MINNESOTA STATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
FACILITIES CONFERENCE
April 24 – 26, 2013
White Paper
Collaborative Sourcing Team Partners with Facilities
Author: Steve Gednalske
Summary
Steven Rosenstone has commented that instead of developing 31 different
psychology 101 courses we need to develop one extraordinary “psych 101” class that
all 31 colleges and universities could use. This succinctly describes the journey that
the Collaborative Sourcing Team (part of the Campus Service Cooperative) has been
on for the past several years in the area of sourcing. While not an easy path, it has
been an extraordinary success. By working together and leveraging system
purchasing power, the Collaborative Sourcing Team (CST) in conjunction with
internal and external strategic partners (including FACILITIES personnel) and
colleges/universities has implemented a variety of programs that have saved the
system an estimated $20 million (and it is anticipated that the system will save nearly
$50 million more over the next five years from programs in progress). Equally
important is that these programs have resulted in better value (higher quality, more
sustainable, secure, efficient, and compliant on top of costing less) sourcing
programs for goods and services. Doing it creatively and incredibly well one time
instead of 31 times! This effort supports the Board of Trustees strategic framework of
highest value/most affordable education. Recently the Campus Service Cooperative
brought in additional resources in the form of IBM to continue this journey and build
on past success.
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Partner of Choice
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MINNESOTA STATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
FACILITIES CONFERENCE
April 24 – 26, 2013
White Paper
Collaborative Sourcing Team (CST) Members and Contributors
The Collaborative Sourcing Team (http://www.finance.mnscu.edu/contractspurchasing/collaborative/index.html) is made up of ten volunteers (fiscal 12’ CST
expenses totaled $58.26) from 2 and 4 year colleges and universities and the system
office and the group’s leader from the system office.
Belinda Lindell
Steve Gednalske
Todd Oseby
Michael Noble-Olson
Wayne Wolden
Jeff Kuiper
Lisa Sparks
Duane Dahlstrom
Dan Duffy
Jim Morgan
Deb Benz
Bemidji State University
System Office, CST Leader
Century College
Minneapolis Community & Technical College
Minnesota State Community & Technical College
Southwest Minnesota State University
St. Cloud State University
St. Cloud Technical and Community College
System Office, ITS
System Office, Facilities
Winona State University
The beauty of the collaborative sourcing initiative is that it extends far beyond this
small team and taps into the enormous skills and expertise from throughout the
system including significant contributions from Facilities, Students, Faculty, Staff,
Unions, Finance/Business Offices, Office of General Counsel, ITS, Human
Resources, and Academic and Student Affairs, etc. If you have an idea for potential
system savings in the facilities area please share it with one of the CST members
listed above.
The Collaborative Sourcing Team has developed over 15 strategic external partners
which are vital to success (please see list attached).
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Partner of Choice
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MINNESOTA STATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
FACILITIES CONFERENCE
April 24 – 26, 2013
White Paper
Facility Related Projects Completed
The CST works with colleges/universities to creatively leverage system spending in
all major purchasing categories. Here are some examples of projects completed in
collaboration with facilities:
Mattresses
The CST worked closely with Facility Directors in determining mattress specifications.
The team on this project included facilities personnel and was able to obtain a higher
quality mattress at a reduced price. All residence halls have voluntarily purchased
mattresses using this contract. An additional bonus is that students get a mattress
with a firm side and a soft side! This successful contract will be 5 years old on June
30th and we now are engaged in an RFP with Facilities personnel and the Associated
Colleges of the Twin Cities (private colleges throughout Minnesota).
Water Use
Vendors presented a service to install water saving devices to the CST. Bemidji
State University (BSU) facilities personnel determined that the cost for the service
was too much; however, they also determined that they could install water saving
devices themselves. Through conservation measures such as this BSU reduced
annual water use on their campus by a third!
Facilities Cleaning
Minneapolis Community and Technical College Facilities (as have more than half the
colleges & universities) implemented a scientific computer program through Hillyard,
that helps facility directors divide up classroom and building cleaning tasks and
analyze how various equipment/flooring/design choices impact/improve results. The
result is that MCTC is able to keep the campus cleaner with the same staff even after
building additions. The majority of the campuses are now using this program.
Extraordinary Education
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Partner of Choice
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MINNESOTA STATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
FACILITIES CONFERENCE
April 24 – 26, 2013
White Paper
Energy Management Services
Working closely with Facilities we were able to proactively partner with the University
of Minnesota to obtain access to their US Energy Natural Gas Management Services
Contract. Minnesota State University, Moorhead and St. Cloud State University both
indicated that significant savings will result from the use of programs available under
this contract.
Hospital Beds
We are in the process of a tremendous collaboration that will directly and positively
impact nursing students. By partnering with HealthPartners, Fairview, and Gillette
Children’s Hospital as wells as Deans of Nursing and Facilities personnel we were
able to obtain hospital beds for little or no cost. The nursing students train using
these beds and some were sorely in need of replacement (being over 20 years old).
Now the nursing students can train using modern equipment and the programs
anticipate saving $70,000. As this collaboration continues there is the possibility that
student truck drivers in training who need to obtain hours on the road may assist in
delivering the hospital beds to colleges and universities.
Extraordinary Education
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Partner of Choice
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Best Value