Generic eMarket for the Higher Education & Further Education Sector

GeM is the new eMarketplace for the HE and FE sectors. GeM looks and feels very much like Amazon, and allows bone fide users to buy a wide range of everyday goods and services from suppliers who have current sector negotiated national, regional and local contracts. Benefits include the ability for all institutions, especially smaller HEIs and FECs to have easy secure access to sector contracts, which typically are lower cost, delivering a significant reduction in the order processing costs. GeM operates as a click and buy process. A Request for Quote (RFQ) facility is also be available.

GeM, is free at point of use and is owned, operated and resourced by the sector. GeM went live during August 2011, with a limited range of categories initially, growing as more suppliers are adopted. If you click on the live suppliers tab on the homepage, you can see what is available and what is becoming available.

GeM is intuitive to use, with users being able to browse, select and order from multiple suppliers in a single transaction. Payment is made by a Government Procurement Card (GPC) or equivalent. GeM is fully resourced to ensure that a wide range of current contracts are available to users.

GeM has been progressed by a small working group under the chairmanship of Susan Wright (SUPC) with support from several Heads of Procurement, HEFCE, JISC Procureweb and others. This is a JISC Advance service.