From Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs Digitising Procurement in Higher Education

In the sprawling ecosystems of modern universities, procurement teams face a landscape that’s as challenging as it is critical. With dozens of faculties, international campuses, thousands of vendors, and layers of compliance, procurement in higher education is no longer just about buying, it’s about enabling institutional strategy, transparency, and agility.

This is the message from Jonathan Oh, CEO of SupplyCart, the company behind ADAM-Procure, a digital procurement platform reshaping procurement workflows across Southeast Asia. In a recent conversation with Rob Paul, veteran IT strategist and advisor to Australian universities, Jonathan offered insights into how Malaysian institutions like SEGi University are moving from manual chaos to strategic clarity — and what Australia can learn from it.

The SEGi University Case: From Paper to Platform

SEGi University, one of Malaysia’s largest private education groups, faced the all-too-familiar challenges seen in universities worldwide: multiple campuses, inconsistent procurement policies, 12-tier manual approval chains, and a fragmented database of over 5,000 vendors. The result? Turnaround times for purchase orders that stretched into weeks, confusion over supplier records, and low visibility for finance and procurement leaders.

Enter ADAM, a platform that standardised requisition workflows for over 1,000 users, introduced end-to-end digital approvals, and consolidated supplier management. Turnaround times dropped from weeks to days, compliance improved, and procurement shifted from firefighting to foresight.

“We weren’t trying to replace SEGi’s ERP systems,” Jonathan explained. “We built a layer that complements existing infrastructure, one that simplifies the user experience and brings visibility back to leadership.”

This allowed administrative and teaching staff to raise requisitions quickly and easily. With approval workflows embedded in the platform and automated PO generation, the procurement team was no longer buried in repetitive tasks, freeing them up to focus on supplier strategy, cost optimisation, and stakeholder engagement.

Australia’s Parallel Challenge

Rob Paul noted that Australian universities face strikingly similar issues. “We have institutions using Oracle for finance, SAP in some faculties, Microsoft Dynamics GP, and other high end Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems covering most campuses or faculty but holes remain in purchasing” he said. “It’s not uncommon for faculty members to submit purchase requests via email or Google Forms, spreadsheets or even have a local quickbooks / MYOB running for grounds and cleaning. There’s no single source of truth.”

In this context, a platform like ADAM doesn’t aim to replace what’s already working, but to harmonise it. The solution enables a layer of standardisation and accountability across disparate systems, offering single sign-on, intuitive dashboards, real-time budget tracking, and streamlined approval routing.

Cross-Border Complexity, Centralised Control

Internationalisation is another pressure point. With Australian universities operating campuses and partnerships in Malaysia, Dubai, and Hong Kong, the need for cross-border procurement capabilities has never been greater. ADAM supports multiple currencies, tax regimes, and vendor onboarding portals that allow suppliers to upload compliance documents, invoices, and customs paperwork.

For institutions like SEGi, which often deal with local vendors as well as international consultants and service providers, this has proved critical. “We enabled vendor self-service and three-way matching — PR to PO to Invoice — all in one place,” Jonathan said. “That gave procurement teams real-time visibility and control, even for offshore purchases.”

Moreover, ADAM’s entity-based configuration allows central finance teams to manage regional workflows without disrupting local operations. This is particularly valuable in universities with campuses abroad or research collaborations that involve funding flows across borders.

Compliance, Sustainability, and the Expanding Role of Procurement

Modern procurement teams are also being asked to manage a growing list of compliance requirements: ISO certifications, WHS documentation, Working with Children Checks, sustainability credentials, and more. And with increasing pressure to align institutional spend with ESG goals, these tasks can quickly become overwhelming without automation.

Jonathan highlighted how ADAM’s vendor portal reduces this burden. “Vendors can maintain their own documentation, and the system notifies procurement teams of expiries or gaps,” he said. SupplyCart is also developing vendor scoring features to support ethical and sustainable sourcing, enabling procurement to align more closely with institutional ESG goals.

A university in Malaysia even used ADAM to support its green procurement policy — digitising requisitions, eliminating paper POs, and automating archiving to support both environmental targets and audit readiness. “We helped them reduce paper use by over 40% within the first year,” Jonathan added.

Procurement as Strategic Infrastructure

What emerges from this case is the potential for procurement to act as a strategic enabler, not just a compliance function. With clean data, digitised workflows, and performance metrics, procurement leaders can better advise on vendor strategy, cost control, and even risk management.

“Once procurement is digitised, everything from supplier diversity to sustainability metrics becomes easier to track,” Jonathan said. “You’re not just buying smarter — you’re building a smarter institution.”

In Australia, where higher education is under constant budget scrutiny, this kind of visibility could be the key to defending spend, improving governance, and enabling growth, especially as institutions adopt more complex funding models and strategic partnerships.

Start Small, Scale Fast

Perhaps the most important takeaway from the conversation is this: digital transformation doesn’t require a campus-wide ERP replacement. “Start with the biggest bottleneck,” Jonathan advised. “Pilot in one department. Show the results. Then expand.”

In SEGi’s case, the rollout began with one faculty and grew organically. For Australian institutions grappling with procurement complexity, a similar approach may be the key. “Procurement transformation is a journey,” Rob noted, “and platforms like ADAM offer a way to go from manual to meaningful — without breaking the system or the budget.”

Looking Ahead

As universities evolve into global institutions with diverse supply chains and higher expectations from stakeholders, procurement will be expected to deliver more than savings. It will need to deliver insight, alignment, and impact.

“Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond,” Jonathan concluded, “I believe procurement will play a critical role in institutional resilience. Platforms like ADAM are being used not just to process transactions — but to drive smarter decision-making across the board.”

For more information about SupplyCart and ADAM-Procure, book a demo with SupplyCart consultant: https://adam-procure.com/contact-us/