BEN Buys:
No Procards Allowed in the Penn Marketplace

On January 2, 2002, the University introduced BEN Buys and the Penn Marketplace. BEN Buys, the new and enhanced purchasing system and the Penn Marketplace, an integrated online marketplace containing product and pricing from Penn's contract suppliers, will significantly streamline the University procurement process. BEN Buys and the Penn Marketplace will make it easier to find commonly ordered items, search for and compare products and prices, and create multiple supplier purchase orders in a single session using the new BEN Requisition.

This new procurement environment will impact the University's MasterCard Procurement Credit Card Program. Effective January 2, 2002, authorized cardholders are no longer permitted to use their Procurement Credit Card for purchases from suppliers that are available in the Penn Marketplace.  All Penn Marketplace supplier purchase activity must be processed via the BEN Buys purchasing system. 

Penn Marketplace suppliers, who have developed Penn specific Procard enabled ordering sites for University cardholders (Staples, Fisher, BOC, Newark Electronics & Sigma Aldrich), will disable the ordering capability in their Penn-specific web sites. The sites will continue to be available to the Penn community for information purposes only. All five suppliers are participating in the Penn Marketplace.

In addition, all purchase activity for suppliers who have declined to participate in the Penn Marketplace must be processed via the BEN Buys Purchasing System. Since the supplier's catalog content is not available in the Penn Marketplace, all items purchased from these suppliers must be "free-formed," that is the requisitioner must enter all line item detail in the BEN Requisition. The MasterCard Procurement Credit Card cannot be used for purchases from these suppliers. 

Effective February 1, 2002, Acquisition Services will monitor cardholder activity to ensure compliance with Use of Procurement Credit Card (Procard) policy #2303 (HERE).