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Stronger Together

Why Peer Partnerships Matter

University of San Francisco view over city
As one of the world’s leading public research university systems, the University of California has 10 campuses, five medical centers, three national labs, and a network of agricultural and natural research centers. On the whole, the UC system includes more than 280,000 students and two million alumni living all around the world.

Ask Justin Sullivan and he will tell you that on any given day, University of California can get congested—really congested. As Director of Strategic Sourcing, it is Sullivan’s responsibility to help coordinate the strategic sourcing pipeline process for each of the University of California campus’. The crux of his job is to manage—transform, really— University of California’s strategic sourcing capabilities system-wide.

The job requires the ability to identify and maintain a series of relationships with myriad partners that are able to get the job done. “Higher education offers so many doors if you’re willing to open them,” Sullivan says. “Our suppliers are looking for ways to engage with our campuses, and we’re constantly looking to learn about what’s going on beyond the University of California.”

Back to the aforementioned congested campus reference, Sullivan recalls a recent conundrum at the San Francisco and San Diego campuses. Both were having trouble accommodating the number of delivery vehicles on campus—a process that involves competing with campus visitors, students and staff, and, in the case of the San Francisco campus, patients.

Enter University of California CPOs Jim Hine (San Francisco) and Ted Johnson (San Diego). Working with their respective teams, they met with the suppliers to develop a program to stage deliveries at off-site warehouses and have the university staff consolidate the shipments into single daily campus deliveries.

“That took extremely close collaboration between the suppliers and ops teams at both campuses to get the model right and build a level of trust that they could integrate operations,” Sullivan says. “It created a ‘win-win’ on cost and continues to meet customer expectations on campus together. Taking those trucks off the road makes our campuses and their surrounding neighborhoods more pleasant, safer and more sustainable.”

Sullivan says the secret to the success behind building partnerships is very simple: You must understand your university, what it values, and then find the opportunities to expose suppliers to it. “The passion of your students, faculty and staff will be contagious, especially if you invite them into the process. It will help you identify the types of authentic engagement that can be successful. Think about what you will bring to the partnership, listen to what your partners value and want to accomplish, and be prepared to help them build the campus relationships that are needed to get it done.”

To read more please click here: https://www.envisionedmagazine.com/2021/11/02/stronger-together/