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

As I continually try to enhance my education in general and in particularly in the procurement space, I came across and article on Procurement Tactics at procurementtactics.com titled 11 Procurement Trends for 2023 According to the Experts. I would suggest that it is worth a quick read that really hi-lites well the importance of the procurement area within all organizations today.

I certainly can’t argue with any of these areas. However the one area I would call out and that I believe is missing in many organizations is overt cost savings. While it may be implied that that is the role of all procurement organizations on behalf of their company, it should be specifically called out with specifics like target savings over a specific timeframe with a stated impact on margin and earnings that is measurable and how you plan to do it and by when.

When you read the article, there is a small blurb about each one of these topics that I don’t have room to list here. Just add OVERT COST SAVINGS with the information from above. You can contact me if you’d like help with that area of focus as well as any of those below.

1. Sustainability
2. Supplier safety stocking
3. Relationship building
4. Governments involved.
5. Empathy in negotiation
6. The CPO
7. Circular supply chains
8. Trade security
9. Integration of AI
10. Online security
11. Time for training

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.

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

I was reading a post on LinkedIn by Amintore Confalonieriv titled The Famous 7 Steps of Strategic Sourcing that caused me to reflect on a section of our customer prestation that we have used in sales and kickoff meetings for fifteen years when discussing how we take a category to market that compares favorably with Amintore’ s Seven Steps of Strategic Sourcing.  I didn’t know they were famous, but they do align pretty well. I think you’ll enjoy the read. They are as follows.

Below are the Famous Seven Steps

1. X Ray Phase | Fully understand the spend category.
2. Supply Market Analysis
3. Develop the Sourcing Strategy
4. Start Sourcing Process
5. Negotiation and Selection
6. Communicate & Implement
7. Benchmarking

And here are the seven steps that SafeSourcing uses. Pretty similar, I think. So, are we famous? I certainly hope so. If you are looking at your own process in Strategic sourcing or even tactical spot buys, I would read the Amintore’ s post. You could also call us at SafeSourcing for a more detailed explanation of our now famous steps.

1. Analysis
2. Value Assessment
3. Strategy Development
4. Event Setup
5. Source Participants
6. Event Execution
7. Reporting/Analysis

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.

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

Oftentimes, people stick with the same services, even if they know they cost just a little bit more. In normal circumstances, this is certainly a smart thing to do. Many times, cost you know is better than the one you don’t. But, when it comes time to cut costs, it would be nice if your service could bring its price down just a little bit. E-procurement is fine way to not only test the market to see if your brand really holds up to the market standard, or if it’s time to move on to greener pastures.

Even if your preferred service isn’t necessarily the best price on the market, quality service is a perfectly valid reason to keep your incumbent supplier on the books. RFQs frequently don’t see the lowest price receive your business, instead, a reasonable price with outstanding service swoops in and wins the bid. Your goal might not even be to find a new supplier in the first place. Sometimes, just putting the pressure on your incumbent supplier is enough to state that cost cutting is now becoming a serious factor.

Brand loyalty can be a powerful factor in decision making, and on the surface, e-procurement can sound like a way of upsetting your current suppliers. But by reaching out and giving your suppliers a fair chance, you can challenge them for a better cost without cutting them out completely with a sudden influx of new quotes you want them to match. A little bit of transparency can go a long way!

To help you find the source of your rising costs, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.

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

If you did not know the first day of spring is coming upon us.  Sure we still have a few weeks of winter to go but spring is about a month away.  After this winter season of cold and strange weather our vehicles need a little extra care to clean away the winter grime caused by the snow, ice and salt.  We all know that we need the salt to help us make our commutes safer when winter storms occur but the salt is not good for our vehicles and can cause damage over time.  The salt used on the roads and parking lots can create chemical reactions that can corrode you vehicle especially if there is any exposed metal.  Two common parts of the vehicle that can corrode from the exposure are the fuel and break lines.  These are usually more susceptible because they are close to the undercarriage of the vehicle and take most of the impact of the salt damage.  To keep the damage to a minimum you should wash your vehicles throughout the winter to help remove any of the residues that may exist between storms.  And when spring does arrive soon you should find a reputable company that can do a thorough exterior detailing job.  These companies usually have equipment that can wash your vehicles more thoroughly and get hard to reach areas such as the undercarriage where most of the damage can occur.  Besides a thorough exterior cleaning, here are some other vehicle maintenances you should consider this spring.

• Remove and Wash Floor Mats
• Have Oil and Oil Filter Changed
• Have your Battery Tested
• Check Tire Pressure and Tread
• Replace Wiper Blades and Top off Wiper Fluid
• Check all Fluid Levels
• Inspect Hoses and Belts
• Thoroughly Clean Lights and Replace Bulbs if Necessary.
• Have Your Brakes Inspected

If you need help finding a licensed maintenance company to maintain your vehicles, 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

Todays re-post is from our SafeSourcing Inc. Archives

In to many cases, for many companies the answer to the question above is who knows on both sides of the relationship. And unfortunately this will not change for many companies.

Historically the primary driver associated with the use of reverse auctions and other related e-RFX tools has been to reduce the cost of goods and services and reduce expense in large part, if a retail company saved money it was deemed to be a successful process for the retailer as well as the awarded vendor. What about the other suppliers? What makes it a positive for them?

Supply base management or the attempt at it is the newest focus area of many strategic sourcing suites. Many vendors do not offer this functionality today; in fact some have trouble describing what it is when asked. Although elements of this functionality exist within a variety of surround type service offerings, no one vendor offers complete functionality in this area today even though they may think they do. A significant reason for this is suppliers concern with the thought of being managed at all because it means giving up perceived control. Additionally, retailers, suppliers nor vendors have agreed as to what the correct Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) should be or how to collect the data that would allow you to manage them. As these types of tools are developed, the most successful supply base management tools will be those that can manage the largest supplier database to the continual benefit of both retailers and suppliers that participate and compete for their business

This author believes that the most probable result of this process will be a set of automated robust supplier scorecards that monitor and report on supplier performance versus a range of KPI’S that are applied against well-known quality guidelines resulting in a continuous improvement procurement methodology.

If you’d like to know how SafeSourcing can help improve and measure improvement in your e-RFX process please contact us!

As always, we look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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

Prices are going up and have been for some time. Supply shortages and no shortage of demand have triggered companies to increase prices to cover their costs. While this is inflation hits every one of us, there are some things to keep in mind. Prices always fluctuate and will eventually level. Just like the say, what goes up must come down.

In all reality, prices can go up and stay up for a long time, but eventually they will hit a point where the price is too high and demand will dwindle, spurring that eventual price drop. While some things may have a high price all the time, like gold or diamonds, the prices there can fluctuate a great deal. This is when having an agreement in place can help your organization maintain a steady supply and a steady price.

A procurement partner, like SafeSourcing, can help you find the goods or services you need and help find the right supplier that can offer a competitive price and the stability that lets you carry on without concern over the day-to-day price changes. While we may not be able to control the price of gold or diamonds, we can help you source just about anything your organization needs at a competitive price and the reliability of a vendor you trust.

While this tactic may not work for every item, the general idea is the same – that there are ways to overcome shortages or at least make effective use of the time until the shortage is back in stock. SafeSourcing is a procurement partner that can help you find products that you already buy or even ones you have never bought.

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 is by Dave Wenig is the Senior Vice President of Sales and Services at SafeSourcing Inc

Cardi B, the Grammy Award winning rapper has been getting a lot of attention over the last few days for an unexpected reason. That reason? Lettuce prices.

The rapper posted a series of posts to Twitter over the past several days highlighting her concerns about food prices and inflation. Notably, she had some choice words to say about the price of lettuce including a one-minute video in which she shares her worry for working class families. Fair warning, if you head over to Twitter to watch the video, you might want to wear headphones.

Of course, her observations about the costs of these goods are correct. At SafeSourcing, and even in this blog, we track and share our perspective as well. While the reasons for the price increases vary from legitimate to false, we all need to do our part to help manage the burden of rising prices.

For Cardi B, she can use her platform to draw national attention to the concern. The video I mentioned earlier has about 5.5 million views as I write this blog.

For SafeSourcing, we continue to collaborate with our clients via their procurement teams of category managers and other professionals to work to keep costs in line and fight back to reduce costs using innovative technologies and processes.

Join the fight against price increases with us. Follow our blog for more information, follow us on LinkedIn, and contact me to join us if you are a buyer and you are as fed up with the cost of lettuce as us and Cardi B.

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

Twas the day after Christmas

When all through the land

People were still smiling and happy

Because their holiday had gone just as planned

With malls to be visited and unwanted gifts to return

And exercise to be done and all those extra calories to burn

Most offices are still quiet as their staff s celebrate

While others rush to close out their years business before it’s too late

There’s a new year  coming full of lots of new stuff

We all hope with this congress life doesn’t get any more tough

For businesses public and private and individuals too

Who would all rather focus on what’s exciting and new

Like jobs and raises and a positive end of year review

So on Trump and Pelosi with congress hopefully in tow

Let’s get back to Washington

And end this year with some glow.

Happy Holidays from Safesourcing

If you can indentify these folks below, We hope they grant you and yours all of your wishes.