The study presents data from 50 college purchasing departments with a mean annual budget of $153 million and a range of $100,000 to $1 billion in purchasing spending. Bargaining power has shifted from sellers to buyers in many key markets and the report relates how purchasing departments are takingadventage of the shift. The report also details their policies on a broad range of critical higher education purchasing issues, including: use of credit and purchasing cards, reimbursement and arrangement of faculty & staff travel, level of involvement in supplier selection of the purchasing department for a broad range of goods and services, use of consortiums, use of auction sites, thresholds for bid requirements, size and remuneration of purchasing department staff, warehouse logistics, sale of surplus or used materials, green purchasing policies, and trends in purchasing in many areas.
Available June 2009