Memorandum

In a continuing effort to streamline administrative costs and become more operationally efficient, we are moving to required use of NC State’s electronic MarketPlace for supply purchases less than $250.

MarketPlace suppliers offer an additional 6% discount beyond our contract pricing, free shipping, and sales tax free order processing. In addition, use of the MarketPlace streamlines the procurement process adna llows for pre-purchase approvals. It eliminates paper invoicing and duplicate invoice payments. MarketPlace also allows the University to pay suppliers electronically. The total process cost savings is estimated to be $25 per order. There are approximately 47,000 paper invoices valued at $250 or less processed every year. With the required use of MarketPlace for supply purchases under $250, the university could realize an annual cost savings of $1.17 million.

Effective August 29, 2017, when a voucher request is entered for a supply purchase below $250 a financial system Warning Message will display and the initiator will be required to submit why the MarketPlace and/or PCard was not used.

This information will allow the University to improve the item selections in the MarketPlace catalogs and to ensure that the pricing is the same or better than could be obtained without our negotiated prices. Departmental processors will receive additional information via financial listserv. More information on this initiative can be found on the MarketPlace webpage: https://materialsmgmt.ofa.ncsu.edu/purchasing/marketplace/

If you have any questions, please contact David Price at 515-6897, djprice@ncsu.edu or Sharon Loosman at 513-4206, sdloosma@ncsu.edu.

cc: Scott Douglass, Vice Chancellor, Finance and Administration
Barbara Moses, Associate Vice Chancellor, Budget and Resource Management