Rice Marketplace simplifies purchasing process for campus supplies

Have we got deals for you!
Rice Marketplace simplifies purchasing process for campus supplies

BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Rice News staff

Given the economy, saving money has become a priority at Rice, as it has at campuses across the country.

So the university is ready to extend a hand to its faculty and staff to help them shave a few bucks off the budget and save time and effort as well.

That’s Brian Soika’s specialty. The university’s director of procurement, who spent six years in Washington, D.C., performing similar duties for the House of Representatives, is marketing improved purchasing services to the Rice community with the hope it will make all their lives easier.

	Rice Marketplace, which went live last October for a limited number of test users, allows faculty, staff and eventually students to buy goods and services online for up to 75 percent off what they’d pay retail.

“It really is a marketing job, both internally and externally,” said Soika, who came to Houston in 2001 for stints at Reliant Energy and Hewlett-Packard. “I’ve found it’s easy to market Rice with local suppliers. Rice has a unique brand in Houston that everyone wants to be associated with.”

Since his arrival here last April, Soika has been learning the Rice culture, building contacts and negotiating deals. Now, he’s ready to debut Rice’s e-procurement system, through which the university hopes to ease the process by which goods of all kinds find their way to campus.

Rice Marketplace, which went live last October for a limited number of test users, allows faculty, staff and eventually students to buy goods and services online for up to 75 percent off what they’d pay retail, said Soika. For instance, he said deals are already in place with both OfficeMax and Office Depot, and while breaks vary by item, buyers typically save 47 percent off retail prices, with special deals saving even more.

Other vendors offering bargains include Dell, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, life science product distributor VWR, FedEx, Matheson Tri-Gas, Fisher Scientific and more.

“If you have a purchasing card (P-card), it’s easy to buy what you need wherever you want, but if we happen to have a global deal with those same suppliers, you might miss an opportunity to save money,” he said. “So it’s worth your while to see what Rice Marketplace has to offer.

Soika said customers are not limited to the types of goods offered through the Marketplace. “It’ll be everything I can get my hands on for which I can get a better deal.” But even as a one-man department, he figures the agreements in place with vendors already have the potential to save Rice as much as $750,000 a year. And he’s just getting started.

Over the next few months, Soika will pursue several avenues to help departments take advantage of the Marketplace. Between speaking at administrators’ forums, talking with and training departments, publishing a monthly newsletter, running “Ask the Expert” sessions and word of mouth, he expects to get more on board in short order.

“If the Rice Marketplace is convenient to use, provides the information people need and saves them from having to do reallocations on their P-cards at the end of the month, they’ll use the system,” he said.

As more people use the Marketplace, Soika expects the range of offerings to expand. “If our vendors don’t have the particular item you’re looking for, they’ll either find it for you or — and this is why you have a P-card — you can go and find it from somebody else.

“All I ask is that you let me know,” he said. “If it’s something you’re going to be buying on a recurring basis, I’ll try to work with our current vendors to stock the product. In the nicest possible way, of course.”