The group exists to promote and continually develop value for money in the procurement and maintenance of computing hardware and associated products in the higher education community and to track technological developments in the hardware marketplace. To liaise with the regional purchasing consortia and Joint Procurement Policy and Strategy Group of the Funding Councils and Universities UK. 5. To organise negotiating teams, discussion groups and suppliers' workshops. To maximize the use of electronic communications to disseminate purchasing information. To make suppliers better aware of the sales potential of the higher education market and to induce them to address the particular needs of that market through improved and more appropriate trading agreements.
Brief information is given below.
Each university is invited to nominate a correspondent who will join a closed Mailbase list which is used to circulate information about the group and national purchasing agreements. The project is to prepare the Sector, as far as possible, for future developments in procurement and to sensitively and efficiently manage the development of eProcurement within the current mix of constraints and opportunities. Almost all universities are members of one of the regional purchasing consortia. The regions provide support for local purchasing officers and there is a much wider range of regional purchasing deals than national deals. Full details on the regional consortia can be found through ProcureWeb.