Larkin State University (Purchasing Process) Larkin State University is a medium-size academic institution located in the South-eastern United States. The university employs about 250 full-time faculty and 300 staff personnel. There are 12,000 students enrolled among the university's four colleges. The Purchase Process The university's budget for purchases of equipment and supplies is about $25 million annually. Peter Reese is in charge of the Purchasing Department. He reports directly to the Vice President of Finance for the university. Peter supervises four purchasing clerks and three receiving personnel. The office is responsible for purchases of all equipment and supplies except for computer equipment and software and plant purchases or additions. The Payment Process The various departments across campus manually fill out hard-copy purchase requisition forms when there is a need for equipment/supplies. Each department forwards these forms to the Purchasing Department. If the request is for computer equipment or software, the requisition is forwarded to the Department of Information Technology for action. Purchase requisitions are assigned to one of the three purchasing clerks by department. For instance, one purchasing clerk makes purchases for all university departments beginning with the letters A through G (Accounting-Geology). Purchasing clerks check the requisition to make sure it is authorized and then consult the Approved Vendor Listing to find a supplier. The clerk may contact a supplier for pricing and product specification. Once this task is complete, the purchasing clerk enters the purchase requisition and vendor and price information into the computer system, which prints out a multiple-part purchase order. Clerks send copies of the purchase order to Central Receiving, to the vendor, and to the Accounts Payable Department. (The university considered using EDI for its purchases, but chose not to adopt it because of the large number of vendors used.)