Integrate Your Procurement Management Software With SCT Banner For Maximum Effectiveness

Enterprise resource planning tools are not only used by private industry but also used by colleges and universities to manage their financial, human resource and other business critical systems. SCT Banner is one such application designed to help colleges and universities manage their business functions. One area that it this ERP tool does not pay a lot of attention to is the purchasing process.

Of course you can create an online requisition, but the overall process may be too cumbersome for most end users. SCT Banner is very strong in managing the General ledger and other financial functions, but like most ERP systems, it does not create a user friendly purchasing process. This is where integrating a third party procurement management software may help.

Unfortunately when these institutions purchase an ERP solution, the organization decides that the best procurement management plan is to keep the manual paper process in place. This becomes the standard practice that many schools tend to go so they can keep the purchasing cycle relatively simple. But when doing so, the overall process becomes highly inefficient and cumbersome.

SunGard Higher Ed has an integrated partner that can now deliver a best of breed solution that can solve this problem. Not only can the overall purchasing cycle be more streamlined and efficient, but it is integrated at various touch points to ensure business rules like budget checking are enforced.

Using e-procurement with the SCT Banner integration, you benefit in the following areas:

1. A user friendly requisition based interface that can be accessible from any internet browser.
2. A controlled approval process that can easily mimic current business rules.
3. An online front end portal to access preferred vendor catalogs
4. Budget checking during the requisition stage and full encumbrance during the Purchase Order stage
5. Electronic Purchase Orders sent directly to suppliers

In summary, if your organization is challenged with an inefficient paper procurement process and you are using the SCT Banner solution, an integrated procurement management software application is the way to go. Your organization’s purchasing process will flow easier and with automatic budget checking, the overall e-procurement cycle can become much more efficient.