CARY, N.C., April 15 /PRNewswire/ -- SciQuest, Inc., the global leader in helping academic, healthcare and research-centric organizations realize the potential of strategic procurement, today announced the availability of Supplies Manager, an addition to the company's full suite of solutions that automate the entire purchasing process from sourcing to settlement. Developed to give organizations the ability to manage their procurement processes and inventory of internal supplies in one system, Supplies Manager is the latest advancement to originate from SciQuest's customer-centric development process.
"SciQuest's development process ensures that our solutions address the most pressing business challenges our customers face," said Jamie Duke, COO at SciQuest. "Supplies Manager was developed to tackle an important area for savings and efficiency-understanding current inventory levels allows companies to strategically manage their resources and make prudent purchases."
Solutions like Supplies Manager result from the customer-centric development process SciQuest uses to create all of its products and services- an approach based on customer focus groups that provide developers with unfiltered access to users and a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities they face. SciQuest's focus groups involve procurement leaders from prestigious research-centric organizations, including those in higher education, healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. This approach extends throughout the company's entire development process from product conception and pilot programs to marketing and implementation.
"Focus group participants guide our development efforts for a simple reason," added Duke. "Their insight enables SciQuest to take full advantage of the agility and flexibility we enjoy as a pure play software-as-a-service provider, and results in solutions that are relevant and useful. At SciQuest, customer service begins with a development process that gives customers a voice in the creation of the solutions built to help them further their organization's mission."
Contrast SciQuest's four-month release cycle and on-demand delivery to the 18-month release cycles that are the industry standard for the delivery of updates to traditional enterprise software systems, a practice that necessitates the overhaul of systems and IT schedules to accommodate vendors' development initiatives.
Integrating Procurement and Stockrooms Saves Time and Money
With Supplies Manager, SciQuest addresses one of the key challenges faced by users in research-centric environments: The need to integrate eprocurement systems with inventory management and internal supply centers, including storerooms, supply closets and lab freezers, to quickly locate in-stock supplies for faster acquisition. At research organizations, problems with lack of visibility to inventory levels and duplicate purchases of items already in stock are common.
"A major benefit of the new SciQuest Supplies Manager module is that Yale administrators spend far less time managing and tracking the delivery of stock from supplier to end-user." said John Mayes, associate vice president and chief procurement officer at Yale University. "With SciQuest's Supplies Manager, our researchers and clinicians can quickly see what is in stock on- site and quickly order the materials they need from internal sources or decide to purchase them from outside suppliers-all in one application. With these capabilities, the University saves money and our customers save valuable time by quickly locating and using those supplies that are already available on- site."
Some of the benefits procurement departments and users enjoy with Supplies Manager include:
Customers appreciate the flexibility of SciQuest's service-oriented approach and the rapid response to evolving customer needs made possible by the software-as-a-service model. Working directly with customers, SciQuest's developers are able to quickly add functionality and features that enable customers to not only overcome the business challenges they face, but also to work with unprecedented efficiency. The efficacy of this approach can be seen in SciQuest's customer satisfaction rates. In 2007, SciQuest achieved a 100 percent subscription renewal rate.
About SciQuest
SciQuest is the global leader in helping academic, healthcare and research-centric organizations realize the potential of strategic procurement. The company's specialized knowledge, on-demand software, and service-first approach empower more than 100 of the best-known academic, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, research hospitals, and ambulatory surgical organizations to manage spend, drive ROI, and advance their critical missions.
SciQuest's strategic procurement solutions are strengthened by a deep understanding of the higher education, clinical and research environments combined with a broad supplier network for everything from lab equipment to office supplies to services. The company's intuitive, online shopping experience and diverse supplier offerings are proven to increase user and contract adoption. Through software-as-a-service (SaaS) deployment, organizations can quickly implement the right eprocurement solution, whether it's a robust shopping platform for existing eprocurement tools or to fully enable all aspects of purchasing from sourcing to settlement.
For more information about SciQuest, please visit www.sciquest.com or call 877-710-0413 in the U.S. or +44 1794 341182 in Europe.
SciQuest is a registered trademark of SciQuest, Inc. Other trademarks contained herein remain the property of their respective owners.
SOURCE SciQuest, Inc.
