Dear Campus Community,

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has important updates and upcoming events to share with you.

This month's features:  

• Reminder: No Bears that Buy Open Office Hours in August 2026
• Scheduled BFS Maintenance
• Property Management Launches Rheaply, Our New Online Furniture Marketplace
• Hays Talent Solutions Selected as UC Berkeley and UC-Wide Managed Service Provider (MSP)
• Reminder: New Storeroom Open to All Labs!
• Reminder: New Federal Restrictions on 1260H & Biotech Vendors
• Reminder: Amazon Business Guided Buying Flags

If you have any abutler@berkeley.eduquestions, don't hesitate to contact the BearBUY Help Desk at 510-664-9000 (options 1, 2) or bearbuyhelp@berkeley.edu for immediate assistance.

Go Bears!

Thank you for your continued support, 

Supply Chain Management

NOTE: There will be no Office Hours in August 2026, as SCM will be supporting incoming students during Golden Bear Orientation (GBO) and Move-In activities as they begin their campus experience.

Please join us for our next remote office hour on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 10:50 a.m.


We encourage you to submit topics of discussion and/or questions in advance using this Google form.


Representatives from the Procurement, BearBUY Solutions, Account Payable, and BRS teams will be available to answer your questions and provide information about purchasing at the University of California, Berkeley. Open Office Hours will be held on the third Tuesday of each month from 10:00 a.m. to 10:50 a.m.

Instructions and Zoom URL:

• To attend office hours, you MUST first be signed in to your Berkeley Zoom account. Please see How to sign in to your UC Berkeley Zoom account.
• You don't need to register. Join the Bears that Buy Open Office Hours or enter the Meeting ID 99363039857 in the Zoom desktop client.

Scheduled BFS Maintenance

The BFS and Blu Portal systems will perform maintenance on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, between 3:00 p.m. PST and 10:00 p.m. PST.

BearBUY will be unavailable during this maintenance period.

As part of our continuing efforts to better serve our campus and public communities, UC Surplus is proud to announce that we have digitized our furniture inventory onto a new online platform. Introducing Rheaply.com, a comprehensive marketplace where customers will be able to see our current inventory and reserve items for purchase. 

Rheaply is an online Reuse Marketplace that effectively accesses new sales and donation opportunities that traditional in store business models fail to reach. This platform allows us to easily sell, reuse or donate our inventory within the UC Berkeley Community and with our external partners.  

We hope to simultaneously recapture additional revenue for the University, while reducing waste into the landfills. 

To get started, just login to Rheaply.com with your berkeley.edu email and it will take you through CalNet authentication to set up your account and start browsing our current inventory.

A Simpler Way to Manage Non-Employee Hiring Coming Early 2027


Following a competitive bid process, the University of California is partnering with Hays Talent Solutions to bring a Managed Service Provider to all campus locations. As our new MSP, Hays will be providing campus hiring managers a streamlined, centralized resource for non-employee hiring. UC Berkeley is currently working alongside campus departments in a collaborative discovery phase to ensure this tool fits our everyday needs ahead of the 2027 launch.


No action is needed today. This initiative is designed to take administrative headaches off your plate while keeping your existing team and contractor relationships running smoothly.


Supported Worker Categories Hays will support and simplify hiring across four key areas:

• Temporary Workers: Short-term staff sourced through agencies.
• Independent Contractors: 1099 and self-employed professionals.
• SOW Consultants: Project-based, deliverable-focused talent.
• Direct Hires: Permanent placement services.


How Hays Will Support You

• Save Time: Centralized support handles compliance and operational logistics so you don't have to.
• Clear Guidance: Consistent, hassle-free processes tailored for campus administrators.
• Hands-On Help: Dedicated assistance throughout the entire sourcing and onboarding lifecycle.


We are committed to a smooth transition and will share step-by-step guides, transition timelines, and training opportunities in the coming weeks.

Looking for quick, convenient access to lab supplies? The new Avantor Storeroom in Stanley Hall is officially open and ready to support all campus research labs.



In addition to stocking popular supplies, the storeroom coordinator is on-site to assist with lab equipment service requests.

The storeroom also hosts QB3-Berkeley's limited cold storage rentals, including cryofreezer and ULT freezers.

To set up a shopping account for your lab, email stanley.stockroom@avantorsciences.com, and the team will get you registered.

On June 8, 2026, the Department of Defense (DoD) expanded its Section 1260H list of Chinese Military Companies to include Alibaba, Baidu, WuXi AppTec, Novogene, TP-Link, BYD, and Unitree. Some of these vendors are used at UC Berkeley today.  Existing vendors will not be barred or restricted by Procurement at this time as non-DOD funded research is still allowed.


Key Compliance Rules

• DoD Funding Restriction: Under current policy, federally funded research cannot use equipment or services from any 1260H-listed entities.
• BIOSECURE Act Impact: Enacted in December 2025, this law will soon prohibit all federal agencies from funding biotech equipment or services from listed companies (like WuXi and Novogene), with full implementation expected by early 2028.
• VAR Restriction: Please note that this prohibition also applies to goods and services purchased through a Value Added Reseller or Distributor. 


Your Next Steps

1. Review Your Research Funding sources and Vendors: Check if your lab uses these restricted entities.
2. Respond to Outreach: The Research Security team is actively contacting PIs with matching purchase records. Please reply promptly to help us protect your funding.
3. Plan Transitions: Begin identifying compliant alternative vendors to avoid research disruptions.  

To help streamline our purchasing process and ensure compliance with organizational guidelines, we use color-coded visual flags within our Amazon Business account. Please use this quick reference guide to understand what each indicator means before completing your order:


• 🔴 Red Flags (Prohibited): Do not purchase. Items marked with a red flag are strictly prohibited from purchasing from Amazon. The system will block these items for ordering. Examples of blocked items: UNSPSC Code 25100000 - Motor vehicles and 54000000 - Jewelry, Timepieces, and Gemstone Products.
  
• 🟠 Orange Flags (Warnings): Review before buying. These flags serve as a warning to check for specific policy or funding restrictions (such as UC policy, grant or campus specific limitations). These purchases may require additional administrative approval. Examples of warning flags include but are not limited to paper purchasing and beverages. UNSPSC Codes 50200000, 52151500 and specific manufacturer brand names.
  
• 🟢 Green Flags (Preferred): Recommended purchase. These items represent preferred purchases. The items and sellers align with our strategic goals, such as pre-approved products, contract pricing, or certified sustainable and diverse sellers.


Note: Always check for these flags on the search results and product detail pages to ensure your shopping cart is fully compliant before proceeding to checkout.

Order Status





If you need assistance with determining the status of your order in BearBUY, visit the How to Find the Status of Your Order page on the SCM website. 

Please note that your SCM assigned Buyer will not receive the requisition until it has been approved by the department Org Node approver.

Who is My Department's Assigned Buyer?



If you are unsure of how to start your purchasing transaction, contact your Buyer for assistance by using your Org Node and Department Name to find your assigned Buyer located in this matrix.

Contracts in BearBUY





If you need help searching for a contract and applying it to your cart in BearBUY, please view the Searching for Contracts and Applying a Contract to Your Cart in BearBUY job aid.

Whether you are an experienced or a new BearBUY shopper, it is always best practice to take the BearBUY: Basics for Shoppers training if you haven't already.

To take this ESSENTIAL training, please click on this course #: BEESS950-Online.