Starlight Awards

Supply Chain/Procurement Recognition Program

The Procurement Leadership Council (PLC) established this exclusive recognition program to spotlight the achievements of UC Procurement supply chain/procurement teams that have a systemwide impact and advance UC Procurement’s core mission.

The Starlight Award recognizes cross-functional or cross-campus supply chain/procurement teams deemed to have had the most significant impact systemwide on practices or outcomes in that fiscal year. For more information, see Starlight Award Guidelines.

Each year, Procurement Leadership Council voting members nominate eligible teams for award consideration using the online Starlight Award Nomination Form. Awards will be selected, announced, and paid out by the end of each fiscal year.

Starlight Award Winner: FY2019-20

All UC Procurement & Supply Chain Staff across the system: 

This year, the Procurement Leadership Council recognized all procurement and supply chain staff across the UC system with a Starlight Award for extraordinary work in support of the COVID-19 crisis. UC locations pulled together to centrally coordinate and share sourcing insights and purchasing opportunities to reduce product lead times and prioritize supplies to needed locations. Consistent communication, creativity and rapid response optimized procurement and supply chain operations despite an extremely high pressure situation. Staff work during this challenging time has been an outstanding accomplishment that demonstrates incredible collaboration, great initiative and successful outcomes under difficult and unprecedented circumstances.

Starlight Award Winner: FY2018-19

EcoVadis Pilot Team: 

The ‘EcoVadis Pilot’ project included systemwide Strategic Sourcing and campus participants testing the EcoVadis supplier evaluation method to obtain and analyze supplier sustainability information to determine its applicability to UC. The team evaluated current UC suppliers using the EcoVadis process, ways to grow the number of suppliers participating in EcoVadis, and how to integrate the use of EcoVadis rankings and scorecard information in the RFP and contracting process. The EcoVadis program offers an innovative way to access scalable and accurate information on the sustainability attributes of our supplier partners that can be shared across campuses and used with UC suppliers to make specific and measurable improvements to a company’s sustainable practices in alignment with UC sustainability goals.

Starlight Award Winners: FY2017-18

CalUsource Team: 

This team planned and implemented CalUsource – a new eSourcing technology in an historic statewide collaboration between the University of California and California State University systems. This large-scale implementation across 35 campus locations is streamlining sourcing operations, reducing costs, encouraging greater efficiencies and improving contract management processes within the California public university systems. The team worked together across campuses and systems to assess needs, create common processes, and determine shared technology requirements in sourcing, contracting, spend analysis and supplier management functions. In under five months, they trained nearly 400 UC and CSU procurement professionals throughout the state on the new platform.

Normalization Team:

This team completed cross-campus Normalization assessments involving in-depth campus visits, surveys and evaluations to develop a set of recommendations for implementation. This intensive 14-week process was a precursor to moving a majority of campuses to a unified eProcurement platform (Ubuy) for maximum purchasing efficiency. During the assessment, the team analyzed over 488 Purchase Order clauses and made significant recommendations to the PO Clause Library. These standardized clauses are vital to maintaining consistency with UC’s systemwide legal documents.