Greg Shabram would be the first to admit that of all the fascinating things happening daily at the University of Oregon, how the UO buys goods and services is perhaps not the flashiest.
That doesn’t mean it’s not important.
Shabram, chief procurement officer with Purchasing and Contracting Services, recently led a collaboration with Business Affairs and Information Services to better Duck Depot, the website through which schools and units buy goods or services. The upgrade makes purchasing easier, exemplifying a strategic priority and bringing smiles to the faces of frequent users.
Launched in November, the expanded version of Duck Depot automates much of the purchasing process, simplifies invoicing, streamlines approvals and contains all purchase orders and invoices within the digital platform.
Shabram, who led the project with Business Affairs’ Eddie Roberts, noted that honing the university’s purchasing process is “the blocking-and-tackling, move-the-ball-downfield-type stuff that will improve how people interact in the university.
“And it will reduce stress that they feel around when they’re interacting with vendors and interacting with folks who need to get paid.”
One of the UO’s strategic priorities is to create an environment in which students, staff and faculty can be their best. And one goal toward that end is enhancing business tools to support efficiency.
Jeff Bugonian, a buyer for the Institute of Neuroscience and the Institute of Molecular Biology, said the new system is “quicker and less cumbersome” for the purchase of research chemicals, microscopes, centrifuges and more. He can now tap more vendors and he has a higher threshold for purchases that can be made without additional approvals.
Dylan Lennon, grants and administrative coordinator with the Network Startup Resource Center, said the audit trail simplifies the tracking of orders.
“If you’re trying to see what happened with the purchase, it documents each step of the way — who saw it, who approved it, you’re not emailing around to see who approved a purchase and when it was done,” Lennon said. “It takes a lot of the stress off of my shoulders. It is a significant time savings when it comes to documentation.”
It’s too soon to say how most Duck Depot changes will affect user experience. But one metric speaks for itself: the time needed to process a purchase order has dropped to 11 hours — down from two to three days — and should dip further as users familiarize themselves with the new system.
“We hope the new system will help the people who are building the purchase orders,” said Christy Dotson, e-procurement technician with Purchasing and Contracting Services. “It gives users a clearer, more organized framework for creating purchase orders. It helps them define their department’s needs while ensuring compliance with university purchasing requirements and providing vendors with the detailed information they need to fill orders accurately.”
The collaboration between Purchasing and Contracting Services, Business Affairs and Information Services was a satisfying experience for Roberts, director of financial services in Business Affairs.
Roberts said large organizations sometimes stumble when implementing new systems because they don’t plan for how changes will affect departments downstream.
But with Duck Depot, he added, there was ample focus on each unit’s roles and requirements: Business Affairs oversaw payments and invoicing; Purchasing and Contracting Services managed the purchasing process, approvals and vendor relationships; and Information Services led on data concerns, including integration with Banner, the UO’s enterprise resource management system.
“We made sure we understood the needs of each group,” Roberts said. “‘What does PCS need? What does Business Affairs need?’ We were able to build something that works on both fronts.”
Gunawan Darmadi, an analyst programmer with Information Services, credited success to ample testing and constant communication between the three units and the platform vendor, Unimarket. Darmadi’s team included Eric Shoemaker and Chris Bernard, senior app infrastructure engineers; Kellyne Nystrom, app infrastructure engineer; Francisco Serra Sitja, database and app administrator; and Tyfanie Wineriter, software solutions development manager.
“This implementation went very well,” Darmadi said. “I appreciated everybody’s willingness to jump in and solve issues right away.”
Shabram is hopeful that, over time, the new-and-improved Duck Depot will bring a host of advantages: among them, more accurate purchasing data due to less manual entry of information; payments to speakers, presenters and performers in days, not months; and employee time that can be applied to other work.
But there are also sure to be aspects of the new tool that can be improved, he added, and he welcomes feedback.
“We told our users, ‘It’s not going to be perfect on Day One,’” Shabram said. “But one of our core values at PCS is continuous improvement. We are committed to that.”
—Matt Cooper, University Communications