordering and shipping errors.

Download the full University of Texas Health Science Center case study in PDF

“JAGGAER’s solutions have allowed our institution to build strong relationships with our key suppliers, increasing our spend visibility and positively impacting our bottom line.”

Jerry Fuller,

Assistant Vice President for Procurement,

University of Texas Health Science Center

Challenge

With such extensive annual purchasing requirements, the university recognized the need for an upgraded system and turned to JAGGAER’s expertise in supplier enablement to improve its eProcurement processes. The university required a solution that would easily integrate with its existing Oracle / PeopleSoft system, allowing them to consolidate spend, increase user adoption and aggregate supplier content. The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston needed a solution that would:

Ensure consistent, accurate pricing and consolidate spending across the university
Offer convenience to users with a friendly interface, resulting in high adoption and reduced administrative costs
Aggregate suppliers, producing more favorable pricing, turnaround time and discounts based on prompt payment

Solution

In an effort to provide its users with properly managed supplier content, the university licensed JAGGAER’s Spend Director and the JAGGAER Supplier Network with integration into Oracle/PeopleSoft’s eProcurement module. Spend Director and the Supplier Network provided UTHSC with a critical mass of aggregated supplier content and connectivity to increase on-catalog and on-contract spending.

By offering one point of access to the university’s suppliers and millions of hosted and categorized items, JAGGAER’s application allows university users to search for products and services using a single, intuitive user interface. This easy-to-use environment lets users view and compare details of products from internal inventory with products from approved suppliers. In addition, JAGGAER provides catalog configuration tools that allow UTHSC to promote and encourage spending with preferred suppliers throughout the organization. Selected products are placed in a “shopping cart” which is returned to the organization’s requisitioning system for approval routing and order placement.