Purchasing Services
Purchasing provides the University with effective and responsive life cycle procurement practices. See our Mission and Vision for more information.
Items of Interest
- Major Upgrades to the MDS E-commerce System
We are pleased to announce a major upgrade to our e-commerce system. We are renaming the site "Shop@UW." Shop@UW's goal is to greatly enhance the customer's shopping experience by providing better tools for searching and product comparison. Shop@UW will go live on March 4th, 2013. During the upgrade process the system will be unavailable from 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 1st through Noon on Monday, March 4th. You will be unable to shop or place orders during that time frame.
To learn more about Shop@UW, you can register for a training session at: http://go.wisc.edu/p18e7e, or you can visit our information site at: http://www.bussvc.wisc.edu/shopuw/shopuw.html.
If you have additional questions, please send an email to: ShopUW@bussvc.wisc.edu.
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Introducing “UW-Madison Preferred Products”
We are now featuring several “UW-Madison Preferred Products,” including common office supplies such as pens, writing pads, copy paper and remanufactured ink and toner. These quality-tested products have been standardized to support the work of the Administrative Excellence initiative at UW-Madison. -
Contract Search Improvements
The contract search application has been updated with a new web-based interface that works more easily across all browsers and operating systems to provide a user friendly experience that can look at all UW-Madison, UW System, and DOA contracts. Our redesigned application is available as the recommended search method on our Contracts page. -
Purchasing Workshops Available
Dates and times for all available face-to-face training sessions are listed on our Training page. We are offering a number of sessions during the semester, including our Overview session and sessions on Processing your Requisitions and Managing your Encumbrances and How to Purchase Goods and Services: Intermediate Topics. -
Remaining Encumbrance Status Tool Available:
The “Remaining Encumbrance Status Tool” is available in the Purchasing Information Inquiry section of the site to assist users in checking on the status of their POs and completing the necessary information on an Encumbrance Management Form (EMF). By entering your PO number, the order date, end date, status (open or closed), PO amount, vendor information, and current encumbrance balance are displayed in detail, along with buttons to view expense and encumbrance transactions. New instructions are available for Finding Encumbrance Balance, PO Status, and Information for Encumbrance Management Forms along with updated instructions for using the EMF. -
Previous Spend Printed on CORs:
The external requisition generator includes the amount spent to date for the previous requisition number. This amount will also appear on the printed copy of the requisition. If there has been limited or no activity on the previous order, please do not renew your COR. Instead, consider whether the products or services listed on the requisition can be obtained from MDS or by using the Purchasing Card. If the amount spent exceeds $100,000, Purchasing may contact you regarding opportunities for contracting for the goods or services purchased. -
Purchasing System Inquiry:
The Purchasing System Inquiry search pages provide a number of ways to lookup POs and track requisitions for your department. Instructional documentation is provided for the available functions.