Migrating Collections Materials Purchasing from a Legacy Payments Workflow to the Campus E-Procurement Platform

Abstract

This article examines the experience of a large research library when it migrated its collections
materials purchasing onto its university’s outsourced e-procurement platform. Previously, the library
used a homegrown legacy workflow to export invoice data directly from the integrated library system
(ILS) to Accounts Payable to initiate payments to suppliers. Adopting the procurement platform
has produced benefits for both the university and the library by bringing the library into alignment
with standard campus workflows and improving visibility into collections materials spending. The
move has also posed challenges for the library, which has had to adapt to new tasks in another
system running parallel to its ongoing acquisitions work in the ILS. The article describes the legacy
workflow, the campus platform, the migration project, and the library’s continuing efforts to optimize
its workflows to meet the campus platform’s requirements while completing work in the ILS as
efficiently as possible.