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Purchasing News More News:
bullet Accounts Payable News
bullet Travel News
bullet PCard News
bullet Procurement Card Policy Changes 10/16/09
bullet Beware of Office Supply Phone Scam
bullet Copier Maintenance and Lease charges moving to PCard
bullet Changes in Vendor Conflict of Interest Process for PReq and e-Vouchers
bullet PReq Workflow Form Types and eVoucher Changes
bullet US Cellular Partner Employee Discount Program
bullet e-Buy Announcement
bullet AT&T Advantage Program
bullet PReq Iact 6730/40 Asset Information
bullet Advertising Scam
bullet Electronic Attachment Announcement
bullet PReq New Functionality
bullet Flood 2008 - Department Information
bullet Fisher Scientific and Iowa Flood Support
bullet Important message from Grainger - State of Iowa Employees Effected by Floods
bullet Lithium Battery Recall
bullet Vendor Purchase Order Emailing
bullet Security Alert - Office Supply/Toner Scams
bullet Hy-Vee Credit Card
bullet Office Supply Solicitations
bullet PReq Security Change
bullet Verizon Announcement
bullet Technology Allowance Policy
bullet Dell Announcement for Orders and Quotes
bullet SECURITY ALERT – PayPal Email Scam
bullet Federal Trade Commission - Office Supply Scams
bullet Material Transfer Agreements
bullet Be aware of phone scams
bullet Banking Scams
bullet Blanket Orders
bullet Responsibility of an Approver
bullet Barnes & Noble Discount for Procurement Card Only
bullet Joint Regents Contracts

Copier Maintenance and Lease charges moving to PCard

The Purchasing Department will be closing active blanket orders for copier maintenance and leases effective September 1, 2009.

The University of Iowa Purchasing Department is requiring departments to put low-dollar copier lease and maintenance payments on their departmental Procurement Card. This does not include equipment purchases.  This procedure change is due to Internal Audit comments regarding appropriate blanket order usage.  Contracts will still need to be signed by the Director of Purchasing.

This will benefit departments by allowing you to:

  • control on a monthly basis what MFK is charged.
  • reviewing charges as they come through.
  • verifying the correct cost per copy rates as stated in the contract.

Copier vendors have been notified to send the appropriate invoices to each individual department. Payment may be called into the vendor or set up to be charged monthly. You may discuss this with your copier lease/maintenance vendor to find which option best suits your department’s needs.

Please contact Kate Kile at katherine-kile@uiowa.edu or Dani Weber at danielle-f-weber@uiowa.edu if you have questions or need additional information.

Vendor Contact information:

Ikon
Sarah Wemer
swemer@ikon.com
1-800-373-6326 x4045
Koch Brothers
davidyaggi01@yahoo.com
1-800-365-2842

Oce
jeffrey.hovey@oce.com
1-800-456-6482

Laser Resources
Lease: Sharon Lomax
1-800-355-9604
Maintenance: Jason Johnson
641-424-1935

Xerox
Shawn O’Shea
shawn.o’shea@xerox.com
563-557-1254

Bill Lindsey
bill.lindsey@xerox.com
1-888-391-5525 x 5720

If the vendor is not listed above please call phone number on your invoice.

Advertising Scam

Departments are advised to be alert to the possibility of Yellow Page advertising scams. We know of several departments recently that issued payments to these firms on their PCard and assume there may be others. These scam vendors typically send invoices that have the Yellow Page logo but in fact they are not associated with the official Yellow Book. Additional information is available at the following web site: www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/alerts/alt019.pdf.  You may also contact our vendor file team by email at purchasing-vendor@uiowa.edu if you suspect that you have been contacted by a scam vendor. They can check to see if we have a record of the firm on file.

Lithium Battery Recall

Product recall: The SoundStation 2W Wireless Conference Phones with lithium ion batteries, sold from December 1, 2007 through May 2, 2008 are affected.

The battery packs have a black or white plastic coating and a white label with the following title: "RECHARGEABLE Li-ion BATTERY." These battery packs can overheat, posing a fire or burn hazard.

 If your department purchased a Soundstation2W, please contact Alisa Schantz at 6-8103 or e-mail alisa-schantz@uiowa.edu and you will be given catalog numbers and lot numbers to look for to verify that your phone is part of this recall. 

Security Alert - Office Supply/Toner Scams

Be wary of phone calls from anyone who is claiming to your “regular supplier” for office supplies. It could be an office supply scam. The scam artist is generally trying to obtain information so that they will be able to bill the department for phony orders or misrepresented orders. The scam artist may actually send merchandise, however the quality is usually less than desirable and the price is inflated. If you believe you are the victim of an office supply scam, contact our department as soon as possible. For more information about office supply scams, please visit the following link: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/supplies.shtm

Notice to Vendors regarding Purchase Order Emailing

The University of Iowa Purchasing Department is implementing a new email process for University purchase orders. In order to convert your company from fax to email transmissions, Purchasing requires a specific email address for the new purchase orders. The email address should be one that is monitored regularly to prevent orders from being delayed and have sufficient storage space to prevent our email from being rejected. Please see: Vendor Email Setup

The following information will be needed:

  • Vendor Name
  • “Order to” Address
  • University of Iowa Vendor number (ten digits beginning 0000)
  • A recent PO number
  • General email address where Purchase Orders can be received
  • Contact and phone

If you have any questions, please contact Julie Bergeon at julie-bergeon@uiowa.edu or 319-335-1726

Office Supply Solicitations

From time to time various office supply vendors in our area attempt to market their products to campus end users by offering promotional discounts or other incentives that are in direct competition with the OfficeMax contract we currently have in place through General Stores. Office Depot has offered a discount card in the past and we have recently become aware of a possible email solicitation from Staples marketing a “Convenience Card” that can be used at their local store. If you receive this email please do not apply for this card. Firstly, the billing process they are proposing would have all cards on campus billed to one Corporate Account. Since the University has multiple sources of funding and multiple end users, this would not work for us. Secondly, we cannot support or promote a marketing effort that competes with our already established contract.  

A recent incident occurred when Patterson Office Supplies located in Illinois solicited a $25 Mastercard as a promotion to ordering supplies.  Please be aware that accepting this is in violation with the Iowa Gift Law.  For more information see:  www.uiowa.edu/~purchase/purchase/Policy/gift_law.htm

If you have questions regarding pricing for any office supply item, please contact the OffficeMax representative at General Stores @ 4-3908. Many items, even those not shown in the catalog, can be obtained through OfficeMax at considerable savings.

SECURITY ALERT – PayPal Email Scam

A fraudulent email scam which impersonates the vendor PayPal has been reported to the Procurement Card Administration team.

These emails “appear” to come directly from PayPal and the subject line is addressed “Letter of Confirmation”.

The email is asking for confirmation of your order. The emails intent is to get the recipient to dispute this transaction and by doing so, provide credit card information. These types of emails are an illegal attempt by unknown persons to collect personal information and account numbers. These e-mails are random and are being sent using a spam list that includes individuals who in many cases do not even have PayPal account.

There has been no breach of any secure account information.

This type of email fraud, called “phishing” is under investigation by U.S. Bank’s Fraud Prevention and Investigation area in conjunction with Visa and the Federal Bureau of Investigations. However, it is very difficult to catch cyber-criminals, and so we believe that these fraudulent emails will continue to be sent for some time.

There are several steps you can take to avoid becoming a victim of this type of fraud:

Never give out your account number or other personal data to someone who contacts you via phone or email. Both U.S. Bank and Visa already have the information we need to maintain your account. We would never contact you to ask for verification. If you receive a fraudulent email, DO NOT REPLY to it under any circumstances and furthermore, do not click on the link in the email. Questions can be directed to protrav@uiowa.edu.

Material Transfer Agreements

All Material Transfer Agreements that involve purchases need to be routed to the Division of Sponsored Programs.  They must review them before they are sent to Purchasing for signature approval.  Please see their website for more info:  DSP

Be Aware of Phone Scams

There have been recent reports of phone scams reported throughout the hospital and campus.  The caller claimed that he had some clear 2 inch tape to sell the Pharmacy Department. The kind of tape you would use for shipping boxes. This gentleman identified himself as Dr. Peterson, and he was a retired veterinarian in Florida who is selling items that he had in his clinic. In the course of the conversation, he described talking with an individual and about Pharmacy purchasing the tape. The individual NEVER spoke with this “Dr. Peterson”. 

Please report any questionable calls or vendor salespersons to your supervisor before giving out information or accepting packages.

IMPORTANT: BANKING SCAMS - Never provide any banking information; including bank name, account or routing number to vendors. There have been recent attempts to solicit banking information from campus departments. Do not provide your UI PCard information to banks or vendors if they contact you directly.

Contact the Purchasing department, Jennifer Jark 335-0668, if you receive requests from vendors for bank or credit card information.

Barnes & Nobel PCard Discount

Barnes and Noble offers the University of Iowa a 20% educational discount for all Procurement Card transactions. To receive this discount you should reference the University of Iowa account number #5364666 at time of check-out. Purchases should be for institutional use only. Discounts apply ONLY to book purchases. Discounts DO NOT apply to magazines, music dept., cafe, textbooks, publishing orders and gift cards.

THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO PURCHASES MADE ON THEIR WEB-SITE.  For volume discounts on textbooks (50 or more copies per book) on their web-site please refer to this link.

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Joint Regent Contracts

Cooperative purchasing remains a high priority for the State of Iowa Board of Regents and of the Regent Institutions to realize greater efficiencies and effectiveness.

As appropriate, the Regent Institutions strive to identify and implement joint purchasing contracts, which provide the lowest competitive price consistent with Regent quality and service.

Joint Regent Contracts consolidate like commodities from the institutions into a single contract, minimizing individual institutions’ efforts while maximizing commodity volume to gain better prices which otherwise could not be achieved. Some contracts are available only to the universities while others are available to all Regent Institutions and other State of Iowa Agencies.

Following is a listing of all current Joint Regent Contracts which show commodity item, lead agency, vendor, availability and contract manager responsible for each contact.

The University of Iowa (SUI)

Commodity Item

Lead Agency
Vendor Name
Availability
Contract Manager
Bookbinding
SUI
Heckman Bindery All Regent Institutions
Computer Equipment
SUI
Dell Computers All Regent Institutions
Computer Equipment
SUI
Gateway All Regent Institutions
Computer Equipment
SUI
Hewlett Packard All Regent Institutions
Computer Equipment
SUI
Micron All Regent Institutions
Laboratory Casework
SUI
Fisher-Hamilton All Regent Institutions
Laboratory Supplies
SUI
Fisher-Hamilton All Regent Institutions
Medical Supplies
SUI
Various All State Agencies
Misc. Paper Products
SUI
Various All Regent Institutions
Nutritional Formula
SUI
Various All State Agencies
Pharmaceutical Drugs
SUI
Various All State Agencies
Projection Lamps
SUI
Sitler electric All Regent Institutions
Procurement Card
SUI
US Bank All Regent Institutions
Recycled Copy Paper
SUI
JP Gasway All State Agencies
Video Tape
SUI
Data Media All Regent Institutions
Grease Recycling
SUI
National By-Product All Regent Institutions
 
 
   
 
Iowa State University (ISU)
 
 
   
 
Computers
ISU
Compaq All Regent Institutions & State Agencies
Computers
ISU
Micron Computers All Regent Institutions
Computers & Supplies
ISU
Compucom Regent Institutions & DOT
Electrical Supplies
ISU
Stitzell Electric All Regent Institutions
Norm Hill & Jim Mott
Fluorescent Bulb Disposal
ISU
Environmental Operations, Inc. SUI, ISU and UNI
Hazardous Waste Disposal
ISU
Environmental Enterprises SUI, ISU, UNI & State Agencies
Laboratory Supplies
ISU
Fisher Scientific Regent Institutions & IBA
Moving Services
ISU
Allied Van Lines All Regent Institutions
Photo Supplies
ISU
Olson Graphics All Regent Institutions
Power Plant Chemicals
ISU
Nalco Chemical Co SUI, ISU and UNI
Workstations/Sci. Equip.
ISU
Hewlett-Packard All Regent Institutions
 
 
   
 
The University of Northern Iowa (UNI)
 
 
   
 
Copier/Fax Supplies
UNI
Various All Regent Institutions

Links:

Iowa State University Purchasing Department

The University of Northern Iowa

Department of Administrative Services

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Purchasing Department | 202 Plaza Centre One | University of Iowa | Iowa City, IA  52242 | 319-335-0379

Site maintained by Accounts Payable/Purchasing:  julie-bergeon@uiowa.edu