Archive for January, 2018

What is a Blister Pack?

Tuesday, January 30th, 2018

 

Today’s Post is by Eli Razov, SafeSourcing Account Manager.

SafeSourcing helps clients save money on a wide variety of categories. From sugar to fuel hauling, there isn’t much we haven’t sourced for our clients. One category that we source regularly is Blister Packs. Blister Packs have consistently provided significant savings for our clients making it a successful event. Currently, we are offering an opportunity for you to become involved in that savings opportunity. But first let’s learn little about Blister Packs.

Blister packs are the unsung hero of the retail world. They are used to package products such as toys, hardware, medication, etc. Blister packs have been around for many years and come in many different forms. Blister packs are commonly used as unit-dose packaging for pharmaceutical tablets, capsules or lozenges. Specifically, that is our focus at the moment. In other regions of the world, blister packs are the main packaging type since pharmacy dispensing and re-packaging are not common. In some parts of the world, the pharmaceutical blister pack is known as a push-through pack.

Materials Used to make Blister Packs:

  • Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
  • Polyvinylidene Chloride (PVDC)
  • Polychlorotrifluoro Ethylene (PCTFE)
  • Cyclic Olefin Copolymers (COC)
  • Cold Form Foil
  • Lidding Foils

There are many benefits to using Blister Packs. Blister packaging is a cost effective way of showcasing a product. Due to the nature of the material and design, it makes it more cost effective than other types of packages that are on the market. There is a wide range of colors and finishes that blister packaging can be constructed to feature. Manufacturers can use that to help make their products stand out on shelves. Blister packaging allows either the manufacturer or retailer to include promotional materials or advertisements to help build a brand and increase customer loyalty. To prevent retail theft, packages are specifically designed so that the customer cannot “touch and feel” the product. Clear, protective, and durable thermoformed plastic packaging enables the customer to fully view the product while maintaining the security of the product. Blister packaging can easily be sealed using heat sealing machinery.

So what does this mean to you? Many of our retail pharmacy clients use Blister Packs at their stores. What many don’t realize at first is that there are numerous vendors in every region competing with the larger, national vendors and that this is a very competitive category when sourced using e-Procurement. With the use of SafeSourcing’s services, many of our clients have saved significantly. The last client who sourced this category with us saved over thirteen percent.

SafeCollaborative™ is a new way for many companies to pool their procurement needs to aggregate larger savings with higher purchasing volumes. We will be offering a Blister Pack SafeCollaborative RFQ Event in Q1 of 2018 which is open to any companies that might want to join. If you have any questions or are interested in participating please contact us at 888-261-9070

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Representative we have an entire team waiting to assist you today

 

The Pitfalls of IT contracts

Wednesday, January 24th, 2018

 

Today’s post is our SafeSourcing Archives.

IT contracts are difficult. 

Now that we have that out on the table let’s follow that up with a second statement:

IT Contracts are usually in the top 5 categories of spend of every company on the world.

When it comes to executing IT contracts the main problem boils down to having a service, software license or piece of hardware requiring a contract the details of which a legal team doesn’t always understand from a technical standpoint and which has legal elements an IT staff does not always push hard enough to improve.  Some companies have developed strong Legal IT staffs to handle this issue but most are letting the IT department review and approve contracts that meet the technical needs without attempting to improve the business or legal elements.   Today we will look at some of the elements which the legal and IT team should be working together on ensuring meet the standards needed by their company.

Technical Aspects  – Obviously the most important first step is to ensure that the service or product meets the technical requirements of the business.  This is accomplished by having a well-defined Statement of Work which clearly defines the roles of both parties and what will be delivered during the course of the contract.  For hardware and software this defines how much each party is responsible for the installation and configuration of the project and the support of the project moving forward.  This includes testing, specifications of what the solution needs to deliver, the timeline for delivery, and what is covered by warranty or maintenance and support agreement.

Legal Aspects – Once the technical requirements are met then the legal team needs ensure that all of the language surrounding the engagement and contract are also met and to the satisfaction of the company’s best interest.  One of the first sets of details must surround protection in case the relationship is not executed according to the agreed upon terms.  It is the job of the business to foster a productive and beneficial relationship with the vendors and the legal team’s responsibility to plan for the protection in case that does not occur.  Defining the governing laws and jurisdiction of a potential disagreement, precedence of documents attached to the agreement,   as well as details surrounding the termination of the agreement by either party are all things which must be examined so that the business can be protected from every angle.

Business Aspects – Several aspects affect the business portion, but most of them boil down to two areas; ownership details and pricing details.  Understanding the details of who owns the product is extremely important not only for various accounting reasons but also from a liability standpoint.  If anything happens to the product, who owns it and when will determine who takes on the cost to repair or replace that product.  Having this defined in advance will influence testing, evaluation, timelines and acceptance of the installation efforts.  Pricing is also very important and should be examined closely to ensure the company has the best terms in the way of payment schedule, rebates, discounts and other factors that will result in the best possible pricing and what has historically been ultra-high margin goods and services.

SafeSourcing routinely works with our customers’ IT departments on procurement projects to ensure many of these details are laid out and agreed upon before an award decision is even made.  For more information on how we can help your team with IT projects or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

We look forward to your comments.

The Evolving Workforce

Thursday, January 18th, 2018

 

Today’s post is written by Ivy Ray, Account Manager at SafeSourcing Inc.

Temporary worker demand is rising. When Baby Boomers retire, organizations will lose a lot of talent. Retiring Boomers are going to be hard to replace because Generation X (born between 1965-1980) is small, and because Generation Y has a different concept of how they want to work.  Gen Y (born between 1981-2001) is more technologically and geographically mobile. They value flexibility, which project-based work allows.

Start-ups and small businesses would normally utilize freelance workers but increasingly, larger companies are using online freelancers, not to replace their core workforces, but to complement them usually for special project work. There are a rising number of freelance positions, which typically lack benefits and other protections that come with being a full-time employee. Platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, and Guru are just a few of the multiple online freelance marketplaces which benefit both the freelancers and the corporations hiring them.

Freelancers now make up over 35% of the U.S. workforce and companies are always looking to outsource and work with them to meet their business goals.  Freelance workforce growth is accelerating and has outpaced overall U.S. workforce growth by 3x since 2014, according to Stephane Kasriel, CEO of Upwork.

The use of freelancing platforms could disrupt the way workforces are organized. For corporations, there are coordination costs and other challenges that come with managing both an internal workforce and interfacing with an external one. (Forbes)

The rise of temporary workers is a workforce trend that is here to stay. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, temporary workers make up 19 percent of all new jobs in the U.S.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you in exploring your procurement solutions for your business or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

We look forward to your comments.

Resources—————————————————————————————

https://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2016/10/06/new-survey-freelance-economy-shows-rapid-growth/#7d454aa57c3f

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-loehr/these-four-workplace-tren_b_4937962.html

 

 

Document Management Systems

Wednesday, January 17th, 2018

 

Today’s post is by Troy Lowe; Vice President of Development at SafeSourcing.

Document management systems (DSM) are computer software tools used to manage and help track the lifecycle of your documents.  Implementing a document management tool allows you to check out, lock and check in your important documents.  Using these features will allow you to maintain older versions of the documents and compare changes that are made.  Because there are multiple versions of the documents stored, you can roll back to an older version if unwanted changes occur.  Each version that is checked in is stored and contains information such as the date, time, description and the user that made the changes.  Using the document management tool also ensures that all of your documents are stored in one secure place and can easily be searched and located when needed.  Another benefit of using a document management system is security.  The access to the documents can be set up so that users or groups can access certain folders and files.  The access can be as finite as limiting a user to access to only a single file.

Below are some of the benefits that can be achieved from a well-designed document management system like our SafeDocument™.

  • Central Repository for Easy Retrieval
  • Enhanced Security
  • Reduced Storage Space
  • Improved Search Capabilities
  • Notifications when changes occur
  • Reliable Backup and Recovery

There are several things to keep in mind before purchasing a Document Management System; such as the number of users and the amount of space you will need.  At SafeSourcing, we can gather all the necessary information for you and help you decide why SafeDocument™ is the right DMS for your needs.  If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help you, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

 

 

Baseball and Procurement

Tuesday, January 16th, 2018

 

Today’s blog is by Margaret Stewart, Manager of HR and Administration at SafeSourcing Inc.

Baseball is widely considered America’s pastime with a colorful history and a nostalgic place in many people’s lives. Some of the lessons learned in baseball can also apply to everyday life, including your business. Here are quite a few common teachings that many of us learned from baseball and how they apply to your business.

  1. Hit a home run – to be very successful. This can mean successfully completing your project, gaining a new client, making your goals, or exceeding your goals. While just one person in baseball will hit a home run at a time, the whole team benefits. In business, the whole team can be responsible for hitting a home run.
  2. A ball park figure – an estimate. When this phrase is used, it can have a wide range of estimation. For example, a person may offer a ballpark figure for a new hire, which may cover a range of a few thousand dollars, whereas a ballpark figure of a company’s entire spend may range from several million dollars to tens of millions.
  3. Strike out – to fail. This phrase is often used in business, and especially sales. Often sales teams will try a pitch a few times, like in baseball, before they deem it a strike out and will not spend any more time or effort continuing, but rather try a new approach.
  4. Batting a thousand – maintaining a perfect record. This is when a person has been exceptionally successful in their ventures to a point where failure never seems to be an option. While such a high record in anything cannot be expected or maintained indefinitely, it is always a goal for everyone to strive for.
  5. Play hardball – use extreme measures to ensure success. This phase can be used to describe individuals or businesses that take more extreme stances when it comes to compromise. They may maintain a firm position on an offer, which may or may not work out in their favor.
  6. Go to bat for someone – to aid or support someone. This can describe when someone comes to your aid in some way, whether to reiterate strategies or points, defend positions, or just take some of the burden of a person or team for an amount of time.
  7. Throw a curve ball – to do something unexpected. This phase is very common in business and many businesses take great care to avoid curve balls, even hiring analysts and researchers to ensure no signs of an upcoming curveball were missed. However, like the definition states, curveballs refer to the unexpected, so being prepared for anything can help your organization combat any curve balls coming.
  8. On the ball – very aware, responsible, and intelligent. This phase in business is commonly used to describe a person or team who takes initiative, is proactive, or generally takes care of the things necessary without trouble, hassle, or complaint.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help you cover your procurement bases, or on our Risk Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

 

Watch out that your Spend Cube does not overwhelm you!

Thursday, January 11th, 2018

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing.

I’ve participated  in a lot of discussions lately about spend cubes, which can just as easily be called data cubes, because that is all they really are.

Just what is a spend cube?  In its most simple form it is a data set that includes information that when analyzed as a whole provides a better or more completed  picture of your spend universe such as the expense category.  Spend cubes help to identify opportunities within a broad category of products and services that may require more attention including going to market and ideally, when they should. Because  a spend cube includes vendor data, causal data,  and  other specifics such as commodity pressures relative to the related cost center being impacted, spend cubes by their nature are very complex.

Unfortunately good spend cubes as well as improperly built managed spend cubes can deteriorate over time based on a number of factors. Probably the primary reason is that the originating data was not complete to begin with or scrubbed properly in the first place. This is kind of a one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch issue or the wrong data bumping into the wrong data. Another reason may be that you don’t have all of the data that you need and therefore the result sets are compromised or left to conjecture that creates improperly built and executed sourcing strategies. Additionally there is the analyst’s interpretation of the data and to this author that is really the most important part once you get the data sources right (think ERP). This person or group of persons needs to know their stuff (industry and products) in order for the data to be interpreted properly. It’s pretty easy to read a GL and determine what suppliers you have been spending the most with. It’s an entirely different thing to understand what the market for a commodity that impacts that particular spend was doing during the last contract versus what it is doing now and how it is trending for the future. All of this has to be attached to specific sourcing unit activity. Think of it this way?  If your vendor does not invoice you at the unit level, where will you come up with corroborated unit spend from regardless as to whether it is a can of beans or a fork lift.

Ask your solutions provider where your data should come from, who will be interpreting your data and what data they will be interpreting. Also thinks start small.

If you’d like to learn more about how to optimize your spend data, contact SafeSouricng.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Data Commodity

Thursday, January 11th, 2018

 

Today’s blog is by Margaret Stewart, Director of HR and Administration at SafeSourcing.

Unfortunately, most of us have experienced this first hand. You may be looking for more information on a particular subject online and next thing you know you are giving that site your email address. In nearly no time, that company could have taken your information, categorized it, and sold it to other companies looking for leads. Your data just became a selling commodity.

The most surprising thing may be, however, that this selling of information has been going on for a long time and is perfectly legal. Even big internet sites, like Google and Facebook, allow your information to be shared, sold, or used by other companies. Luckily, much of the time, this sharing of information is strictly for target marketing, and won’t bog down your inbox. This kind of marketing can even be beneficial at times, like if you are researching local animal charities, you may suddenly see more animal charitable project ads pop up on the web pages you visit.  On the other hand, though, some sites do take all of your information and simply sell it to whoever will pay.

Before you worry too much about your information, keep in mind that the commonly used websites, like Facebook, take precautions so that your specific information isn’t just given to anyone. For example, they may share how many people like a particular restaurant without disclosing any specifics.

If you have comments, advice, want to share your own experiences with information online, or to find out more about SafeSourcing, our policy to never share information, our Risk Free trial program, or any of our free informational tools, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

 

 

What exactly is spend analysis? And at what cost?

Monday, January 8th, 2018

 

For as many simple yes answers that I get, I can also give you a handful of tools that do a lot of analysis and at the end of the day that is what you have. Simply put, spend analysis is designed to provide companies detailed information about the entire companies purchasing data. The cost to get at that data is astronomical.

At the surface this seems to be pretty simple. In fact it is anything but. If we just look at the retail space, spend analysis relies on data from a number of disparate systems. Most retail organizations to this day do not have a single source of information or an enterprise data warehouse where data is available in one location for use by many applications. In mid tier retailers this is almost universal.

In fact in many retail organizations the following systems would require access in order to gain all spend data necessary for analysis by advanced real time analytics and workflow management systems.

  1. Retail ERPS Systems
  2. Retail Planning Systems
  3. Merchandise Management Systems
  4. Supply Chain Management and Execution Systems
  5. Store Operation Systems
  6. Corporate Administration systems
  7. Many New Advanced Analytic Tools and Systems
  8. Spend Cubes

Certainly, if access to this data is available benefits such as instant access to information and better decision making are certain benefits that can be derived from these types of solutions.

The question for most however is how much time is required to conduct this integration. Would retailers be required to create another data repository and is a data mart of this sort really required to drive savings to the bottom line the shortest amount of time?

For many organizations, there are e-negotiation solution providers that offer these same analytics in the form of a professional service that is embedded in their event pricing. This may result in a more expeditious time to market and savings that can impact the organizations bottom line in the present reporting period.

All solutions do not fit all industries and there are generally alternatives worth exploring that may fit your needs more closely at a more economical price point.

We appreciate and look forward to your comments

If All Your Friends Jumped Off A Bridge

Thursday, January 4th, 2018

 

Today’s post is by Dave Wenig, Vice President of Sales and Services at SafeSourcing.

“If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you too?” Usually, when you hear a parent ask this question, then they are saying this because they don’t approve of the child’s decisions. While I understand the sentiment, I’d propose an alternative and that we think about this more in the sense of trying something new.

There are some who have still not jumped off the bridge into e-Procurement. Perhaps they look at their peers who have taken to using e-Procurement with the same dismissive view as the parent who is disappointed in their child. What they have probably not considered is that what they have deemed a questionable decision is actually very beneficial.

The difficult part is being open to alternatives. Many who do not use e-Procurement will point to their well-established procurement practices, their own experience, and their rolodex as the evidence that they should not even consider jumping off the bridge that their friends have jumped off.

But, by allowing for an open mind, you might come to realize that e-Procurement is also very well established, that the providers in the space such as SafeSourcing have incredible experience, and that your rolodex is important and will be included but will be augmented by vendors from a database with hundreds of thousands of global sources of supply.

I’m not suggesting that anyone blindly do as others do or succumb unnecessarily to peer pressure. I’m saying that anyone who has responsibility for purchasing has a fiduciary duty to examine all options. Sometimes, you’ll find that jumping off the bridge is the right thing to do.

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.  We look forward to your comments.