How do we get deans, professors and professors to use the new systems? It's one of the issues higher education institutions are grappling with, according to the roundtable discussion ICreative organized in collaboration with Heliview on April 24.
Employees from twelve colleges and universities had gathered in the inspiring Kasteel Woerden to spar about the critical success factors for optimization of the purchase-to-pay process and to network. Delft University of Technology opened with a presentation on the road it had taken, which provided plenty of material for discussion.
The roundtable revealed that all educational institutions actually have the same challenges. How do we get the internal Purchasing and Administration departments aligned? How do we get deans, professors and professors to use the new systems? And how do we ensure that we get all orders done with one order allowing for three-way matching? Of course, the legal requirement of April 18, 2019, where it is mandatory for the organizations present to be able to receive and process the European core invoice, was also discussed.
A hard top down approach by the management is very much contributing to this, but it is not enough.
The conclusion was that every higher education institution is busy optimizing the purchase-to-pay process but not everyone is at the same stage. Good communication and creating internal support are key success factors. A hard top-down approach from the management certainly contributes to this, but it is not enough. It is at least as important to entice employees to use the new ordering systems. Ordering must be made easy and fun again, then people will automatically start using the solutions.
