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 live discussion on how institutions are designing governance models that respect academic culture while restoring financial clarity and control.

📅 Thursday, March 12        |        ⏰ 2:00pm - 2:30pm Eastern

UM - Jeff Groves Circle

Jeff Groves

Groves & Company

UM - Darren Blakely Circle-2

Darren Blakely

Unimarket

Why you should join 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 will 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

Reserve your spot 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

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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 - Darren Blakely Circle-2

Darren Blakely 

Executive Vice President, Unimarket

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As Unimarket's Executive Vice President, Darren spearheads source-to-pay solutions that empower organizations to turn their financial operations into strategic advantages.

With decades of experience in corporate payments and procurement, Darren has founded and led several B2B payments and AP automation companies, driving innovation and growth in the industry, including establishing one of the fastest-growing private companies in America, as recognized by Inc. Magazine.

Join 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.

📅 Thursday, March 12

⏰ 2:00pm - 2:30pm Eastern

Submit the form to reserve your spot.