Research Enterprise Newsletter - August 2009: Procurement News
As your Research Procurement Team, our mission is to help the Research Community with contract negotiations and supplier management.
Primary Approved Supplier selected
As the result of a competitive bid process, Fisher Scientific has been named Vanderbilt's "Primary Approved Supplier" for research laboratory supplies, chemicals, and equipment. Benefits of our new five year contract include:
Pricing
- Low net prices on the most commonly used products
- Deep discounts from manufacturer's list pricing verified through the competitive bid process
- Pricing for all equipment with a list price of >$1,000 is priced at Fisher's Cost plus a small percentage (no need to request quotes on equipment!)
- Special pricing with key manufacturers only available through Fisher Scientific (i.e. - Corning, BD Biosciences, Nalge/Nunc, Eppendorf)
Product
- A broad portfolio of more than 800,000 products from hundreds of leading suppliers
- New Laboratory Start-Up special offers and Product promotions
Services
- A dedicated full-time sales representative, Jessica King, to assist with product selection, equipment, information, demonstrations and troubleshooting
- Two dedicated onsite specialists with a local phone number (615) 361-7011 and email
- Technical support available in the areas of chemical, safety and hazardous materials
- Regularly scheduled product shows and technical seminars to keep researchers informed of new products and technologies
Conveniences
- No hassle return policy*
- Next business-day delivery on most products
- No normal shipping fees (including dry ice, hazardous fees, etc.)
- No minimum order
- Real-time inventory information for products through Fisher's "punch-out" site
- Easy ordering through Fisher's "punch-out" website via the Vanderbilt eProcurement system
*items under $100 are credited without need for return (restrictions apply)
To reduce the chance of an invoice discrepancy, in your eProcurement profile please delete any items saved as a "Favorite." For more information please contact your Research Purchasing Agent
Important Notice Regarding VWR Scientific
Fisher Scientific is Vanderbilt's Primary Approved Supplier for laboratory supplies, chemicals, and equipment. As such, this new agreement impacts the current VWR punch-out ordering website.
Items that are exclusive to VWR will remain in the VWR punch-out site. All other items are available through Fisher Scientific, as per our contract. We have competitive pricing for these VWR exclusive items. Only these exclusive items are available to order through eProcurement. VWR will deliver most items at no charge however there is a variable fuel surcharge on every order. If an item shows "blocked" at VWR's punch-out website that item should be ordered through Fisher Scientific. To reduce the chance of an invoice discrepancy, in your eProcurement profile please delete any items saved as a "Favorite."
We appreciate your understanding in this change and if you have any questions please email poresearch@vanderbilt.edu.
ITS Software Store adds DNASTAR
The ITS Software Store has added DNASTAR Lasergene to its storefront. Lasergene provides sequence analysis functionality to researchers. The software is available on Windows and Macintosh platforms. The Lasergene product suite includes:
- SeqBuilder: visualization, sequence editing, Primer design and virtual cloning
- PrimerSelect: oligo primer design
- MegAlign: sequence alignment
- SeqMan: sequence assembly, Next-Gen sequence analysis and SNP discovery
- Protean: protein structure analysis and prediction
- GeneQuest: gene finding
Each license includes:
- Perpetual use rights (i.e. the software never expires)
- One year of technical support
- One year of upgrades
- An electronic copy of the Installation Guide
The software may be installed on Vanderbilt-owned systems and on computers owned by Vanderbilt employees and students. Stand-alone and network licenses are available. To take advantage of Vanderbilt's 75% discount, visit its.vanderbilt.edu/softwarestore. Please contact software.store@vanderbilt.edu for additional information.
Items no longer found or blocked at Fisher, VWR, and/or Sigma in eProcurement
Searches for an item that you have ordered in the past at either the Fisher , VWR, and/or Sigma websites, might result in a "not found" or "blocked" message for the following reasons:
VWR
If the VWR part number is, for example, 12345-123 and is now "blocked," that is an item you should buy from Fisher Scientific. If the VWR part number is, for example, 123456-123 (note the extra digit), then this item is a "third-party" item. "Third-party" means VWR sells this item as a convenience, charges a higher price than the manufacturer's list price, charges freight, and will charge us a "handling fee." For these items, please buy them directly from the manufacturer or contact Procurement for assistance.
Fisher
If the Fisher part number begins with either a "50" or "NC" ** then that item is a "third-party" item. "Third-party" means Fisher sells this item as a "convenience," sometimes charges a higher price than the manufacturer's list price, charges freight, and sometimes charges us a "handling fee." For these items, please buy them directly from the manufacturer or contact Procurement for assistance. Some third-party suppliers offer discounted pricing through Fisher and are enabled for ordering via eProcurement. We will continue to add more of these suppliers where it's advantageous to do so.
**Please note that some "NC" items are items where you received a "quoted" price from Fisher. These items are still available to order by manually typing them in and referencing the quote number.
Sigma
If a Sigma part number is not added to your shopping cart, you will receive the following message: "The following products have been removed from your shopping basket due to restrictions requested by your purchasing organization. Should you have need of these items, please contact your purchasing office."
When you receive this message, the item should be purchased from Fisher Scientific. We will continue to make it more attractive to order thru Fisher than to order directly through any third-party suppliers. If you have any further questions, please email POResearch@vanderbilt.edu.
