Archive for May, 2022

Memorial Day Observance 2022

Monday, May 30th, 2022

 

Today’s post is from our archives at SafeSourcing Inc.

Many people visit cemeteries and memorials, particularly to honor those who have died in military service. Many volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries.

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The article below is sited from: http://www.cute-calendar.com/event/memorial-day/5719-usa.html

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 31st in 2021). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the Civil War), it was expanded after World War I.

Many people observe this holiday by visiting cemeteries and memorials. A national moment of remembrance takes place at 3 p.m. local time. Another tradition is to fly the flag of the United States at half-staff from dawn until noon local time. Volunteers often place American flags on each grave site at National Cemeteries.

Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars take donations for poppies in the days leading up to Memorial Day; the poppy’s significance to Memorial Day is the result of the John McCrae poem “In Flanders Fields.”

In addition to remembrance, Memorial Day is also used as a time for picnics, barbecues, family gatherings, and sporting events. One of the longest-standing traditions is the running of the Indianapolis 500, an auto race which has been held in conjunction with Memorial Day since 1911. The Coca-Cola 600 has been held later the same day since 1961. (From: Wikipedia, license: CCA-SA)

Whether you are observing Memorial Day by volunteering your time placing flags on the graves of soldiers, volunteering your time to spend with wounded soldiers, or are just spending family quality time together, we at SafeSourcing wish you a safe and memory making Memorial Day.

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

We look forward to your comments.

Is the baby formula shortage affecting you?

Friday, May 20th, 2022

 

 

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

If you shop for anything now a days, you have probably noticed that there are shortages on many things that we purchase from food to auto parts.  All of the shortages are causing problems for everyone whether they are personal, or business related.  The newest shortage that caught my attention and is very concerning is the shortage of baby formula.  The White House press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this week that the US Food and Drug Administration is “working around the clock” to address the baby formula shortage and the manufacturers are saying that they are producing the formula at full capacity and making as much formula as they can.  But besides all of the efforts it is still not enough to meet the current demand.  It seems that stores nationwide have been struggling for months to keep the formula in stock and a recent recall has made the shortage even worse.  It is getting to the point now that several major retailers are trying to preserve inventory and are limiting the amount of baby formula the customers can purchase. According to researchers, the out-of-stock rate for baby formula was between 2 to 8% in the first half of 2021 and now has risen to around 40% and in some states the number has risen over 50%.  Some parents have been forced to find the formula online from resellers and are seeing prices as high as $120 for a single can.  Some good news is that experts are saying that the shortage should only last another 6 to 8 weeks.  Hopefully, that is the case for all the concerned parents.

Interested in learning how SafeSourcing can help your company save money during these and other shortages?  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.

The Conglomerated Corporations of America

Wednesday, May 18th, 2022

 

Today’s post is from Patrick Quinn is a Procurement Specialist at SafeSourcing Inc.

It is no secret that the illusion of choice exists in every industry. Most brands you find at the store are owned by only a few companies, and the same problem exists for almost every manufactured product that we see in our homes. This observation can be quantified when you look at the total number of listings on stock exchanges from year to year. In the mid-1990’s, over 8,000 companies were publicly traded on the NYSE and Nasdaq. Because of the 2008 recession that number dropped to around 3,600, and as of Q1 of 2022 6,296 companies were on the two markets. But the growth has slowed down over the last several years. In 2018, 5343 companies were traded, so where has the growth gone?

Instead of going to market for capital, growing companies are acquired and become a brand under a larger firm. More and more industries have been heading this direction and the parent companies can control prices further and further. This can make comparison shopping incredibly difficult, as the more brands and names appear, the fewer options there actually are.

But, instead of letting the same big firms share the space in your market and control each and every price over and over, there is another option. Tip the space between the firms towards each other make them compete directly for your business. An eRFQ forces these firms to acknowledge each other’s existence as competition, if even for a moment. The results can be quite fascinating to see, and beneficial for your bottom line.

To help you pit the big guys against each other, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.

 

 

 

Shortages

Monday, May 16th, 2022

 

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

With an ever-changing market, shortages of goods and supplies will happen from time to time. Many of us have seen it happen before, but typically when there is a large-scale shortage, production gets ramped, and the shortage is short lived. Since Covid, however, we have seen a number of items across numerous industries become scarce. While some items are beginning to increase production, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has put a lot of other necessary goods out of production. This not only makes that particular good harder to find (if at all even possible) but may even have larger impacts on goods that might need that particular product.

For instance, much fuel globally comes from Russia and the war currently happening has halted supplies and caused prices to increase for everyone everywhere. While we are thankful we are not in the war zone and have deep sadness for those that are, the effects are felt everywhere. In fact, with fewer amounts of fuel comes increased interest and demand for electronic and other battery-operated vehicles and machines. This has also caused a shortage of those as well, making the cost of buying any electronic vehicle much higher, if at all possible.

With the global economy where it stands and the shortages felt across nearly every product and service, from housing and cars to foods and chemicals, the importance of using what resources we cannot be stressed enough. For instance, we may need to look closer to home for many things we seek to buy. If you want honey, you may have the best luck contacting your local honey farm, which will likely be at a higher price, but ultimately is a way to obtain what you need. A procurement partner like SafeSourcing can help your organization navigate different markets and help to source the products or services you need.

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

 

Performance Bonds

Thursday, May 12th, 2022

 

Performance Bonds

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

Do you use performance bonds on your store construction contracts? Should you? So, what are performance bonds and how do they work?

A performance bond is given as a guarantee to clients by specialist insurers or banks on behalf of contractors and at their expense. The performance bond would bind the insurers to compensate clients (up to the amount of the bond obtained) in the event of a default by a contractor. For example, a building contractor may issue a bond to a client for the building which the contractor is building. If the contractor does not fulfill the contract per specifications, the client is protected to a guaranteed compensation.

If you’d like to learn more about how SafeSourcing can assist in properly analyzing the total cost of your construction projects including general contractor section, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

Horizontal Exchange

Tuesday, May 10th, 2022

 

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

For businesses, this may not be the way to get your best price.

While SafeSourcing is not an exchange per se, our services are horizontal in that we offer the same SaaS based white glove eProcurement services to customers in multiple industries such as Retail (all verticals), health care, distribution, sports and education to name a few. It is surprising how many industries can source the same products and services and try to do it in so many ways, often to lacking results.

The Horizontal exchange is an e-marketplace that facilitates transactions for goods and services across several industries. A horizontal e-marketplace connects buyers and sellers across different industries or regions. A horizontal e-marketplace can be used to purchase indirect products such as office equipment or stationery.  Horizontal exchanges focus on leveraging expertise in a particular business process across number of industries. Service industries lend themselves well to a horizontaexchange. The most active horizontal exchanges today are competing in the realm of e-procurement.

If you are using a horizontal exchange,  and you’d like to learn more about how SafeSourcing can source your products and services for less, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3740530

Advertising Allowances

Friday, May 6th, 2022

 

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

Does your company include advertising allowances in your product costs?

An advertising allowances is a fund allocated by the provider to be paid to a merchant for the purpose of advertising a specific product or brand. The advertising allowances could be in the form of either a discount from the wholesale price of a product or a reimbursement to the merchant for advertising costs which have already incurred.

Let’s face it, when sourcing your for resale products, having all costs associated with that product make life much easier for your procurement department or your third-party SaaS partner like SafeSourcing Inc.

Finding out that you have an advertising allowance after you have sourced something creates huge issues. Let’s say that your current vendor embeds those discounts in the up-front product cost and not as a payment at the end of the quarter or year. While it may be a net-net benefit, it is accounted for differently. Management may be looking for that payment only to find out it is now included in your current cost. Oops!

At SafeSourcing we have a list of questions that are part of our white glove services that we ask and document the answers to that allows us to uncover everything that is included in your current contract language and where there are potential surprises in your P&L.

If you’d like to learn more about how SafeSourcing can assist in properly analyzing the total cost of your  annual purchases, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

 

 

Judgmental Forecasting Technique!

Thursday, May 5th, 2022

 

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

The Judgmental Forecasting Technique involves the use of opinion, experience, and judgment; and is often used when there is little information about a specific set of circumstances. It is usually defined as that which uses instinct along with other resources to predict what may happen. Executive decisions can be made on the bases of these feelings. It goes beyond purely statistical techniques and encompasses what people believe is going to happen. It is in the realm of intuition, interdepartmental committees, market research, and executive opinion.

I call this seat of your pants forecasting, and it is often what gets companies into trouble and aggravates their customers. Generally, this results from what historically were small business that grew too fast and had not yet acquired technology to support their forecasting. You often hear comments in an environment like this such as I’ve been at this for years, and we know what we are doing? Unfortunately, this practice is still widespread today.

If you’d like to learn more about how SafeSourcing can assist in properly sourcing to support your annual purchases, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

 

Do you have any idea what your total MRO Expense is or what makes it up?

Wednesday, May 4th, 2022

 

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

MRO products are those goods and services that a company purchases which are not used in production or offered for resale. Typical MRO purchases include manufacturing supplies, computers and office supplies.

Maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) or maintenance, repair, and overhaul involve fixing any sort of mechanical, plumbing or electrical device should it become out of order or broken (known as repair, unscheduled or casualty maintenance). It also includes performing routine actions which keep the device in working order (known as scheduled maintenance) or prevents trouble from arising (preventive maintenance). MRO may be defined as, “All actions which have the objective of retaining or restoring an item in or to a state in which it can perform its required function. The actions include the combination of all technical and corresponding administrative, managerial, and supervision actions.”

MRO operations can be categorized by whether the product remains the property of the customer, i.e. a service is being offered, or whether the product is bought by the reprocessing organization and sold to any customer wishing to make the purchase. (Guadette, 2002)

The former of these represents a closed loopsupply chain and usually has the scope of maintenance, repair or overhaul of the product. The latter of the categorizations is an open loop supply chain and is typified by refurbishment and remanufacture. The main characteristic of the closed loop system is that the demand for a product is matched with the supply of a used product. Neglecting asset write-offs and exceptional activities the total population of the product between the customer and the service provider remains constant.

If you like to learn more about how SafeSourcing can assist in reducing your MRO costs, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

Resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance,_repair,_and_operation

 

What is a Request for Quote (RFQ)?

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022

 

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

Although this process can be defined with relative simplicity, it is anything but!

What is A Request for Quote (RFQ) is a document that a business submits to one or more potential suppliers in order to receive quotes for a product or service. Generally, an RFQ seeks an itemized list of prices for products or services that is well-defined, such as hardware. Another type of document is called a Request for Proposals (RFP), which is customarily used when the requesting business’s requirements are more complex, or a Request for Information (RFI), which collects written information about supplies or services.

SafeSourcing offers a suite of eRFX tools under its SafeSourceIt™ Family of Products including RFI’s, RFP’s and RFQ’s. Often to achieve the best net landed cost, all three may be required to source certain categories. These tools are supported by our white glove proven seven step process that delivers on average savings of 24% below what you may be able to achieve on your own.

If you like to learn more about how we can reduce your costs, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.