Howard Gardner MI Charter School is a K-8 charter school in Scranton, Pennsylvania, serving approximately 390 students.
“We were antiquated with our record keeping and our procurement process. We were 100% paper. About a year and a half ago, John Marsico, our business manager, came up with the idea to investigate procurement systems, and we settled on ProcureDesk,” explains Joe Ross, Chief Executive Officer at Howard Gardner MI Charter School.
Howard Gardner MI Charter School operated with a completely paper-based procurement system that created significant delays and inefficiencies:
“We were completely paper request for any purchases. The purchase requisition form would have to go to the budget manager for signature, hand delivered to the budget manager for signature, then hand delivered to the business manager for approval, and then hand delivered to the actual purchaser” –John Marsico, Business Manager.
“Some things took easily a week. John had so many different requests in his box. By the time he got to some of them and made sure all the supporting documentation matched up, it was easy for something to sit on the side,” –Dennis Gavin, Facilities Director.
“The implementation was pretty seamless. The biggest advantage for us was its integration with the QuickBooks system,” says Marsico. “The support we received from ProcureDesk was phenomenal. We implemented a test plan, did a kind of dry run, and met several times to work through any issues.” –John Marsico, Business Manager
“Our hope as a school is that we continue to grow and investigate new ways that ProcureDesk can make us more efficient and be really focused on saving time so our staff can devote their time to other avenues.” –John Marsico, Business Manager
Recognizing the need for a better system, the HGMICS team, led by Business Manager John Marsico and IT Director Matthew Snyder, began researching procurement software solutions. After careful evaluation, they chose ProcureDesk for its seamless integration with QuickBooks Online, user-friendly interface, and ability to eliminate paper-based inefficiencies.
The school implemented ProcureDesk to digitize their procurement process:
Since implementing ProcureDesk, Howard Gardner MI Charter School has transformed its procurement process, achieving impressive results:
One of the most significant improvements has been in the processing time for orders. What used to take up to a week can now be completed within a day, and often within hours.
“I would say if I have 12-15 items that might be in there for my approval, I could knock them out and have them sent to the purchaser within 20 minutes. So significant time savings, I would say, from a week, easily down to no more than one day,” says Marsico.
The integration with Amazon has been particularly beneficial, eliminating the extensive paperwork that was previously required.
Dennis Gavin, Facilities Director, adds: “It’s so much more simple to go into there, search what you’re going to buy, put it in your cart, request approval, it sends you back into ProcureDesk, you go through a few steps and the order’s done. Now you just sit at your desk, do it. Everything’s done electronically. You get your email back saying this stuff was ordered, and you’re just waiting for it to show up.”
“The process with the punch-out process with Amazon has been tremendous. You would not believe the paperwork involved in putting together Amazon requests in the past. And now it’s just so easy for our requesters to go into ProcureDesk,” explains Marsico.
By automating routine procurement tasks, the school’s staff can focus more on their primary responsibilities—educating students.
“It’s allowed me more opportunities to do business manager type stuff without being buried in the weeds. And ProcureDesk has been a huge factor in that. It’s enabling me to have more free time to work on other things,” says Marsico.
“The teachers are able to focus more on the kids, rather than taking an exorbitant amount of time because they need supplies. This is so much easier and it’s less time spent away from their main focus, which is students and educating these kids.” – Trish Williams, Assistant in the Finance Office
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