Market Place

Update (August 2012)

The Procurement Department is pleased to announce that Blackwell has now joined the University e-Marketplace. Following the demonstrations provided by Marketplace Project Team the switch takes effect from Monday 20th August 2012. All Purchase Orders will now be populated from the Blackwell punchout web site accessed through the e-Marketplace.

There is a guide about how to order from Blackwell's through Agresso:

Marketplace guide for using Blackwell

There is also a user guide from Blackwell to offer guidance on using their website:

Blackwell website guide

If you have any queries about this change please contact Rich Backholer, Procurement on ext. 6070 or email

Update (July 2011)

Marketplace was officially launched for the first suppliers on 1st June and was rolled out to a total of 8 suppliers over the following week. In total 240 unique users have processed orders through the site. In the last 6 weeks we have processed 910 orders with a total spend of £130,374.00.

Arco:

Unfortunately, soon after launch, it became apparent that there were issues with the Arco catalogue. We removed Arco from the Marketplace to avoid any confusion. Since then, we have been working with Arco to resolve the issues and we expect to relaunch Arco as a hosted catalogue on Marketplace in the next week.

Drop in sessions:

We ran a series of demo sessions which were very well attended and received positive feedback. IT Training supported the launch with hands on practice sessions.

Now that we have got through the initial launch, we will be holding drop in sessions for people who have specific queries.

Monday 25 July, 2.15pm – WH 3.36

We intend to run more demo and drop in sessions when we have a new set of suppliers available later in the year.

Next Phase:

The next phase of development will be to work with the current marketplace suppliers to ensure that we are sending and receiving Purchase Orders and Invoices electronically. The next phase of suppliers that we are in discussions with include Blackwells, Bridgend Office Furniture and D & G Interiors.

The common pitfalls:

We have had very few people coming to us with problems which we can only assume is a good thing! There are a few issues that have come up a couple of times so it would be worth sharing these:

• If you are a requisitioner, you must access the Marketplace via Agresso on the web. Logging in via the Marketplace link on the homepage will sign you in as a window shopper and will only allow you to assign the cart to another user, not process the cart in to Agresso.

• Don’t forget that the order needs to be saved as a requisition in Agresso and pass through workflow before you can consider your order placed with the supplier. You can see the PO details in Marketplace once Agresso workflow is complete.

• Please do not amend product details for marketplace suppliers in Agresso. If you need to change quantities/ items please make the changes in the Marketplace. If the product/ account code is incorrect, please contact Purchasing Services. Some suppliers are unable to cope with changes to the cart so you may receive the original cart contents or no items at all. The suppliers will also receive errors which will cause the Invoicing process to fail. It is fine to make changes to the project code.

Roll out schedule (May 2011)

From Monday 6 June the new Agresso Marketplace will change the way staff purchase goods and services. This intuitive process is similar to purchasing items from other web suppliers and allows an electronic purchase order to be sent automatically to the supplier.

To assist with the transition to this new way of purchasing in Agresso we are offering a variety of training options:

Presentations

There will be a series of demonstration sessions where we will show you how to purchase through the marketplace. There is no need to book these sessions simply come along on your preferred date. Sessions should last for about 45 minutes.

Hands On Practice Sessions

Once you have attended a presentation, if you would like to practice in a test environment before entering orders on the live system, IT Training will be running a number of self paced practice sessions. You need to have attended one of the presentation sessions before you can book on these sessions. For further details and to book on to a session please contact IT Training.

Suppliers Affected

Below is a list of suppliers which will be available on Marketplace during June (dates to follow).

• Lyreco
• Fisher Scientific UK Ltd
• Sigma-Aldrich (UK)
• Arco Ltd
• Appleton Woods
• BOC Ltd
• Onecall
• Viglen Ltd

Once a supplier is on Marketplace all orders will need to be raised in this new way as the current process will no longer work for these suppliers.

We will be extending the number of suppliers active on marketplace gradually over the coming months.

Guides and Handouts

Three manuals are available on the IT Training website:

Quick Guide
Using Marketplace (bUmp) to Request Goods and Services for Agresso Users (Full Guide)
Using Marketplace (bUmp) for Window Shoppers (Full Guide)

SciQuest Inc to provide the University’s first eMarketplace (January 2011)

Following a recent tender exercise, the University of Bath is very pleased to announce the appointment of SciQuest Inc as the provider of our first eMarketplace.

The eMarketplace will make the process for staff buying goods and services on behalf of the University much more intuitive and make the experience considerably more like buying from other web suppliers such as Amazon.

The eMarketplace will enable us to electronically deliver the purchase order to approved suppliers and for them to return their invoices to the University.

Purchase and development of the eMarketplace is supported by HEFCE funding.

Following configuration of the software (including integration with Agresso) and a pilot phase, it is intended that the system will go live for all users in July 2011.

For further information, please email Project Manager Howard Crowter-Jones

Funding Award (November 2010)

The University has been awarded £60,000 from the HEFCE’s University Modernisation Fund to support the cost of a new e-marketplace.

The aim of introducing a marketplace is to enhance the purchasing experience, reducing the amount on information needed to be keyed in. From Agresso, users will be able to visit the marketplace making it easier to search for products, giving accurate pricing and populating product fields within Agresso. Using this process, orders are placed with the supplier so there is no need to re-enter information in to the suppliers own system.

A focus group has come together to define our requirements and over the next few months we will be moving through the procurement process with a view to purchase and begin developing a system by February 2011.

A pilot phase would then be run with a couple of departments and a few suppliers during April and May to iron out any problems before a University wide implementation, expected to be 1^st July 2011. It will then be a gradual process to increase the number of suppliers available through the marketplace.