Archive for the ‘Business Sourcing’ Category

What do we mean when we ask for your current price.

Monday, November 6th, 2023

 

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

According to Bing, the spot price of a commodity is the current cash cost of it for immediate purchase and delivery. The futures price locks in the cost of the commodity that will be delivered at some point other than the present usually, some months hence. The difference between the spot price and futures price in the market is called the basis.

At SafeSourcing we always ask our customer for their current price when developing the strategy for sourcing events. The nice part about the word current, is that it means today. Not the price you negotiated a year or two ago or longer that has gone through commodity shifts that have triggered escalation language in your contract. True some of you may be paying the exact same price as you did two years ago, but just wait until you have to renegotiate. If you don’t know, there are ways to get that information through an eRFI, eRFP or other means. When SafeSourcing says we will guarantee our results we are talking about what SafeSourcing is able to achieve versus a true current price that we can all agree upon. This is also the reason that true sourcing events may take multiple forms and why a strategy is needed.

If you’d really like to begin saving money, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Services Associate.

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.

 

Post-Consumer Materials and the Circular Economy

Thursday, October 26th, 2023

 

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

How is your company planning to work with evolving circular economy issues?

According to Wikipedia A circular economy (also referred to as circularity and CE)[2] is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible.[3] CE aims to tackle global challenges as climate changebiodiversity loss, waste, and pollution by emphasizing the design-based implementation of the three base principles of the model.

Global business is now thinking way past post-consumer materials which as we all know drove many of the early recycling initiatives implemented by businesses. A definition of that term which is a beginning point but less broad than circular economy is below.

The term post-consumer materials are finished productspackages, or materials produced or created by a business or consumer.  Post-customer materials have served their intended uses and have been recovered or diverted from the waste stream with the intention of recycling or reuse. An example of post-consumer materials is paper recycling.  The purpose of paper recycling is to turn paper into new paper products.

SafeSourcing is an eprocurement company that operates across multiple industries. Our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database of over 457,000 suppliers provides easy access to alternative sources of supply based on post-consumer materials and or circular economy requirements. To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

Sources: Circular economy – Wikipedia

 

Is your property ready for the upcoming winter season?

Monday, October 16th, 2023

 

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

I decided to go ahead and repost this BLOG that I wrote a while back because it is that time of year again and we had done our end of the year maintenance to make sure everything goes smoothly this upcoming winter.  Remember, you are less likely to have expensive repairs if you maintain and inspect the items listed below.

Well, it’s hard to believe it’s that time of year again.  The leaves are turning colors, and the temperatures are starting to drop.  It’s time to start thinking about what kind of fall maintenance needs to be done before winter weather arrives.  With these cooler temperatures, it makes for the best time to take care of any outside maintenance that needs to be done before the really freezing weather arrives.  For example, mowing the lawn for the last time this season.  Your lawn should be approximately 2 to 2 ½ inches by wintertime.  This is considered to be the right height so that it will not be stressed during the chilly winter months.  This height will also ensure that your lawn will not be affected by snow mold.  Snow mold is a type of fungus or turf disease that can damage or kill grass after the snow melts.  It is also a known allergen that can trigger allergies and asthma.   Along with mowing the lawn, it is important to make sure that you clean out your gutters once all of the leaves around your property have fallen.  Leaving these leaves and other debris within the gutters can cause them to become clogged which can lead to leaky roofs or water damage to the exterior or interior of your property.  Since the weather is nice, now is a good time to make a list of all the things that need to be done and get prepared for winter.  Below are some things that you may want to add to your list.

  • Aerate the soil.
  • Fertilize the lawn.
  • Check for foundation cracks.
  • Inspect exterior walls for peeling paint.
  • Inspect the roof for loose shingles.
  • Inspect driveways for cracks.
  • Install storm windows.
  • Disconnect hoses from outdoor water valves to prevent freezing pipes.
  • Clean basement window wells
  • Winterize sprinkler systems.

If you need help finding a licensed maintenance company to maintain your property, feel free to contact SafeSourcing.   We can gather all the necessary information for you and help you decide which company meets 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.

 

 

Did you win Monday night’s Powerball?

Wednesday, October 4th, 2023

 

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

While I can’t provide the customer’s name, they are NOT a $5B retailer per yesterday’s posts example. However, they are smart and focused and may well be some day. They took SafeSourcing up on our No Risk Offer. Their ROI will more than pay for their contract moving forward. Most procurement teams do not believe these types of results are possible in the current economy. Most of your teams will tell you this is a waste of time. I’ll bet you could use another $338K right now.

Here are the results:

  1. Expense Category: Pilot Event Number One:
    1. Savings $298,270.80
  2. For Resale Category: Event Number Two:
    1. Savings $40,072.32
  3. Total Savings: $338,343.12
    1. ROI 26X

You can still test me, if you’d like, this link will come directly to me. Your team will tell you this is not possible. I guarantee that your odds are better than 1 in 292 million to win Powerball.

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.

For more information, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Services Associate.

 

 

 

Did you know APPLE changed the charging port again?

Friday, September 22nd, 2023

 

It’s been a few years since they did it, but they did it again.

The new iPhone 15 will have a new charging port, ditching the Lightning port that it came out with a few years ago.  When I first heard this I was thinking here we go again, time to throw out all of my recently purchased cables and buy something else from Apple at an expensive price.  The good news is that they finally did something right and the new charging port is USB-C which is the standard for other devices and not something that is proprietary to Apple.  This port is widely used in other smartphones, computers, gaming systems, tablets, cameras, and headphones.  So, you may already have some of these cables lying around your home or office.  Just think if you misplace your cable now you can just grab a cord from your laptop or one of gaming systems and not have to hassle with looking for the correct cable.  The change made by Apple was partly caused by a European Union mandate that requires all mobile devices to switch over to USB-C by late 2024.  The reason this standardization was put in place is so that people do not need to continue to purchase different cables for all of their devices.  It’s a little too early to tell but who knows Apple may end up getting rid of the USB-C port in the future and go to wireless charging.  They already removed the headphone port when they released the iPhone 7 to make it even slimmer than previous versions.  If you are thinking of upgrading to the new iPhone 15 here are a few other new features to research.

  • New Titanium Design
  • 48 Megapixel Camera
  • 120Hz Display
  • New Active Button
  • More Repairable Design
  • Improved Imaging Software
  • Brighter Display

If you are looking to purchase new smartphones or devices for your company and would like help researching available options, feel free to contact SafeSourcing.   We can gather all the necessary information for you and help you decide which one meets 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

Category Development Index (CDI)

Monday, September 11th, 2023

 

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

How do you follow the trend in the categories that you source? If you only source them once a year or less frequently, does it make sense to talk to a partner that sources them globally dozens of times a year like SafeSourcing?

A Category Development Index, or CDI, is a trend analysis that indicates the turnover of sales of a given productcategory in a specific area. The CDI can give vital data for marketers to allocate advertising to specific areas maximizing product category knowledge and profit. The category Development Index is often used in conjunction with the Brand Development Index or BDI.

SafeSourcing is an eprocurement company that operates across multiple industries. As such we have specific experience in almost any commodity, service or capital related spend. Our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database provides access to suppliers across multiple categories in order to support single or multiple source opportunities both near shore and offshore. To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

 

Happy Labor Day Weekend 2023

Friday, September 1st, 2023

 

Todays post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

Do you know how many products are affected by the price of corn?

Here are an easy bakers dozen of the more than hundreds for you to ponder. How do they affect your purchasing? Many of you probably have no idea! The good news is that SafeSourcing can help.

1. Alternative medicine
2. Chemicals
3. Bio-fuel
4. Food
5. Feed
6. Sweeteners
7. Starch
8. Beverage Alcohol
9. Plastics
10. Fabrics
11. Adhesives
12. Fish Bait
13. Herbal Supplements

If you’d like to understand how SafeSourcing takes into account this type of commodity information when sourcing your products, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services account manager.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Are you sourcing a new category or cannot find a specification for a current category?

Monday, August 21st, 2023

 

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

Often when speaking with customers and prospects I am asked why SafeSourcing can reduce their current pricing as dramatically as we do.  My fist response to ask how often they source the category. The answers range from annually to every few years or longer. From there I ask them how they keep track of industry changes and evolution. This normally draws a blank look. My answer to them is that categories that they source even annually are evolving every day. Just think about waste removal the transition to a circular economy. What you might source for service today may not be the same as what is available six months from now, and at what cost SafeSourcing may source those categories dozens of times in a year and all of those changes are kept in our The SafeSourceIt™ Event Templates Library and are up to date to the present day. Often these templates are more complete than data the customers have on file.

Our SafeSourceIt™ Event Templates Library is available to customers of SafeSourcing Inc. This library is designed to shorten the process of procuring a variety of not for resale and for resale products by making SafeSourcing’ s best practices tools available to our customers to shorten the amount of work one must do to prepare for quality e-procurement events. For more information or a demonstration of this tool please contact marketing@safesourcing.com.

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.

 

Logistics Category Managers and Buyers. There are savings available out there today.

Thursday, August 10th, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

How is your transportation and logistics category performing during these challenging times? Hopefully not like the above image. This area of your business requires very careful planning and a very clean product and services specifications. SafeSourcing keeps this type of clean information on file for you in our SafeSourceIt™ products and services templates library.

Here are some logistics and transportation categories that we have sourced that have been achieving decent results during the last six months.

  1. Fleet Repair and Maintenance
  2. Trailer Dollies
  3. Tractor Rentals/Purchases
  4. Fuel Carriers
  5. Tractor Leases
  6. Class Eight Truck Tires
  7. Sprinters
  8. Temporary Labor Drivers
  9. Managed Fleet Services
  10. Pallet Programs
  11. Truck Wash Programs
  12. Freight Lines/Shipping Lanes
  13. Yard Tractors
  14. Fleet Titling and Registrations Services
  15. Truck Decaling
  16. Refrigerated Freight
  17. Truck Batteries
  18. Shipping Supplies
  19. 18-Wheeler or Semi-Truck Tires
  20. Roadside Service
  21. Transportation Lanes

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.

The Crime of disconnected procurement organizations.

Tuesday, August 8th, 2023

 

 

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.