Ontario Education Collaborative Marketplace

OECM is a unique eMarketplace and centre-led Strategic Sourcing organization that supports publicly funded education in Ontario (116 Colleges, Universities and School Boards). The eMarketplace brings Source-to-Pay technology to these largely manual environments, each with a different ERP system, different processes, different practices, different user requirements and levels of computer literacy, and different numbers and degrees of experience and expertise among procurement practitioners. The size of these institutions ranges widely but none of these institutions has e-Sourcing, e-Tendering, e-Contracting, e-Collaboration, e-Contract Management or business intelligence accessible in a way that easily supports Sourcing and Procurement processes.

As an eSCM and Strategic Sourcing subject matter expert, Linda Tuck Chapman was appointed as the interim CEO of OECM. Under her leadership, the technology was designed to be a “white label” portal into the eMarketplace. All institutions will utilize the collaborative procure-to-pay modules including contracting and contract compliance tools, and larger institutions will utilize the e-Sourcing and Performance Management modules. Concurrently, a strategic sourcing organization was designed and launched.

The first step was to establish a common strategic vision, assess current state, desired future state, determine needs and requirements with respect to procurement processes, business architecture, and technology solutions. A high level strategy was created and evolved into a high level framework for the Business Case.

The next step was to gather business requirements and develop a baseline of ERP technology for institutions of varying sizes and geographies, and to conduct spend analysis across nine institutions. An RFP was issued for eSCM software and technical support to implement and run the eMarketplace.

Under Ms. Tuck Chapman’s leadership, the business concept was transformed into a viable Business Plan. A customer base was secured, new headquarters established, and staff were hired. OECM successfully obtained $35 million in startup funding from OntarioBuys in March 2008.

ONTALA gets results.