More than 100 financial administrators from across campus attended the MacBuy town hall event on April 12. Members of the Financial Affairs team provided updates and answered questions, and user testers shared their early experiences with the new purchasing system.

Dee Henne, AVP and Chief Financial Officer, emphasized the flexibility of the rollout, noting that the new system won’t replace all p-card purchases.

“With MacBuy, our goal as never been about a 100 percent cut-over or being driven by finite roll-out timeline for all areas like it was with Mosaic. Instead, we have a plan to transition whereby over the course of months, areas will be onboarded to the new system,” she said.

The onboarding process will include setting up individual favourites in the system, including chartfields, shipping addresses and often-ordered items, said Kari Wright, e-procurement specialist, who presented some of the highlights of the MacBuy system.

“You can access all the suppliers with just one sign-in,” she said. “You can also track the progress of your order, share carts and see your order history.”

Next steps for MacBuy are a controlled live user test in May where project managers will follow test orders through the system from purchase to payment. Then onboarding will be provided to pre-selected high-use departments: Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences; Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute; Kinesiology; and Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Phased-in onboarding will continue through the summer and fall months and will also include business process mapping.

Other departments awaiting onboarding can prepare for MacBuy by clarifying team purchasing processes and identifying the team members who will take on shopper, requester and approver roles, as well as which roles can be delegated. Read more about role definitions in the frequently asked questions section of the website.

Henne’s speaking notes and presentations from the April event are available on the MacBuy website.

The next town hall is planned for July.