Transcript Slide 1
BEN Buys & the Penn Marketplace
A Competitive Advantage
for Participating Suppliers
Ralph Maier & Vira Homick
Purchasing Services
November 11, 2005
Presentation Agenda
BEN Buys Purchasing System
About the Penn Marketplace
Benefits to Penn & Participating Suppliers
Supplier Enablement Strategy
Community & Diversity Supplier Inclusion
Diversity Supplier Manager
Supplier Requirements & Statistics
Penn Marketplace Demo
Supplier Showcase Demo
Next Steps
BEN Buys Purchasing System
Electronic purchasing system that provides point-of-
demand ordering for authorized faculty and staff
Delegated order creation and final approval for
orders <$5,000 to over 1,700 system users
Requires suppliers to be in the approved supplier
database
All purchase orders are transmitted to suppliers via
auto-fax or electronic data interchange (EDI)
At a minimum, suppliers must be able to receive fax
orders
Suppliers must plan for a future of electronic document
transition and electronic invoicing
www.purchasing.upenn.edu/buytools/benbuys.php
About the Penn Marketplace
Penn’s private online supplier exchange containing
preferred supplier catalog contract & Penn specific
pricing
Launched in January 2002, a third party application
hosted by SciQuest Incorporated
www.sciquest.com
Over 5M items from 136 suppliers available to 1,700
authorized faculty and staff
Integrated into the BEN Buys electronic purchasing
system
Benefits to Penn
Makes purchasing easy for faculty and staff which
drives utilization of approved buying methods and
preferred suppliers
Provides easy access to products, product availability,
and related information
Automated purchase-to-pay process reduces effort,
cycle time, and administrative costs
Increases accuracy of data and dramatically reduces
errors and rework
Enables Penn to leverage buying power and shift
spend to participating suppliers resulting in lower cost
for products and services
Benefits to Participating Suppliers
Provides product visibility to authorized buyers in the
Schools and Centers
Opportunity to develop new or enhance existing
business relationships
No-charge business model with flexibility of hosted
catalog content or punch-out to supplier’s Penn
specific ordering site
Opportunity to participate in the Supplier Showcase for
internal web based marketing of new products and
Penn specific promotions
Participation in the annual Penn Marketplace Supplier
Show
Supplier Enablement Strategy
Provide maximum value to the Penn buying
community by targeting suppliers for all major
commodities
Primary focus on Penn’s high transaction volume
suppliers
Recruitment of targeted “mission critical” suppliers
Recruitment of local community based and diversity
owned suppliers
Community & Diversity Inclusion
Participation in Penn’s eBusiness initiatives is a
challenge for most small and diversity suppliers
Gap between Penn’s eBusiness requirements and
supplier capabilities
Required innovative approach to community and
diversity supplier inclusion
Basis for a partnership between Penn and SciQuest
for the Diversity Supplier Manager Project
Diversity Supplier Manager Project
Partnership launched in July 2004
Penn was SciQuest’s 1st DSM customer
SciQuest to provide supplier specific training and
content development assistance to targeted
suppliers
Penn assumed cost for supplier specific training
Target of five new suppliers per fiscal year
Suppliers to develop skills to assume responsibility after
one year
Five Phase I suppliers successfully enabled in FY 2005
Details available at:
www.purchasing.upenn.edu/buytools/div_manager.php
Supplier Requirements
Participating suppliers must partner with SciQuest to
manage Penn specific catalog content and pricing
Designated supplier resource to work with Penn
Purchasing and technology business partner
Requires the development and on-going
management of electronic catalog content and
price files
Timely content and price file updates in accordance
with the terms and conditions of negotiated pricing
agreement
Hosted catalog content or punch-out to Penn specific
ordering site for high product volatility commodities
Supplier Statistics
136 participating BEN Buys suppliers as of November 1,
2005
25 of 136 are diversity owned suppliers
Participating suppliers received 68% of all purchase
order transactions in FY 2005
Approaching 70% in FY 2006 (YTD)
Purchase dollars with participating suppliers was
approximately $115M in FY2005
$27M in FY2002
No enabled supplier has ever dropped out of the
Penn Marketplace
Next Steps!
Suppliers interested in establishing a new or expanding
an existing business relationship with Penn should
contact Vira Homick, Associate Director for eBusiness
E-Mail: [email protected]
How to Join the Penn Marketplace Web Site
www.purchasing.upenn.edu/for_suppliers/pm_invitation.php
An electronic copy of this presentation is available in
the “Purchasing Presentations” section of Purchasing in
the News web site
www.purchasing.upenn.edu/about/in_news.php