Goodbye, typewriter: Web-based requisitions to be available

The typewriter may no longer be a campus requisite.

In early May, those who are filling out requisitions for purchases will be able to do so via the Internet.

Paper requisition forms and typewriters will no longer be needed. Instead, the information will be entered through the menu-driven interface, and the program will generate a printable PDF document of the requisition.

“This will save lots of hours of toil over the typewriter,” says Rose Budig, a financial specialist who processes thousands of requisitions a year for the School of Education. She has been part of a pilot project testing the new system, which will be available through the My UW portal at http://my.wisc.edu, thanks to a partnership between Purchasing Services and the Division of Information Technology.

For those who work on computers all day, having to get up and go to a typewriter can be an inconvenience, Budig says. “Using the computer to actually generate a requisition will streamline the entire process,” she says.

The change will save a lot of paper as well, says Mike Matschull, a communications specialist. His division, Business Services, prints about 48,600 internal and external requisition forms per year.

“This change will allow us to discontinue printing these multi-part forms,” Matschull says.

This new tool will be integrated into the “Resources” tab of the My UW portal. Users should log in to My UW at http://my.wisc.edu using their netID, choose the Resources tab, and then choose the “More” button to add this application. Click the checkbox next to the “Requisition Generator” and click “Update” at the bottom of the screen. The application will then automatically be added to the user’s Resources tab.

The application can assign a single requisition number or block of numbers for departments that already have electronic systems to generate requisitions, but are receiving paper documents solely for feeding the numbers into their system.

The new system does not have an underlying database to store requisition information, nor to route requisition information electronically. Departments desiring such a database can contract with DoIT to build this add-on.

A demonstration plus a question-and-answer session will be Monday, May 10, at 10 a.m. Register through the Office of Human Resource Development at http://www.ohrd.wisc.edu. Choose “Business Services Topics,” then “Web Accessible Requisition Generator: Demonstration and Q&A” and click on “Login & Register” near the bottom of the page.

Contact purch@bussvc.wisc.edu with any questions about using the application, and DoIT’s Help Desk for any questions or problems with My UW.