Electronic procurement — generally known as eProcurement — is the automation and management of the procurement-to-payment process. It involves creating and approving purchase requisitions,placing purchase orders, receiving goods and services, and processing invoices electronically.

Transforming our procurement process to eProcurement is an important part of an overall strategy for reducing costs and leveraging efficiencies. Universities like ours have found that implementing an eProcurement solution makes the purchase and payment processes faster, more efficient, provides better visibility and accountability and enables a higher level of compliance with policies and regulations. eProcurement is considered a best practice across higher education and supports the Saint Louis University’s objective of maximizing institutional efficiencies.

Unimarket is the eProcurement company that Saint Louis University partnered with for an eProcurement solution. Billiken Buy is the internal marketplace name that Saint Louis University selected for this system.

Billiken Buy helps by making your product research, processing orders, tracking those orders and all associated actions such as receiving and payments easier, faster and more compliant. In particular, you are able to locate the best pricing with our preferred suppliers, find items on contracts, compare products across suppliers, and much, much more. Billiken Buy allows you to create template orders for items that you order regularly so that the purchasing process can be expedited.

With Billiken Buy, you'll have an online procurement environment that provides an intuitive approach much like the shopping cart experience in websites like Amazon.com.

A number of campus groups led and contributed to the Billiken Buy implementation, including but not limited to:

• Business and Finance - Led the project implementation and provided overall direction and guidance.
• ITS - Responsible for the technical integrations between Banner and Billiken Buy.
• Campus departments – Aided during the pilot testing stage and provided guidance throughout the course of the project from the end user perspective
• Sponsored programs – Assisted Project Team by providing input on grant-related purchases and policies

The link to Billiken Buy will be available on MySLU to designated users in the system. These users will be enabled in Billiken Buy upon completion of training. Once a user is enabled, single-sign on access will automatically log a user into Billiken Buy when logged in with the SLU username and password. If a disabled user clicks on the Billiken Buy icon prior to training, they will receive an error stating: "Single Sign-on Failed - Account is Disabled." Access is denied due to the status of the user's account.

Department heads or business managers can request that a new user be added to Billiken Buy using the "Request Help" link on their dashboard. This will direct department heads to a Google Form to complete their request. New users will be added to the system by the system administrator.

Many key suppliers have catalogs in our marketplace. They include, but are not limited to: Staples, Grainger, Dell, Amazon Business, CDW, McKesson-Medical Surgical, Fisher Scientific, VWR, Sigma-Aldrich, and Ronnoco Coffee. Catalogs will continue to be added as we identify suppliers that have valid contracts and can integrate with the system.

There are several options for training including quarterly instructor-led training sessions, along with training documentation, and on-line tutorials, which will be accessible via links in the Billiken Buy dashboard and the Help function.  If training is needed, contact the Billiken Buy Administrator at billikenbuyadmin@slu.edu.

The buyer role in Billiken Buy is assigned to those users who have the authority to make purchases using University funds based on the Banner finance fund or org authority. The browser role is assigned to those users who have the need to create purchases for goods and services but do not have the authority to make purchases using University funds based on the Banner finance fund or org authority.

Banner Finance users with either "Posting" or "Query/Posting" access will be set up as buyers in Billiken Buy. Banner Finance users with "Query" only will be set up as browsers. In addition, non-Banner Finance users would be set up as browsers.

• Ship To
• Bill To
• Justification and Order Attachments
• Justification and Delivery Notes
• FOAPAL elements - When an approver edits the FOAPAL elements, the system will check the fund/org security of the approver.

Select Cognos BUSFM003 Report of Transactions - Excel. Under "Additional Parameters," choose "Report Type: Blanket PO." Enter other parameters as usual, and click "Run Report."

The blanket and release PO number for each invoice transaction will display in column L. The release PO number will also display in column K.

Due to the line item detail provided by Billiken Buy, Banner INB/BSS and the Cognos report of transactions will reflect the individual commodity lines for purchases. To make reconciling your budgets easier, the following options have been added to the parameters page for the Cognos BUSFM003 Report of Transactions - Excel report:

• Blanket PO Report Type: This report will reflect the blanket PO number, as well as the release PO numbers under that blanket. To run this report, select Cognos BUSFM003 Report of Transactions - Excel. Under "Additional Parameters" choose "Report Type: Blanket PO." Enter other parameters as usual and click "Run Report." The blanket and release PO number for each invoice transaction will display in column L. The release PO number will also display in column K.
• Blanket PO Summary Report Type: This report will sum your transactions by document code. For vendors that provide a discount, the discount amount will be a separate line item. To run this report, select "Blanket PO Summary" under the Report Type Parameter.

When creating requisitions for payments to be made in the current fiscal year for services or goods to be received in a future fiscal year, notes should be included in the requisition's "Justification" field indicating that payment is for a future fiscal year. The charge will then be deferred by CPC.

• Enter delivery notes in the purchase requisition indicating that it is a check-enclosed purchase order
• Email the invoice with the PO number to accountspayable@slu.edu and include the rush request information - i.e. when the check is needed and how it should be delivered
• Receive your goods/services in (if applicable) so that the invoice can post and submit for payment