University of Maryland signs with ESM
Warrington, Pa. (PRWEB) September 12, 2017 -- ESM, a leading provider of spend management solutions, announced today that the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) will deploy ESM’s full solution suite.
Founded in 1856, UMD, a Big Ten university, is the flagship institution of the University System of Maryland (USM). With 39,000 students and over 10,000 faculty and staff, the institution has an operating budget of more than $1.9 billion.
This agreement with ESM allows other USM institutions to also launch the same tools to automate procurement, streamline sourcing and boost savings. Altogether, USM has nearly 165,000 students and an operating budget of more than $5.3 billion.
“We are thrilled to have the University of Maryland come on board with us,” ESM CEO Anthony Rotoli said. “We are confident that our solutions will save them time and money.”
To help them with the strategic transformation of their procurement initiatives, UMD has also partnered with Huron Consulting Group, which will provide on-site professional expertise related to procurement practices, business process transformation and change management during the implementation process.
ESM and Huron have partnered on several other higher education projects to help streamline procurement automation at other organizations, including Michigan State University, University of Cincinnati and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System.
“Through strategic partnerships like these and by fully leveraging the technology capabilities, we are able to help higher education institutions move towards best practices for the entire procure-to-pay initiative,” said Derek Smith, Huron’s managing director for higher education procurement. “With ESM, we know the University of Maryland will get a cost effective and intuitive solution that will allow them to drive savings and realize other operational benefits.”
• Full suite of solutions deployed
UMD will deploy ESM’s full suite of spend management solutions. With ESM’s tools, UMD will get more out of every dollar they spend on behalf of taxpayers, grantors and students with full visibility and accountability.
Features include:
-- an intuitive online marketplace where users are guided directly to negotiated contracts and approved vendors;
-- an online contract repository that makes it easy to save, search and find existing contracts and templates;
-- and a collaborative marketplace, which makes for streamlined solicitation and bidding.
ESM also is enhancing functionality that will make it easier to secure and manage diverse vendors. The solution will help the higher education system direct spend and report on vendors that meet certain criteria, such as women-owned, minority-owned, small and veteran-owned businesses. The functionality is vital for the University of Maryland, which, like other higher education institutions, must report specific spend to meet state and federal guidelines for grants and other funding.
“We’re eager to get this tool built because we know other ESM customers and higher education institutions must comply with similar guidelines and would welcome a streamlined approach to ensure they are meeting every mandate,” Rotoli said.
• Not the first big campus for ESM
This deployment isn’t the first time a major college system has rolled out ESM’s spend management solutions. ESM recently announced that all of the campuses within the California State University system, the fourth largest public university system in the nation, will begin using ESM’s solutions. There, campuses have enjoyed rapid adoption, immediate cost savings and a quick return on investment after deploying ESM’s tools.
UMD also is the second Big Ten school to implement ESM’s solutions. Michigan State launched ESM’s eProcurement and invoicing solutions several years ago. In February, ESM announced that MSU, the ninth largest university in the United States, also would automate contract management with ESM.
Said Rotoli: “We look forward to enabling our tools at the University of Maryland as we have with other institutions around the world to automate procurement and stretch their budget dollars.”
About ESM
ESM is a leading provider of cloud-based spend management and eProcurement solutions, giving customers complete control of their spend through a comprehensive suite of integrated, yet modular solutions. The company’s flexible sourcing, purchasing, invoicing and contract management applications help organizations save time and money. As a SaaS-based solution, ESM makes financial system integration, data visibility and streamlining of the entire procure-to-pay process fast and easy. On the web: esmsolutions.com.
Sarah Hall, ESM Solutions Corporation, +1 919-362-1200, [email protected]
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