Schools to benefit from NZSTA e-procurement

Media Release

New Zealand schools to benefit from
NZSTA e-procurement solution

New Zealand schools are to benefit from a new e-procurement portal that will allow them to leverage off the buying power of some 2,500 schools to purchase goods and services.

The New Zealand School Trustees Association e-procurement portal (STAbuy) is currently being implemented, with a live pilot operating in September/October, prior to progressive implementation through the compulsory education sector.

The portal is the result of a strategic partnership between the New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA), Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGEY), and Oracle New Zealand.

NZSTA General Manager Ray Newport says the education sector e-commerce portal is a significant development for schools.

“NZSTA members will stand to make significant savings within their operational grant funding as a result of leveraging the purchasing power of some 2,500 schools, an opportunity which would not otherwise be available to NZSTA members.”

CGEY is building and implementing the portal for NZSTA, based around Oracle e-procurement software.

“CGEY is delighted to work with the NZSTA and see this as a very important development, both from our point of view, as well as for the potential benefits to NZSTA members”, says Paul Cook, CGEY Managing Director of Solutions Asia-Pacific.

“The development of the portal is a significant development and will become an important reference site for further activities in the areas of e-commerce,” says David Stewart, CGEY Australia and New Zealand Head of Applications and Infrastructure Management. “It will provide schools with a world class procurement system which will meet their needs for the foreseeable future.”

Oracle, the second-biggest software company in the world, is providing “state of the art” internet procurement software from their e-business applications suite.

Managing Director of Oracle New Zealand, Leigh Warren, sees “the relationship with NZSTA and CGEY as fitting neatly within the current strategies relating to current e-government initiatives.”

“Quite apart from the NZSTA e-procurement portal being an important reference site for Oracle, we are of course delighted to be part of a team which seeks to bring real savings to New Zealand schools in their normal purchasing of supplies,” says Leigh Warren.
[more]
2/ New Zealand schools to benefit from NZSTA e-procurement solution

“We understand that funding for schools is an issue right across the world. Boards of trustees and principals in New Zealand also have to extract the best value out of every precious dollar, and it is hard to imagine a more worthy endeavour than NZSTA’s e-procurement initiatives which provides a real opportunity for schools to achieve significant savings.”

Ray Newport says they’re looking forward to the go-live date in October.

“This is an important culmination of a number of months’ work with CGEY and Oracle as well as a wide consultation within the sector, and particularly through an education sector reference group. And all parties are confident that implementation of this system will be welcomed.”

STAbuy will be implemented as an e-procurement solution in the first instance, but will quickly migrate to a schools social portal which will provide schools and boards of trustees with a variety of other features, such as online chat facilities and an exchange facility.

“STAbuy is an NZSTA initiative, but a sector opportunity,” says Ray Newport, “and as a non profit organisation, all benefits arising to NZSTA from the ownership of the portal will of course be passed on to NZSTA members in the form of improved and enhanced services.”

[ends]

For further information please contact:
Ray Newport, General Manager, NZSTA – (04) 473 4955, (025) 449 629.
David Stewart, CGEY - (025) 899 998.
Jayne Pritchard, Oracle – (09) 356-3256.

© Scoop Media