Regents approve procurement pact with AmEx

Posted by University News Service

Feb. 17, 2012

Texas State University will implement a new, more efficient procurement process aimed at reducing and containing costs, thanks to recent action by the Texas State University System Board of Regents.

Meeting Feb. 16-17 on the Texas State campus, the regents authorized an agreement between the university and American Express to use the American Express Commercial Card Program to pay for university purchases.

The contract allows the university to better utilize its membership in the Educational and Institutional Cooperative Service (E&I), a not-for-profit cooperative established to provide its members with goods and services at the best possible value. E&I is owned by its membership of more than 2,400 colleges, universities, K-12 schools, hospitals, medical research institutions and medical purchasing organizations throughout the United States.

The American Express Corporate Purchasing Card is now available to E&I members at preferred rates exclusive to those members. E&I’s contract with American Express provides member institutions with a variety of benefits, including financial rebates and online reporting and program management capabilities.

Payment through the American Express program will enable Texas State to negotiate pricing concessions with preferred vendors by offering early payment and other efficiencies.

The agreement with American Express is the most recent measure taken as part of the university’s strategic sourcing initiative to reduce and contain costs.

Two years ago, as part of the same initiative, the university purchased software from SciQuest, the leading catalog and content management product for electronic procurement in higher education. With that, Texas State established Bobcatalog, the university’s electronic procurement system that currently has 27 vendor catalogs or “electronic stores” available on the system.

The software solution eliminates or reduces various manual processes and automates and streamlines purchase order creation, distribution, tracking and management.

The Texas State University System Board of Regents is the governing body for Texas’ oldest university system, which comprises eight institutions: Lamar University; Sam Houston State University; Texas State University-San Marcos; Sul Ross State University; Sul Ross State University Rio Grande College; Lamar Institute of Technology; Lamar State College-Orange; and Lamar State College-Port Arthur.