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January 2025

Register for this month's Buying Blue CoP webinar

Join us–virtually–for the next Buying Blue Community of Practice on Thursday, January 30, 2025 from 10 to 11 a.m. Use this form to submit advance questions related to the topics that will be covered:


  • University-Wide Agreement changes that simplify booking with local hotels
  • Expense reporting system name change and recent enhancements
  • Marketsite+ updates following November 2024 upgrades
  • Scope 3 Emissions Project led by the Office of Campus Sustainability


Register to attend the upcoming Buying Blue CoP webinar at this link.

Office hours, demos, and training in January & February—New Travel topics added for 2025!

Procurement Services offers a variety of office hours, demos, and training sessions for the university community. Department team members are available at each of the sessions to help answer your questions.


Virtual supplier features and Lightning feedback sessions have been added to the Travel Program Team's offerings for 2025. Virtual supplier sessions will feature U-M account representatives detailing the benefits of utilizing their travel services and answering attendee questions. Lightning feedback sessions are an opportunity for U-M (CTP's #1 user of its booking tool) to offer suggestions to enhance the platform.


All events listed appear on the Buying Blue Events calendar, which you can add to your Google Calendar by clicking the "Add to Google Calendar" link on the bottom left corner of this page.


Procurement sessions

  • Purchasing team representatives will be in attendance to answer buying-related questions, including Jaggaer/Marketsite+.
  • The Zoom link and passcode below can be used for all sessions: 

https://umich.zoom.us/j/92785272298

Passcode: 575989


Travel booking sessions

  • CTP (or featured supplier) and Travel Program Team representatives will also be in attendance.
  • The Zoom link and passcode below can be used for all sessions: 

https://umich.zoom.us/j/96013633019

Passcode: 684564


Chrome River sessions

  • Expense team representatives will be in attendance.
  • The Zoom link and passcode below can be used for all sessions:

https://umich.zoom.us/j/97330976833 

Passcode: 253097

Prepare for Procurement training program available for local businesses

Businesses looking to join the U-M supplier community can now participate in a virtual training program to get insight into the university's procurement processes. The four-part Prepare for Procurement training program is aimed at fostering strong business relationships and equipping local businesses with practical guidance on joining U-M’s diverse supplier network. This initiative supports the university’s commitment to inclusive procurement practices that bolster its missions of education, research, and patient care.


Read more about upcoming sessions.

Property Disposition holds record-setting auto auction!

Property Disposition set a new sales record in December when it auctioned nearly 100 vehicles for over $1.5 million. This exceeds the university’s previous record set last August by nearly 30 percent! 


According to the auctioneer used by Property Disposition, Braun and Helmer Auction Service, U-M ranks #1 in Michigan and #2 in the U.S. for auto auction sales, based on results from state and national auction sites.


The online auto auction typically features a variety of sedans, minivans, cargo vans, pickup trucks, and utility trucks. Vehicles are sent to auction when they’ve reached the end of their university service, which is typically around three to five years.



U-M auto auctions are held about once a quarter and the next auction is scheduled for February 27 to March 6, 2025. Follow the Property Disposition Facebook page for more information on all auctions and sales.

U-M's expense management system to be renamed—no changes to functionality

Effective January 17, Chrome River, the expense management system used by U-M, will be known as Emburse Enterprise. There are no changes to the system’s functionality and users can continue to access it through Wolverine Access—where the new name and logo will appear—with their current login credentials. 


The only noticeable change on the system itself that users will see is the Emburse Enterprise name and related logo in lieu of the current Chrome River name and logo. In the coming weeks, the U-M Expense Program Team will update training materials to include the new name. Units should also update any locally-developed resources. Any questions about the name change can be emailed to procurement.services@umich.edu.


Read more about Chrome River’s name change to Emburse Enterprise.

User feedback enhances Emburse Enterprise (Chrome River)

A number of enhancements were recently made to Emburse Enterprise (formerly known as Chrome River). Many of the updates—listed below—resulted from user feedback. 


  • Hosting category added to hotel itemization—The Hosting expense type has been added as an option under the Hotel Itemization interface. It should be used when restaurant meals charged to a room are related to hosting a guest, donor, or in rare cases, colleagues during which business discussions take place. As a reminder, all room service and personal meals should be itemized as personal expenses for payroll deduction. Employees traveling for U-M business should claim per diem to cover personal meals and mark all hosted meals as provided in the per diem wizard.


Read more about additional enhancements.

When to use hosting vs. conference expense categories

There are two separate categories of expense types for business meals. The categories for business meals are Hosting and Conference Planning. Understanding the difference between these categories is important for accurate reporting and calculation of meal costs.


The summary below describes when it’s appropriate to use the Hosting and Conference Planning expense-type categories:


Hosting

  • Business meals at a restaurant or similar establishment
  • No additional costs beyond food, taxes, and tip
  • No contractual agreement
  • Delivery service from a standard restaurant menu
  • Typically smaller groups of attendees


Conference Planning

  • Larger-scale events requiring a contractual agreement
  • A catered event at a hotel, conference center, or other event space
  • Requires additional non-food charges such as linen rental or labor costs


Note: Itemizing non-food items using the correct expense types is important to ensure accurate reporting and that they’re not included in the per-person meal limits. 


As a reminder, personal meals and incidental expenses during travel status should be submitted as per diem.

Marketsite+ update—improved communications in sourcing and contract modules

Marketsite+ was launched in November and included enhancements to the sourcing and contract modules in U-M’s procurement system. Since the launch, feedback from the university community has resulted in additional improvements to the system. Stakeholders now have the ability to:


  • View all attachments, including the fully executed contract 
  • Start a thread in the comments section to communicate directly with procurement agents
  • View review rounds/communication center messages
  • Note : Stakeholders must be added by a procurement agent
  • For more information, please review this slide deck as well as this Knowledge Base Article.


This Communications Standards Guide was created to help users navigate the different communication options within each process. If you have any questions about Marketsite+, contact us at procurement.services@umich.edu.

New portal offers access to millions of diverse and sustainable suppliers

A new resource—from Supplier.io—allows U-M purchasers to easily access a variety of information from a community of more than six million businesses —all in one convenient location. Many of these suppliers have a small or diverse-owned business certification and their supplier profile may include details on sustainable product offerings.


 Supplier.io’s Explorer portal offers: 


  • Enhanced and robust product-based search based on an index of diverse supplier websites
  • Detailed supplier profiles that can include company information, revenues, employees, contacts, diversity and small business attributes, diversity classification agencies, expiration dates, and NAICS and SIC classifications
  • The capability to evaluate companies on size, age, and experience in dealing with customers based on TrustIQ’s five-point rating scale.


Read more about using the portal.

Revisions to Tech Tools SPG

cellphone_laptop.jpg

Effective January 1, 2025, SPG 501.04 on Tech Tools: Cell Phones and Portable Electronic Resources, was revised to include the following two modifications:


1) Internet connectivity fee—Under the former policy, U-M covered this fee on a tax-free basis only for those employees who were required to work from home at least 90 percent of their work time. This benefit was originally intended to include only a few employees. With the recent expansion of remote work, however, it has become overbroad and somewhat misleading. To provide clarity, this coverage is now limited to those positions that require urgent or emergency responses (e.g., IT technicians who are on call).


2) Cash stipends provided to employees to subsidize the cost of their cell phones when they're used primarily for business purposes...Read more here.

DYK? PCard/Travel Card training requirements

PCard/Travel card training is required every three years.


While the cardholder training course has always been required for new cardholders, it’s also required as a refresher for all cardholders every three years. The course requires employees to pass a brief test after it’s completed. The test requires a score of 80 percent to be considered complete and can be retaken until passed. Cardholders will receive an automated email notification from ITS when the training needs to be retaken. The training course can be found in My LINC and through a link on the Procurement Services website.

Want to know more about what’s happening in Procurement Services?

Don’t forget to join the #Procurement-Services channel on Slack! This channel shares a variety of content including new contracts, highlights of existing contracts, tips and tricks, employee spotlights, and upcoming Procurement Services events. If you haven’t heard of Slack, we encourage you to check it out! Creating an account is easy and we hope to see you on Slack soon!

My LINC Us

Please contact us with any feedback, comments, questions, or concerns at (734) 764-8212, option 2, or procurement.services@umich.edu.  

We enjoy hearing from you and welcome your feedback.

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