Register to attend our next Buying Blue Community of Practice event, which will be held—virtually—on Thursday April 17, 2025, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. ET. Questions related to the topics below may be submitted in advance via this form.
- Procurement Optimization Program—Tally Thrasher, assistant vice president and chief procurement officer, will provide an update on the Procurement Optimization Program, new changes for booking with Collegiate Travel Planners (CTP), and how Procurement Services is supporting the proactive measures announced by President Santa Ono related to federal funding changes.
- Emburse Enterprise—Karin Feher, assistant director travel & expense and business operations, will highlight recent enhancements to the system.
- New University-Wide Agreements—The Strategic Sourcing Team recently signed new University-Wide Agreements with Amazon Business and eShipGlobal and has been preparing for the launch of these new services. Paul Labute, assistant director of strategic sourcing, and Darlene Pennington-Johnson, export control program director, will discuss how these services will streamline purchasing, improve compliance, and offer enhanced shipping options to the U-M community.
- New AI chatbot and Marketsite+—Chuck Sulikowski, assistant director of procurement technology and analytics, will introduce NIC, a new Procurement Services AI chatbot that will quickly answer common purchasing questions. Chip Reese, director of procurement services, will provide an overview of recent Marketsite+ enhancements that will guide users through the sourcing and contracting processes more efficiently.
This event will be recorded and posted on the Procurement Services website on the Buying Blue page. If you have any questions about Buying Blue or our upcoming Community of Practice event, please email us.