Financial Operations is collaborating with stakeholders across the University on a unit-by-unit basis on the Procurement Modernization project, and the impact of the initiative will vary from area to area.
Here are some of the most Frequently Asked Questions the project team has fielded thus far. If you have questions regarding the project feel free to get in touch at procurement.modernization@ubc.ca.
UBC is undertaking this project because:
- Procurement impacts a significant number of faculty, staff and students across the university;
- Current state procurement processes at UBC are generally manual, time-consuming and supported by out-dated systems;
- Most of the large Canadian universities have already implemented leading practice processes and solutions for procurement; and
- UBC has an opportunity to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of procurement to better meet the needs of all stakeholders.
- As the university prepares for the implementation of Workday in April 2020, Financial Operations is also laying an important foundation by streamlining and automating processes wherever possible.
The vision for procure-to-pay at UBC is to make it easier to buy and pay for goods and services for faculty and staff while shifting the focus to provide strategic and value added procurement services across the university.
The project is focused on:
SIMPLIFYING PROCESSES
Harmonize processes across UBC, reduce paperwork, and improve turnaround times for requisitions, purchase orders and invoices
IMPROVING SERVICES
Create a positive experience for faculty and staff by providing additional assistance with sourcing vendors, evaluating quotations and making strategic buying decisions
ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
Improve usability and performance of the Online Payment Tool (OPT) while UBC prepares for Workday and point solutions as replacements for current technologies
DELIVERING VALUE
Establish preferred vendors and contracts to make buying easier and quicker, and effectively leverage UBC's buying power
2016
An initial review was completed to understand how procurement functions across the University and identify challenges. Following the review quick win opportunities were implemented, for example turn-around times for issuing purchase orders were improved and UBC standard payments terms were reduced from 45 to 30 days.
2017
With the help of faculty and staff across UBC, the project focused on identifying opportunities and making recommendations. The project:
- Identified strategic sourcing opportunities to leverage UBC's spend and deliver quality, service and savings, while keeping in mind the uniqueness of some areas of expenditure (e.g. research) by conducting a high-level spend analysis.
- Identified opportunities to standardize and improve current procurement processes by performing deep-dive reviews using Lean methodology.
- Developed a technology strategy to recommend options to automate and simplify procurement processes, including identification and prioritization of OPT enhancements.
- Launched pilots with several UBC faculties and administrative units.
2018
The project is focused on prioritizing and implementing the identified opportunities and recommendations, including:
- Implementing prioritized process improvement recommendations, including development of refreshed process documentation (e.g. guidelines, procedures, etc.) and training and communications materials to support people through future state changes.
- Working in alignment with the Integrated Renewal Program to prepare for Workday, including future Procure to Pay and Travel & Expense functionality
- Working with Faculty and Administrative Units to pilot a Service Delivery Model (SDM) to deliver procurement services (Procure, RFP, and Pay) more easily to customers and clients.
- Implementing OPT enhancements to improve system performance and user experience, and rolling out OPT to additional faculties and departments.
- Beginning to design, build and implement an integrated Procurement and Payables organization to meet end users' needs, and streamline and improve service delivery.
UBC is embarking on a multi-year journey to transform our Student, HR and Finance system environments. The Integrated Renewal Program unites previously independent renewal programs, formerly known as Student Academic System Initiative (SASI), Procurement Modernization, and HR Finance Renewal Program. The Program is now aligned and proceeding with the planning and architect phases for Workday across Student, Finance (including Procurement) and Human Resources.
As it will likely be 2020 onwards before the new Workday system is in place, there is an opportunity to improve and simplify processes in the interim. The improved and standardized processes implemented by Procurement Modernization will provide an important foundation for the future system and will help support a smooth transition to Workday and other new point solutions.