Using a comprehensive spend management solution, two public sector organizations gain more control over purchasing and increase visibility of entire process.
Charlotte,
NC July 1, 2004- Public sector organizations are adopting
strategies designed to help manage organizational expenditures.
A relatively mature trend in the private sector, spend management
is gaining greater adoption among government and non-profit
organizations. Fueling this trend is stricter requirements
imposed by funding sources, such as the federal government,
as well as a conscious effort by organizations to move toward
self-sufficiency using cost containment initiatives.
To support
this trend of spend management strategies in the public
sector, two organizations recently invested in a system
that would consolidate purchasing activities, increase visibility
of spending, track purchase orders from requisition to payment,
reduce the approval process, and establish seamless integration
between the purchasing and finance departments. Gila River
Indian Community and Southcentral Foundation, both public
sector organizations, implemented Verian Technologies' ProcureIT
- a 100% web-based spend management solution. For Gila River
ProcureIT is enabling them to become a unified purchasing
body with increased buying power. Southcentral is also using
ProcureIT to automate purchasing as well as to enforce
the strict purchasing requirements they face as a grant-funded
organization.
Building
a Centralized Purchasing Community
Gila River Indian Community, a 600-square-mile community
near Phoenix, Arizona, sought a solution that would allow
them to purchase as one centralized community instead of
multiple, individually-operated spending organizations.
Because each department would purchase items from its preferred
vendors, Gila River was missing the opportunity to aggregate
vendors and leverage buying power to negotiate better prices
for the entire community.
Unifying
all the departments, capturing purchasing data from each
department, and increasing visibility of community spending
were the main challenges facing Gila River's purchasing
department. "ProcureIT has assisted us in centralizing
and automating the entire purchasing process and moved us
closer to our goal of purchasing efficiently and economically
in the best interest on the entire Community," said Dave
White, MIS Manager for Gila River "ProcureIT's interface
with our financial systems will also create a seamless process
uniting our purchasing and finance departments." Looking
ahead, White expects to use the data collected in ProcureIT
to leverage Gila River's buying power with preferred vendors.
Managing
Approvals
Southcentral Foundation, a healthcare organization with
$100 million in revenue supporting Alaska Natives and American
Indians, was unable to track purchases and had a very cumbersome,
time-consuming approval process. "It was taking three to
ten days for a purchase order to go from requisition to
approval, and we were spending too much time answering inquiries
on where certain purchase orders were in the process," said
Randy Beckman, Southcentral Foundation's Procurement &
Materials Manager. "With ProcureIT, most requests
make it through the approval process and to the purchasing
department in same day, and users can track requests from
their desktops - eliminating the need to call the purchasing
department to check on the progress of orders."
ProcureIT
also addressed Southcentral Foundation's invoice processing challenges. Like most organizations, Southcentral Foundation's
lack of a uniform purchasing procedure caused many employees
to simply buy the items needed and submit an invoice for
payment. This type of "maverick" purchasing behavior accounted
for $4 million of Southcentral Foundation's $10 million
annual purchasing spend. By redirecting employee purchasing
through the ProcureIT system, non-PO invoices are
now entered into the same system as purchase orders - providing
a centralized database of all organizational spend. Another
benefit of the ProcureIT system is that employees
can now scan and attach receipts or packing slips to invoices,
reducing the time spent by accounts payable tracking down
these items for every invoice.
"In
working with Southcentral Foundation and Gila River, we
found that public sector organizations can benefit from
the same types of tools that for-profit companies use to
support spend management strategy," said Tehseen Ali, CEO
& President of Verian Technologies. "We look forward
to working with both organizations as they continue to implement
their spend management strategies."
-------------------------------------------------
For more
information, contact:
Anna Rushing,
PR Coordinator
1-704-602-3372 (office)
About
Gila River Indian Community
The Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) is an alliance of
two tribes, the Akimel O'odham (Pima) and the Pee Posh (Maricopa).
The Community was established by Executive Order in 1859
and formally established by Constitution in 1939. The largest
reservation in the Phoenix metropolitan area, the Gila River
Indian Community covers nearly 600 square miles and borders
such cities as Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Gilber, Coolidge, and
Casa Grande. For more information, visit http://www.gric.nsn.us
About
Southcentral Foundation
Southcentral Foundation was established in 1982 as a tax-exempt
regional health corporation under the tribal authority of
Cook Inlet Region, Inc. Our purpose is improve the health
and well-being of Alaska Natives and American Indians by
developing and implementing comprehensive health-related
services that meet changing needs, enhance culture and empower
individuals and families to take charge of their lives.
Based in Anchorage, Southcentral employs over 1,100 people.
For more information, visit http://www.southcentralfoundation.com.
About
Verian Technologies
Verian Technologies is the only provider of 100% web-based
spend management solutions for mid-sized organizations.
Its technology is based on its suite of solutions called
ProcureIT. ProcureIT encompasses all aspects of spend management
including: procurement, materials management, asset management,
and travel & expense reimbursement. ProcureIT enables
organizations to reduce their organizational spend, automate
manual tasks and reduce on-hand materials and commitments.
As a result, Verian Technologies' clients are able to reach
efficiency faster and realize a strategic competitive advantage,
as well as a rapid return-on-investment. For more information
on Verian Technologies, visit http://www.verian.com.
