Amazon Business added to iBuyNU
August 26, 2020
We recently added an Amazon Business Prime Catalog to our iBuyNU. We have many great contracts with our established Preferred Vendors in iBuyNU offering great prices, service, delivery and warranties. The purpose of implementing Amazon Business in iBuyNU is to complement all of the Preferred Vendor catalogs already in iBuyNU. It will allow you to purchase items not available through our other Preferred Vendors.
As with any new endeavor, we discover what works well and what needs refinement as we work with the processes originally set up. After several weeks of activity we are making a few adjustments to our original plans for purchasing from Amazon. It was originally decided to no longer allow Amazon purchases using the corporate card after launching Amazon in iBuyNU. Through user feedback we’ve learned that there is a need to be able to purchase eBooks and gift cards from Amazon which is not available through iBuyNU. We will likely discover other times when using a Corporate Card on the Amazon Business site makes the most sense, so we will continue to refine the policy accordingly. Therefore, even though we expect a substantial reduction in the number of purchases made from Amazon using Corporate Cards and an increase in the number of orders going through iBuyNU to Amazon and other Preferred Vendors, we will not completely turn off the Corporate Card channel for purchases from Amazon.
There are many benefits to orders from Amazon going through iBuyNU. Specifically, those purchases go through work flow and are budget checked. The delivery time will be the same whether you purchase from Amazon through iBuyNU or from Amazon Business using your corporate card.
Please note that it is very important that if you are planning to use your Corporate Card to make purchases from Amazon Business, you must register under our Amazon Business Account to make sure your purchases are tax exempt. If you do need to register please contact the Corporate Card office. If you were previously registered under our business account you do not need to re-register.
We will be monitoring Corporate Card charges from Amazon to make sure departments and schools are complying with the above, which is to buy from Preferred Vendors through iBuyNU whenever possible, and that when purchases do need to be made from Amazon (hard to find items, etc.), that those purchases are made from Amazon through iBuyNU whenever possible. Using you Corporate Card to buy from the Amazon Business site should be rare. If you find an item that you need to purchase from Amazon is blocked, please search other supplier catalogs in iBuyNU. If the item or a similar item isn’t available, please do not immediately purchase the item in question with your Corporate Card. Contact Procurement and someone will review immediately to confirm if we can make an exception to unblock the item for current and future purchase.
For questions about iBuyNU, contact Keith Paddy at k-paddy@northwestern.edu. For Corporate Card questions, contact Mary Hallissey at m-hallissey@northwestern.edu.