Sydney University streamlines global procurement

11 Aug 2009

Source: The Australian, August 4 2009

How does an organisation save at least half a million dollars without spending a cent?

The brains trust at Sydney University seems to have cracked the code, and it wasn't a convoluted process.
It started with a business problem, not technology.

International procurement is an expensive affair and the university realised it was spending too much on foreign payments -- about 4000 outgoing payments worth more than $70million are processed each year.

About 70 per cent of purchases were made in three currencies -- US dollars, pounds sterling and euros, said the university's financial operations and systems director, Mark Preston.

The university wanted to reduce human error and track its payments in an easy way. Processing volumes had increased because of an 8 per cent spike in student numbers and it had to find ways to automate tasks as much as possible.

"We wanted to see if we could save 1-2 per cent because that's a pretty big number, and that saving could be reinvested in the faculties," Mr Preston said.

The range of goods and services purchased in foreign currency is mind-boggling -- there are dead frogs from France, lab equipment and overseas assignments for staff.

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