Ohio University adopts Inter-University Council Scientific Supplier Agreements

As previously communicated, the Ohio Task Force on Affordability and Efficiency in Higher Education, with the Board of Trustees ratification, requires Ohio University to leverage purchases campus-wide through preferred suppliers and leverage purchases state-wide for areas of common spending through the Inter-University Council Purchasing Group (IUC-PG). Given these restrictions, we understand the need for more choice and a wider selection of preferred suppliers.

Ohio University and the IUC-PG are pleased to announce the following agreements that will help provide more choice. Led by Ohio State University, the scientific supplies agreement was awarded to two prime distributor suppliers: Fisher Scientific and VWR International. The agreements were aggressively negotiated to standardize equipment, reduce cost, improve lab functionality and productivity, eliminate redundancy and create financial and operational efficiencies. Below are some highlights of these new negotiated agreements.

• Discounted pricing on products from the supplier’s general catalog items, market basket products, and products from third party sources
• No minimum order
• Free shipping – except for on capital equipment, 55-gallon drums, live materials, emergency orders and all orders shipped outside of the continental United States
• Orders placed by 12 p.m. (local time) for in-stock products are shipped same-day to customers

As part of the Scientific Distributor Agreement, you will find improved pricing in BobcatBUY (BCB) as well as a new punch-out catalog for VWR International. 

In addition to the Scientific Distributor Agreements, the IUC negotiated pricing with multiple Non-Distributor Suppliers. You can find all of these new preferred suppliers listed below and on the Preferred Suppliers page on the Finance website. New catalogs with companies such as Bio-Rad Laboratories, will be added to BCB as time and licenses permit.

New Non-Distributor Suppliers include:

In other related news, EMD Millipore and Sigma-Aldrich have merged to become Millipore Sigma. With this merger, Millipore Sigma now has a broader portfolio of over 300,000 products, an expanded global footprint and an industry-leading eCommerce platform. You will find their new logo coming soon to the existing Sigma catalog in BobcatBUY.