Realignment of roles within Financial Service & Strategic Procurement

Thursday, June 08, 2023

Over the years, Financial Service & Strategic Procurement within Finance & Operational Excellence in the VP Finance & Operations portfolio (VPFO) have been working with faculties and administrative units to look for opportunities to improve levels of service across the university.  

In 2018, the role Procurement Partners were introduced to provide more upfront support in the faculties with the intent to span multiple disciplines and objectives for each faculty. After several years evaluating our service delivery model, we found this model challenging to attract and retain talent, and achieve its intended output. The roles created an overlap of responsibilities within our teams and inconsistency in our processes. In order to improve our service level and standardize processes to better support the faculties, we will be realigning our structure. 

This realignment is intended to create standardization in our processes across all faculties, better define the skillset and roles required within our teams to meet the university’s needs, while balancing workloads and enabling us to drive our goals of customer service and operational excellence forward.  

To help minimize disruption and impact to your units, please see below for inquiries related to purchase requisitions and contracts:  

  • Purchase requisition
    • Please submit a purchase requisition in Workday.
    • For purchases under $75, your requisition will be routed to the Buyer assigned to your faculty.
    • For purchases over $75K, your requisition will be routed to a Procurement Officer.
    • For compliant public procurement process, it may take a longer time (RFP~4-6months), so please plan ahead.
  • Contracts from a vendor (amendment, extension, etc.)
    • Please submit a purchase requisition in Workday.
    • Your requisition will be routed to the Buyer or Procurement Officer assigned to your faculty depending on the dollar value of your purchase (over/under $75K).
  • Performance issues or missed KPIs/SLAs from a supplier
    • Please contact Kenneth Sham, Manager, Contract & Supplier Management (kenneth.sham@ubc.ca), or send your requests directly to Nishant Kalia, Associate Director, Procurement Partnerships (nishant.kalia@ubc.ca).
  • Strategic advice, guidance or support on contracts, and catalogue purchases
    • Please contact Kenneth Sham, Manager, Contract & Supplier Management (kenneth.sham@ubc.ca), or send your requests directly to Nishant Kalia, Associate Director, Procurement Partnerships (nishant.kalia@ubc.ca).

Thank you for your support of all our teams as we adjust to our new way of working together. For questions or concerns, please contact Nishant Kalia, Associate Director, Procurement Partnerships (nishant.kalia@ubc.ca).