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Cary, NC — October 16, 2008 — William M. (Bill) Cooper, associate vice president and chief procurement officer at the University of Missouri, has won the CACUBO RBC Capital Markets Best Practices award for his department's strategic approach to procurement. Mr. Cooper was honored at the Central Association of College and University Business Officers' (CACUBO) Annual Meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., where he also presented his winning proposal.

"This is a great honor for our department and the University, as it brings to light the benefits that a more strategic procurement function can have on the quality of life and services across campus," said Cooper. "By gaining greater visibility into enterprise-wide spending, reducing the costs of goods and services, streamlining outdated processes and eliminating off-contract purchases, the University has realized more than $24.3 million in savings from our transformation."

In an effort to promote and recognize new approaches to the problems facing college and university business operations, RBC Capital Markets joined with CACUBO to host the CACUBO RBC Capital Markets Best Practices Award Program. The award recognizes colleges and universities that have successfully developed a best practice in response to a particular problem and showcases successful efforts to create better, more efficient and customer-friendly business practices.

"The procurement transformation that Mr. Cooper and his team at the University of Missouri have achieved offers a great example of the impact this department can have campus-wide — as it touches nearly everyone," said Ron Lostetter, president of CACUBO. "These are the best practices that we seek to honor in this awards program, and to help colleges and universities share in their successes as well as challenges. We are pleased to give this award to Mr. Cooper and congratulate him on his achievement in advancing the procurement operations at the University of Missouri."

Building a Strategic Supply Chain Support Center

The University of Missouri sought to re-engineer its procurement function from a transaction-oriented "order shop" to a strategic supply chain support center that could help the University recapture millions of dollars and provide higher value services, such as pre-negotiated contracts and sourcing assistance for on-demand needs. This multi-phase effort incorporated several key directives, such as consolidating the disparate procurement operations and policies, and implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

The other critical component was to implement an e-procurement solution that could easily integrate with the University's ERP system, create a central online marketplace that would engage its user and supplier populations, and further eliminate paper-driven activities.

SciQuest was selected to provide an interactive Web-based e-procurement environment where all types of users can search for and buy the goods and services they need. SciQuest was also selected for its modular approach and SaaS-based deployment model, which made it easy for the University to integrate SciQuest's online shopping component with and extend the capabilities of its existing ERP system.