25 May 2016 
Emma Keenan, Procurement Specialist
As you may be aware, members of Procurement England Ltd (PEL) commissioned H2O to develop a new contract website to replace uniBuy. The new system, called HE Contracts, will go live in 1 August 2016.
Months of planning and development have taken place with representative universities and PEL consortia to help shape the database to meet HE sector requirements. During January this year the design concept was completed and, following sign-off, the data has been migrated from uniBuy to the HE Contracts database. Final testing and checking is now underway.
Access
There are flexible options on how HE Contracts can be accessed, and your consortium will be in touch with more details on how you can access the system shortly. There are customisable levels of access you can also grant to your teams.
Training
Although, HE Contacts database has been designed to be simple and intuitive to use, a series of bite-sized 'how to' videos for end users and administrators has been created by H2O to guide you through using the system.
Your regional consortium will arrange training for institution administrators to be held during July.
Help Desk
H2O will operate a help desk for any queries on using the system, the details of which will be advised prior to go live.
Further details of the product will be provided closer to the launch.
