Today’s re-post with a twist is written by Ivy Ray, Senior Procurement Specialist at SafeSourcing Inc.

Most people are familiar with the phrase, “He who has the gold, or BITCOIN today makes the rules”, believed to be coined by the writers of the comic strip “The Wizard of Id” originally published in “The Dallas Morning News” in 1964 and later became syndicated. The phrase has been commonly used in reference to oil, one of our most lucrative resources. Currently the oil of the digital era is data. Data rules the world and technology is changing our economies, societies and daily lives.

Our personal data is constantly being collected by retailers and service providers that we utilize every day. Initially this practice was designed as an effort to discover the customers’ likes, dislikes, preferences, needs, and goals and then use that information to shift gears to better meet their needs in the future. Also this assists the supplier in retaining customers by creating incentives for repeat purchases. Our data is valuable and we give it freely in exchange for access, or for discount offers and select promotions.

In some cases, it simply gets taken from us by use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) software such as Facial Recognition Systems and Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA). Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google Assistant are at the forefront, so it’s no surprise that the current giants that “deal in data”, are Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft. They are the five most valuable listed firms in the world. Amazon has been systematically collecting data from its customers since its inception as a book reseller in the mid ‘90s and now runs a cloud service and it’s the most powerful cloud service in North America. The global intelligent virtual assistants market size is expected to reach USD 25.63 billion by 2025.

Information from marketing campaigns, customer service inquiries, and purchase histories are encoded and used to run predictive analytics, and projections. The data utilized must be based on complete and correct data. If the data is not complete and correct then projections will have limited value. We all create and utilize data daily. Creating quality data the first time saves time and money in the long run.

Although data is an essential tool, it is only as valuable as its quality. Remember the garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) concept, the quality of output is determined by the quality of the input. As Albert Einstein once said, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you in exploring your procurement solutions for your business efforts, or 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.

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

We all know how social media has impacted our social lives, but how is it affecting other areas of your life?

As many other people do when we get a little bit of down time, I sometimes scroll through the popular social media sites for a little bit of a distraction and entertainment. Something I have recently noticed, though, is the shifting content within those platforms. It shouldn’t surprise me to learn how much money is being spent on marketing and advertising on the platforms I go to reconnect with friends, yet I am still surprised at the trends. It seems that more and more content rarely makes its way to me, yet I see advertisement after advertisement for things deemed to be in my interest based on algorithms and history. In fact, it often makes me less inclined to use those platforms because I get tired of the endless advertising.

Just like television, newspapers, and magazines, marketing seems to have taken up permanent residence in all the electronic and digital platforms, but this time likely at a price I suspect might be no small number. So how do you get your company or organization out there and get some recognition and potential new business? For many organizations, they simply cannot compete with larger companies and cannot foot the bill for the type of social media advertising that really makes an impact.

This is how working with a procurement partner can help. Whether you are selling goods or buying goods, a procurement partner, like SafeSourcing, can help connect you with other organizations that are also looking to buy or sell goods or services. A partner like this can help connect you using RFQ tools that provide the right companies, products, and services together for everyone’s gain.

Contacting a procurement partner could be the right way to go if you have found that the high cost of advertising and declining overall opinion of those platforms are not the way your organization would like to go.

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 Troy Lowe; Vice President of Development at SafeSourcing.

A few years back I wrote a BLOG about smart thermostats.  In this Blog I wanted to touch base on something that you can do to make your house even more comfortable if you have a smart thermostat or are thinking of purchasing one.  A friend of mine told me about these add on sensors that you can purchase for some smart thermostats that allows you to help control the temperatures in other rooms of the house that may be warmer, or cooler based on their location.  Using these sensors, you can let your thermostat know which room or rooms should be at a certain temperature at certain times of the day.  All you have to do is place the sensor in the desired room either by hanging it on the wall or placing it on a shelf or table.  You can have multiple sensors throughout the house and prioritize each sensor using the app.  For example, if you work from home and your home office is too hot or cold during the day you can set the temperature and time for that sensor and the thermostat located elsewhere will use that sensor and make the temperature in that room the temperature that you programmed.  You can then have another sensor in your bedroom and program that sensor for a certain temperature at night and the thermostat will adjust so that the temperature in that room is set at the programmed temperature for comfortable sleeping.  And like I stated in the last BLOG, using a smart thermostat and these sensors can save you approximately 20% on your heating and cooling.  Below are some other benefits of a using smart thermostat.

Benefits of a Smart Thermostat

• Save a lot of Money.
• Reduce Energy Use which saves more money.
• Control Remotely
• Displays Energy Consumption in Real Time

At SafeSourcing, we can gather all the necessary information for you and help you decide what thermostat fits you or  or our businesses  needs as well as any other area of your energy costs.

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 t

Todays post is from Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing.

I am very proud of the results of a recent internal survey that identified 80 intangibles that our employees and management believe SafeSourcing brings to our customers. Here are ten that have a great impact on our customers.

1. SafeSourcing’s staff is passionate about Saving Companies money.
2. SafeSourcing is willing to develop new solutions or strategies to meet our client’s needs.
3. SafeSourcing’s staff is willing to put in the extra effort needed to meet our client’s timelines.
4. SafeSourcing’s employees bring extreme category knowledge to all events they execute.
5. SafeSourcing develops and provides detailed custom reporting on complex events.
6. SafeSourcing works to keep our costs low so we can offer an extremely competitive pricing.
7. SafeSourcing’s white glove customer service is second to none.
8. SafeSourcing’s leadership team truly cares about the wellbeing of their employees.
9. SafeSourcing truly cares about sourcing safe products and services.
10. SafeSourcing is committed to continuous improvement and desires to lead our industry.

If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help you improve your sourcing results,  or to learn more about our risk free trial, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Services representative.

We have an entire team anxious to assist you.

The Land of the FREE and the home of the BRAVE! We should never ever take it for granted.

We hope you all enjoy your extended holiday weekend. The best to our customers, suppliers and you and your families!

Today’s repost is still relevant from Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

So many companies in so many industries are struggling with their supply chain today. Most of the blame is on the Pandemic, supposed government assistance and other calamities such as weather and wildfires. All of these have had an impact that has resulted in poor labor pools and shrinking commodity availability. This has resulted in a historic increase in the Consumer Price Index that looks like it will not slow anytime soon.

The Consumer Price Index CPI in the United States is expected to be 273.16 points by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts’ expectations. In the long-term, the United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) is projected to trend around 281.24 points in 2022 and 286.59 points in 2023, according to our econometric models. That’s a further 5% increase from where we sit today. So, guess what, your prices for products and services are not going down any time soon. To believe that they are is folly. Waiting for them to or for the markets to stabilize is just not a sound procurement strategy.

However, that is just what many companies are doing. There is a hunker down philosophy until we get this figured out. To me, that is a cop out strategy that supports doing less with less. Less employees, so let’s source less stuff. Let’s stick with current vendors even though they are raising prices almost daily and based on the above numbers will continue to into the foreseeable future.

What’s the answer? It’s pretty simple actually. Augment your staff with companies that have the tools and the knowledge to mitigate your workload and improve your costs and service. Companies like SafeSourcing. Just today I watched a company use our resources to source sanitary wipes. Eleven (11) suppliers participated in the bid. The low supplier offered a cost reduction of 21% on all items. More surprisingly the total of all low quotes would reduce costs by a staggering 36% offering some additional negotiation prior to award. This is in an up market. We see these types of results regularly. Because of our SafeSourceIt™ Supplier Database, we know where the suppliers are that can offer you the  best pricing and best service levels that support your needs. Because we run categories dozens of times in a year, we may well understand current issues in the marketplace better than you do.

So, if you want to keep paying higher and higher prices and charging your customers more and maybe losing some, keep doing things the same way. If you really would like to lower your costs in a historically up market, contact SafeSourcing  because we can help.

Resources

Trading Economics

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.