According to Doug Kudravetz, assistant vice president of finance, savings will come not only from anticipated lower prices at AcquireX, but also from the significantly reduced number of hours spent processing orders and tracking purchases. AcquireX customizes catalogs to make the most frequently ordered items most accessible and limits itself to items used by educational institutions. It will connect clients with other vendors for direct purchase, will organize and run bids when the school is required to run bids for services and products, or will sell products directly. The direct sell approach leads the client through order placement, status, shipment scheduling, order receipts, invoicing, and customer service.
Clients are exclusively schools, including public schools as well as universities.
The pilot program at AU includes central purchasing and a group of users in the academic and administrative units. Kudravetz says he hopes to roll the program out to others on campus after the first of the year.