Franklin University, a private nonprofit institution in Ohio, operates a downtown, hybrid-work campus, where the Purchasing, Mail and Print Department manages procurement for departments across the organization, from IT and marketing to campus services.
Before adopting Euna Marketplace, the department ran purchasing through nearly 100 separate vendor accounts. The process was disconnected, hard to track, and out of step with the university’s environment.
Challenges
- Purchasing was spread across roughly 99 separate vendor accounts, with no central system to track spend or activity.
- Internal clients each needed their own logins across many of those vendor sites, creating a steady stream of password and account support requests for the purchasing team.
- Larger procurement vendors pushed bundled packages that exceeded the university’s needs, with no cost-effective a-la-carte options for a nonprofit institution watching every dollar.
- The university’s downtown, hybrid campus meant deliveries were often routed to buildings that weren’t staffed, adding to the logistical strain on the purchasing team.
“Before Euna Marketplace, our process was very decentralized. We had separate accounts across dozens of vendors, and it was hard to keep track of it all. My internal clients didn’t want separate logins and to call my office for their credentials,” said Marcus Rucker, Director of Purchasing, Mail and Print at Franklin University.
Solution
Franklin University selected Euna Marketplace to bring purchasing onto a single, flexible platform built around how the university operates best.
- Euna Marketplace replaced hundreds of standalone vendor accounts with one centralized point of purchase for the whole university.
- Flexible, a-la-carte configuration lets the university pay for exactly what it needs, helping maximize the use of limited nonprofit dollars.
- Built-in guided buying and a savings advisor help internal clients make smart purchasing decisions without needing procurement expertise.
- A single point of contact and a single login gave departments across campus one simple, consistent way to buy.
“The Euna team were really intentional about identifying our pain points, and once the solution was presented to me, I knew that we were going to select Euna Marketplace,” Rucker said. “There weren’t a-la-carte options with the bigger vendors. With Euna, we’re able to maximize our university dollars by utilizing a solution that is custom to our unique needs.”
Results
Using Euna Marketplace, Franklin University has seen results in delivery, efficiency, and the day-to-day experience of purchasing.
- Delivery consolidation eliminated the confusion by packages routed across dozens of standalone vendor accounts.
- Departments no longer juggle multiple logins or call the purchasing team for password resets. There’s now just one login, one point of purchase.
- Guided buying empowers departments to make purchases on their own, freeing up the purchasing team’s time for other work.
- The office is now exploring Euna Procurement Invoicing and Euna Grants as its next steps, building on the efficiency gains from Euna Marketplace.
“In addition to cost savings, I’ve seen efficiency across the board,” Rucker said. “It really was empowering for my internal clients to make purchases on their own. They no longer have to go through me or my team.”
Conclusion
For Franklin University, Euna Marketplace replaced a decentralized purchasing process with a single, efficient system that gives everyone the freedom to buy what they need while helping the university stretch every dollar further. As Franklin looks to bring more of its financial operations to Euna Solutions, purchasing has become a model for what technology-enabled efficiency can look like for the university.
“We are a key mechanism in the engine that supports Franklin University. We pay the bills that no one sees, and we’re able to save money in places no one else does. With Euna Marketplace, that engine runs a lot smoother.” — Marcus Rucker, Director of Purchasing, Mail and Print, Franklin University