Archive for January, 2011

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E-procurement solutions require officer level sponsorship and support!

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

he role of e- procurement solutions continues to become more of a strategic each year. Driving cost of goods and services control is one of the most important above the line initiatives a company can undertake. But don?t forget the expense or indirect category

In order to successfully implement an enterprise wide e-procurement initiative, executive management must provide sponsorship and visibly promote these projects within their organizations. Executive sponsorship is required by the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Procurement Officer or Chief Logistics Officer. The potential impact to earnings regardless of Industry is so significant with a properly deployed e-procurement program that officer level executives require visibility based on the impact to stockholders and stakeholders alike. In fact Sarbanes-Oxley section 404 requires that companies 1. Demonstrate reasonable & consistent governance & compliance monitoring. 2. Assure proper use of tools that have been placed into practice. 3. Employ proper reporting & management oversight. Implementing e-procurement tools has the potential to offer significant earnings changes.?

Once executive management has sponsored these initiatives, some form of accountability must be implemented to ensure maximum participation in order fully realize organization wide savings opportunities. A company’s successful transition to e-procurement requires a transition from a cumbersome paper RFX processes to one that focuses on using the speed and efficiency of an electronic forum.? Successful change management professionals focused on sustainability realize that this shift must be a combination of the use of not only the latest software advances, but also reengineering of internal processes in order to drive sustainable results.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

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What is Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP)

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

For guidance with your green purchasing practices, one place to begin is our federal governments Environmental Protection Agency or EPA.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a number of programs that as a result of government use offer companies a great opportunity to educate themselves in support of their social responsibility initiatives.

One of those programs, the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) helps the federal government “buy green,” and in doing so, uses the federal government’s enormous buying power to stimulate market demand for green products and services. Geared first to help federal purchasers, this site can help green vendors, businesses large and small — and consumers. Use the easy index to:
?
??Find and evaluate information about green products and services;
??Identify federal green buying requirements;
??Calculate the costs and benefits of purchasing choices;
??Manage green purchasing processes.

The U.S. EPA website www.epa.gov contains a wealth of information relative to finding and evaluating green products in any number of categories from construction to office supplies. If you truly review and evaluate the green portion of your company or individual social consciousness regularly the? U.S. EPA site is a great place to start.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Your strategic sourcing plan should already be completed.

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

One example of the above might be to augment the manual processes that many? sourcing professionals use today in order to find new sources of supply interested in bidding for their business rather than continuing to live with the same small, known group of suppliers they have used for years. Historically this has been a very time consuming practice that results in few if any new sources of supply. This represents a great opportunity to deploy a tactic that can have an immediate impact for an organization without the need for the implementation of a complete new sourcing strategy.

There is a specific process to follow that will encourage new sources of supply to want to bid for a companies business beyond just being invited. Simply having your buyer assigned the task of picking up the phone and calling new sources of supply will not result in new suppliers agreeing to bid for your business. There are specific objections to overcome and questions to answer that require a specific skill set.? This is a perfect opportunity for Software as a Service providers that offer supplier research. Skilled providers in this area can provide companies with as many as a half dozen or more willing new sources of supply in as little as thirty minutes? that may in fact reside within a companies existing marketing? area.

Sourcing tactics can be isolated procurement related actions or events that take advantage of opportunities offered by the gaps within strategic plans such as lack of new sources of supply mentioned above.? So our tactic here would be to find additional sources of supply that we can invite to compete for a companies business in a variety of categories. The fact is that additional sources of supply competing for a companies business results in compressed pricing and often better quality products.

We appreciate and look forward to your comments.

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