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

SafeCatalog™ is a one tool that allows companies to reinforce rules that supports contract compliance, thus ensuring that hard earned discounts, terms, and conditions achieved by their procurement knowledge workers are maintained for the length of the contract.

SafeCatalog™ is a tool that allows companies to consolidate the products and services they order into one online view for employees. This tool is easily customizable and allows users to create different catalogs for multiple departments within their organization. It also provides control over ordering by listing only approved vendors at negotiated rates.

When integrated with the SafePO™ module, users can have their catalog orders automatically processed and entered to an online purchase order system that allows suppliers to be notified of the order once it has been approved.

Catalogs can be populated with items from one or multiple suppliers and are presented in a way that includes descriptions and provides prices in one location.

SafeCatalog™ provides users the leverage to monitor and control spending through spending thresholds that ensure that users are receiving the correct price for all items.

SafeSourcing is a Procure to Pay SaaS based provider of a number of e-Procurement solutions and associated white glove services that are part of our SaaS offered SafeSourceIt™ eSourcing suite. These include but are not limited to SafeContract™, SafePO™, SafeDocument™ and our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database that includes over 557,000 vendor/suppliers. To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

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

Imagine if you wanted to buy a new pair of shoes and you were not allowed to try them on for size before you had to commit and buy. Then, to return the shoes and get your money back, you found out that it was nearly impossible due to the terms you had agreed upon.

You probably would not buy those shoes. What if we upped the ante and now you have to buy a car, but you cannot take a test drive and the same rules apply? No way.

The same should be true of your decision to hire a company like SafeSourcing. As a strategic sourcing company, we offer a truly SaaS platform, so there is no hardware or software our customers need to install. Even still, how do you know that we are the right fit for your organization?

The answer is simple, take a test drive. We always start with a Pilot Program that lets you kick the tires and take our services out for a spin. In fact, we usually let you try on multiple spend categories without a long-term commitment and we structure it so there is no risk.

Before you make a commitment on something so important, it is only fair that you get to try before you buy. We are always willing to let you put us to the test in a no risk Pilot Program.

So come kick out tires and see how well our services work for you.

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing

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

Having the right vendor selection process can help your organization in the long run.

When it is time to select a vendor for whatever project you have underway, it is important to choose one that fits your needs the best, but first you will need to determine what your needs are and what your wants are.

Determining needs – First you will need to find a vendor that can provide the good or service you are looking for. This can be as easy as making a list of exactly what you need from your project. For a simple project, which can be fairly easy, but for more complex projects you may need to dive into capabilities. For example, if you need a plumber for a leaky faucet, you will find a number that can complete your project. However, if you need your water line under the ground replaced, you may need someone who specializes in that. The same concept applies to goods as well. If you are looking for the perfect cheese for your pizzas, you may want someone who specializes in cheddar shreds as opposed to one who sells a lot of aged charcuterie style blocks.

Determining your wants – after you find out what you need, next you will dive into what you want. Perhaps you want a plumber that offers flexible pricing options or may be someone who sells cheddar cheeses and nacho cheeses. Determining what you want can help narrow down the field. A list of wants can help steer your vendor selection down. A wonderful way to help with not only determining wants and needs, but also vendor selection, is having a procurement partner. A procurement partner, like SafeSourcing, can help you determine which vendors fit your needs and wants, and on top of that we can also collect valuable information and pricing for your next project.

For more information on what the SafeSourcing team can offer you, or on our Risk-Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

Today’s post are the ramblings of a frustrated CEO, Ronald D. Southard, at SafeSourcing Inc

Do you know your company’s numbers? Is your plan the same as your company’s plan?

Often when I meet with procurement knowledge workers regardless of company structure, so buyers, category managers, purchasing department manager etc. and ask these two questions, the answer I get is often baffling. I have heard all manner of responses that center around the following. My numbers are based on my categories and do not really have anything to do with the companies’ total numbers which our department does not have a view of. So, I forget about asking questions about Gross Margin, and Net Earnings because this team lead is focused on his/her personal and or department numbers and their own pay plan.

I guess if I assume that every category manager is set up with their own P&L (they should be) and they all beat their plan that theoretically the companies cost of goods should go down and gross margins go up. However, that’s not happening corporately as projects never happen in a straight line. Award of Business and time to contract are often disconnected by months. As a result, all the best efforts of the procurement team may result in team bonuses even though company results do not improve as much as they should do timing that erodes the contract value in year over year results. Let us just stick with this example and not even get into expense management which does not impact gross margin. Capital Plans are another issue all together but equally requiring the focus of Procurement knowledge workers. More on that crime at another time.

At SafeSourcing we know how to mitigate these issues and assist in the alignment that is focused on reducing costs and improving earnings for all company stakeholders.

SafeSourcing is a Procure to Pay SaaS based provider of a number of e-Procurement solutions and associated with our best practices focused white glove services that are part of our SaaS offered SafeSourceIt™ eSourcing suite. These include but are not limited to SafeContract™, SafePO™, SafeDocument™ and our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database that includes over 557,000 vendor/suppliers. To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.