UCSF’s Supply Chain Management (SCM) Strategic Procurement team shelters faculty, staff, and students from risk, and they also negotiate contracts and pricing for the campus. As they look toward the financial headwinds, the team is working hard to save money for UCSF – perhaps the most important value proposition. Systemwide, this procurement value proposition is known as “benefit generation,” part of the University of California’s (UC’s) ongoing efforts toward efficiency, cost containment, and price savings.

A History of Benefits and Savings

In 2012, UC kicked off a program called P200, which emphasized UC Procurement’s ability to generate cost savings. Another program, referred to as “BenefitBank,” centered around generating benefit for UC. “BenefitBank” is administered by UCOP and contains standard definitions, rules, and guidelines that each campus must adhere to. UC campuses have tracked the amount of benefit generated from procurement activities, procurement-led programs, and negotiations. Entries into “BenefitBank” are audited and must be substantiated to ensure their accuracy. 

This year, UCSF Strategic Procurement has contributed $42 million in savings, which ranks UCSF second to UCLA. Much of these savings come from negotiations on large procurements and requests for proposals, though there are additional savings in the execution of programs like the research sales tax reduction program and Vantage Point Logistics inbound freight program.

Andrew Clark, Executive Director of SCM Strategic Procurement, noted the team’s dedication to spending reduction and collaboration:

“Since we’ve been tracking benefit, our UCSF Strategic Procurement team has made it part of our DNA to save our campus money and document our savings. Our ability and willingness to negotiate, coupled with a campus culture that is generally willing to partner with us, certainly contributes to our results.” 

How You Can Reduce the Cost of Your Procurements

• Use a supplier with an established UCSF agreement: Time is money. In March 2025, orders greater than $10,000 with contracted suppliers took less than 50 percent of time to execute than orders with non-agreement suppliers. That means departments across campus spent twice as long waiting for order processing and writing justifications than departments leveraging existing contracts. Before you spend precious time chasing a few dollars, you might consider using a supplier with an established UCSF agreement. Your department buyer can help recommend one if you need help. The Department-Assigned Buyer Search tool can help you find your assigned department buyer using your procurement department code. 
   
• Focus on more than the buy price: Often, the lowest quote isn’t necessarily the lowest total cost. Shipping, portal charges, delivery charges, fuel surcharges, and tariffs often erode the value of the lowest price. Be sure you are considering all of the costs that go into your procurement, and remember that everything is negotiable (yes, even tariff surcharges).
   
• Leverage your SCM Department-Assigned Buyer: Strategize with your buyer by getting them involved early in the procurement. Our professional buyers have an array of tactics and techniques they employ to reduce the cost of the procurement. Often, those all come at the expense of time as they require discussion with the supplier (or maybe multiple suppliers).