PHILADELPHIA -- Ordering supplies at Philadelphia largest private employer just became as easy as buying books online using a home computer.

The new University of Pennsylvania system is the Business Enterprise Network. BEN is an integrated, web-based financial and e-commerce system with applications for purchasing, accounts payable and general ledger fully integrated into Penn business applications and reporting functions.

While striving to provide the most effective and efficient procurement tool to its user community, Penn has taken a lead in using e-commerce for procurement in higher education.

"BEN has made a significant impact on Penn purchasing efficiencies and costs," said Ralph Maier, associate director of acquisition services. "Wee streamlined the entire procurement process, dramatically reducing the time and effort related to purchase order creation."

About 1,600 staff members in Penn 12 schools and 20 business units can directly access Penn Marketplace, an online procurement application where they can browse Penn-specific supplier catalogs, make selections, submit them for approval and send the orders to the suppliers -- all electronically. An electronic data interchange takes care of paperless purchase orders and invoices. Staff members can also generate reports and access their general ledger balance as needed.

The electronic catalog and shopping cart system were integrated from software products by Oracle, and content management services were by GSX. The initial 52 suppliers already account for about half of Penn annual purchase order transaction volume. The University intends to drive 75 percent of its market activity online.

As the first step toward comprehensive e-commerce procurement, Penn implemented a new on-line purchasing process five years ago. Using earlier Oracle financial applications, Penn staff learned to create point-of-demand purchase requisitions from anywhere on campus. The newly implemented e-commerce solution has enabled Penn Procurement Department to eliminate many transaction-related activities and devote more time and effort to activities that add value to the purchasing process.

"Our staff used to spend most of their time monitoring transactions," said Maier. "Now they are free to focus on managing suppliers, negotiating contracts, working with the campus user community and looking at emerging technologies. We use the standard approval process for only 7 percent of the actual purchasing transactions, although they account for approximately 72 percent of the actual dollars spent."

Thus far, the cost savings on products and services purchases have added up to $60.8 million that Maier attributes to the department value-added efforts.

Additional information on the University of Pennsylvania purchasing programs is available at www.purchasing.upenn.edu.