Procurement and Materials Management

The combination of centralized and decentralized procurement has proven to be an effective and efficient organizational form for purchasing at the DKFZ: Procurements are generally made centrally by the Procurement/Materials Management division. To speed up procedures, especially in laboratory operations, decentralized procurement (direct ordering) by the requisitioners is also possible if framework agreements with suppliers exist, the goods and services to be procured have been approved for direct ordering by the Purchasing Department in the central electronic catalog and the order value of currently 1,500 euros per order process is not exceeded. The DKFZ uses the catalogue-based ordering system e.biss for this purpose, which contains both the catalog data for decentralized procurement and structured electronic forms for creating procurement requirements as part of centralized procurement.

In centralized procurement, the focus of purchasing activities is on advising requisitioners on product and supplier selection and on designing the award procedures. The scientific and technical expertise of the requisitioners and the product and market knowledge as well as the commercial and legal knowledge of Purchasing and its experience with comparable processes are brought together.

For decentralized procurement, Purchasing lists goods and services in the electronic catalog if they are required for a large number of requesters or on a recurring basis. Numerous product areas are available both to users at the DKFZ and to participants in the purchasing community initiated by the DKFZ's Purchasing department; this results in further purchasing advantages.

This division of the procurement channels ensures a high level of process and object efficiency for the (decentralized) procurement of catalog items through product standardization and electronic order processing, while in the (centralized) procurement areas not covered by catalog items, the focus is on meeting customer requirements.

The materials management team accepts parcel shipments and forwards them to all divisions in the relevant buildings. It also manages the DKFZ's own warehouse, including the chemicals store.

The Commercial IT group manages the IT systems and applications of the administration with a focus on the Center's business processes. It is responsible for the maintenance, further development and operation of these systems. Particular attention is paid to the SAP applications.

The catering team provides DKFZ employees with a varied and reasonably priced range of food that caters as well as possible for the wide variety of eating habits and requirements. Of course, this offer is also available to all guests at the locations in the high-rise building and in the Technology Park. The offer is rounded off by our coffee bar in the pavilion in the Technology Park and our "HotSpot" coffee bar in the foyer of the main building.