Thought Leadership Webinar

 

Designing Procurement for a Decentralized World: How institutions maintain discipline while empowering departments

Higher education isn’t centralized — and it never will be. Autonomous colleges. Independent budgets. Distributed decision-making by design. The real challenge isn’t decentralization itself — it’s the visibility gap it creates. Join us for a discussion on how institutions are designing governance models that respect academic culture while restoring financial clarity and control.

Available on-demand.

UM - Jeff Groves Circle

Jeff Groves

Founder & CEO
Groves & Company

UM - Meaghan Mulligan Circle-1

Meaghan Mulligan, APPM

Regional Director
Unimarket

Why you should watch this webinar

Decentralization in higher education isn’t optional — it’s structural. But when departments buy independently across disconnected systems, institutions face a growing visibility gap. Leadership can’t answer basic questions:

  • How much are we spending with this supplier institution-wide?
  • Where are contracts duplicated across departments?
  • What’s our real compliance posture?
  • Where could we reduce spending without impacting academics?
This isn’t a procurement failure. It’s a data architecture problem.

In this session, procurement leaders explore how to shift from an enforcement-heavy, centralized approach to intelligent governance — by designing models that preserve flexibility while restoring institutional visibility, compliance, and financial discipline.

What you'll learn

✔️ Why decentralization amplifies today’s biggest institutional pressures — funding uncertainty, compliance mandates, AI readiness gaps, and talent strain

✔️ The “visibility gap” problem — and why fragmented data prevents strategic decision-making

✔️ Why traditional centralization models fail in higher education environments

✔️ Three proven governance models that balance distributed execution with institutional oversight

✔️ The five pillars of effective decentralized procurement: unified data, guided buying, threshold governance, policy automation, and institutional intelligence

✔️ A practical maturity roadmap — from foundational spend visibility to AI-ready procurement intelligence
 
✔️ Lessons from institutions that have successfully modernized without disrupting campus autonomy

Who should join

This session is ideal for:

  • Chief Procurement Officers and purchasing leaders in higher education
  • Finance leaders responsible for oversight, reporting, and compliance
  • AP and budget managers supporting distributed departments
  • IT and operations leaders involved in procurement systems and data architecture
  • Institutional leaders tasked with modernizing procurement without disrupting academic culture

Why this matters now

Decentralization doesn’t just affect procurement — it amplifies every other forcing function facing higher education:

  • Federal funding pressure
  • Increasing compliance complexity
  • AI-readiness gaps driven by fragmented data
  • Talent strain caused by manual workarounds
Institutions that solve the visibility gap today position themselves to respond intelligently to tomorrow’s disruptions.
UM Contract Management Webinar circle

Register now to hear how leading institutions are designing procurement models for how higher education actually operates — decentralized, fast-moving, and faculty-driven — without sacrificing compliance, visibility, or control.

Featured Speakers

UM - Jeff Groves Circle

Jeff Groves

Founder & CEO at Groves & Company

linkedin    UM Website icon white circle

Jeff Groves is the Founder and CEO of Groves & Company, a digital transformation firm focused on procurement and Source-to-Pay (S2P) innovation. With more than two decades of experience leading large-scale procurement, shared services, and technology transformation initiatives, Jeff brings a strategic and execution-driven perspective to modernizing procurement organizations.

Prior to founding Groves & Company, he held leadership roles at Huron, BearingPoint, and Accenture, where he led enterprise-wide transformation programs for global corporations and major research universities. Under his leadership, Groves & Company has been recognized as one of the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies, reflecting the firm’s focus on measurable results, AI-enabled automation, and long-term client partnerships that drive sustainable operational impact.

 

UM - Meaghan Mulligan Circle-1

Meaghan Mulligan, APPM 

Regional Director, Unimarket

linkedin    UM Website icon white circle

Meaghan Mulligan, APPM, is a higher education procurement leader and Regional Director at Unimarket, where she partners with colleges and universities to modernize Source-to-Pay operations and strengthen procurement strategy. With more than two decades of experience spanning technology enablement, strategic sourcing, and enterprise transformation, Meaghan brings a practical, systems-driven perspective to improving visibility, compliance, and operational performance across institutions.

Prior to joining Unimarket, she served as a Sourcing Consultant at E&I Cooperative Services, where she worked with member institutions to increase contract utilization, reduce costs, and implement data-driven spend strategies. She previously held procurement and eBusiness leadership roles at SUNY System Administration and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as well as consulting leadership roles with IBM, Accenture, and RiseNow. Throughout her career, Meaghan has led complex procurement system implementations, business process redesign initiatives, and large-scale optimization programs, helping institutions align technology, policy, and financial stewardship to deliver measurable and sustainable impact.

Watch the webinar to hear how leading institutions are designing procurement models for how higher education actually operates — decentralized, fast-moving, and faculty-driven — without sacrificing compliance, visibility, or control.

Available on-demand. 

 

Submit the form to watch now.