As the first phase of a broad examination of Brandeis' business practices, called Brandeis BEST, the University will examine procurement of goods and services, announced Provost Steve Goldstein '78 and Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Manos in an email to the community last Monday.

"In reviewing our [administrative processes], we want to implement practices that will not only get the job done but will also permit us to conserve resources for our strategic goals-ensuring that Brandeis is the best university that we can be," read the email. 

The project will involve comparing Brandeis to peer institutions, wrote Goldstein and Manos. "Our goal is to learn from our peers to adopt principles and practices that will save the [U]niversity money on the items that we must purchase every day," read the email.

Senior Vice President for Communications Ellen de Graffenreid wrote in an email to the Justice that "the purpose of Brandeis BEST is to ensure that the [U]niversity is using its resources as efficiently and effectively as possible.  This is a broad, general strategic project that crosses all areas of the [U]niversity."

To work toward this goal, the University has hired John Storti as director of strategic procurement. According to Goldstein and Manos' email, Storti "brings a wealth of experience in strategic procurement and operations management and contract development."

Storti will be working on the project on a day-to-day basis, wrote de Graffenreid, while Manos and Senior Vice President for Finance Marianne Cwalina will be overseeing it.

Storti will work closely with "colleagues across the University," including deans, faculty and staff. Storti is replacing Loretta Bemis, who "took a position at another university," according to de Graffenreid.

Storti did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

The University has also "engaged" Deloitte Consulting, and representatives from the company will be on campus for approximately six weeks as the University seeks to "streamline ... purchasing processes" and get the "best prices for the items [needed] to operate." De Graffenreid was unable to offer information about the cost of the consulting.

The University initially sent out a request for information to several firms, five of which responded, according to de Graffenreid. Three of those firms responded to a Request for Proposal from the University, and Deloitte was chosen out of those three.

Students may also eventually be involved in the process, Goldstein and Manos wrote in the email, via survey or interview.
"The [U]niversity hopes to use the buying power of a large organization to ensure that we are getting the best prices possible for all of the products and services that Brandeis needs to buy to carry out our educational mission," wrote de Graffenreid in her email.

While Goldstein called the examination of procurement practices the "first phase" of Brandeis BEST, it is unclear what future phases will consist of, or whether further actions will actually be taken. De Graffenreid wrote in her email that "at this point, the project is limited to an examination of procurement. There may be other phases, but we have made no decisions at this time."
*