Case Study: California State University achieves rapid multi-campus procurement rollout and major cost savings with ESM Solutions

California State University - Customer Case Study

California State University was struggling with widely dispersed contracts across multiple campuses, which made it hard for staff to find and use contract pricing and led to off‑contract purchases, poor spend visibility, and higher administration costs. To address these issues they worked with ESM Solutions to deploy a system‑wide marketplace to consolidate catalogs and contracts and improve line‑item visibility and compliance.

ESM Solutions rolled out the marketplace rapidly—10 campuses in 4 months, 12 catalogs live in 90 days and 25 in 150 days—leading to 1,300 active users in seven months and positive ROI in under five months. The implementation reduced transactional cost from $150 to $25 per PO‑to‑payment, delivered immediate transaction savings (users saved thousands on initial purchases), improved negotiation leverage with vendors, and preserved existing p‑card programs, workflows and approval routing.

California State University

Kathleen Prunty

Director Procurement & Support Services