Procurement, like every facet of higher education, has shifted noticeably in how it operates since the pandemic. No longer an isolated function of the financial suite, those responsible for curating an institution’s contractual services now play a more pivotal role in communicating a college or university’s commitment to social welfare.
These new demands, combined with emerging technological tools and a cost-savvy generation of young professionals, are shaping a new era of procurement. Let’s take a deeper look.
The ‘push and pull’ on today’s procurement teams
Today’s teams face a swath of new compliance measures due to universities’ socially conscious strategic missions, which are often influenced by the communities they serve. Recent surveys show that students are more selective depending on a college’s social justice stance.
“Many universities are creating their own positioning around what their values are based on the demands of their target audience: their customers, the student base,” says Dawn Andre, chief product officer at JAGGAER, a procurement software suite. “It’s no longer just about the lowest price.”
During Jennifer Glassman’s tenure as the director of procurement at the University of Virginia, she saw rising community demand to contract services from local businesses. “As a global research institution operating in a small town, it’s sometimes not an easy formula to do that,” says Glassman, who is now an independent contractor. “You have to figure out where you can optimize.”
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Student interest in sustainability is a major contributor to universities’ reoriented missions. Roughly 16% of the 1,552 global institutions that have pledged to divest from fossil fuels are in higher education, according to BestColleges. As a result, procurement teams can prove their universities are following through by negotiating mission-aligned goods and services.
“If universities say, ‘We’re climate leaders, we stand for justice,’ but then on the other hand financially contribute to the climate crisis, we just see that as unacceptable,” Moli Ma, an undergrad at Tufts University, told The Guardian.
Diversity and inclusion initiatives, as well as environmental, social and governance (commonly referred to as ESG) metrics, can lead procurement teams to shift their strategy to ensure their universities qualify for research funding from the federal government and other sponsoring organizations, Andre says. “It’s a push-and-pull scenario. Procurement teams [are pulled] by the student-consumer, and values are also being pushed upon them from either their own board of directors or from the government.”
Demand for cutting-edge tech
One tool that’s recently caught Andre’s eye is AI’s ability to streamline tedious tasks involving high-volume, low-dollar transactions. “We now can lean on machines to automate processes, which makes our work more strategic and interesting.”
The demand for innovative tools that streamline the digital experience extends beyond the procurement team. Digital native students expect their university to offer top-of-the-line tech that provides experiences similar to commercial services such as Amazon. As a result, procurement teams are striving to secure enterprise agreements that allow them to offer products that stay on the pulse of student demands.
“We don’t want to go back to the drawing board every single time for a new variant or procurement deal,” Glassman says. “That’s why picking those partnerships is so vital because we want a long-term relationship whenever we can get one.”
Embracing the next generation of university procurement professionals
Meeting campus demand is also generating career interest among students in supply-chain operations. Glassman sees a potential sweet spot where students—uninhibited by AI’s potential—can push the field even further, especially when combining their ambition with the procurement team’s expertise in building complex deals and relationships.
“We’re seeing a surge in internships,” Glassman. “They come into procurement thinking they’re going to learn how to do data analysis, and they come out leveraging new technologies and working collaboratively with the staff. Some of them become procurement professionals. It’s pretty exciting to see that happen.”
