Archive for June, 2013

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Thanks WALL STREET JOURNAL! The best job in the world is that of a Supply Chain Professional!

Friday, June 7th, 2013

Today’s post is from Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing!

I have harped on this subject for years. The other top bloggers in our space have as well. The simple fact is that companies that have their entire procure to pay supply chain in order and modernized will be far more successful today and in the future than companies that don’t.

These companies for the most part have up to date clean and accurate data to act upon. They have that data upon demand and  their entire organization can turn on a dime based on that data when and if they need to. I cannot even begin to tell you the number of categories we have sourced for our business partners from Legal services to Band-Aids in the Retail, Energy, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Healthcare and other industries. We have sourced entire products from commodity to finished good. When individuals  do this type of work, their knowledge base  as to how the world works increases exponentially, the subjects they can discuss are endless and they become  more interesting individuals to interact with and be around.

However, you don’t need to just listen to me, and I almost fell off my chair when I saw this article in today’s issue of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. The article is titled Hot New MBA: Supply Chain Management by Melissa Korn.  The article reviews what many of us have known for a long time. This is an interesting, ever changing, technology driven field that requires our best and brightest. But don’t believe me, read the article.

If you’d like to speak to one of our well informed and interesting associates about your sourcing needs, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services representative.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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You call that “Customer Service”?

Wednesday, June 5th, 2013

Today’s post is from our newest customer services manager Dennis Nicoletti

Today’s post is by Dennis Nicoletti, Manager of Customer Service at SafeSourcing. Dennis wants to know if you’ve ever been told “I am sorry, but there is nothing else I can do.” 

There’s no doubt you’ve been on the receiving end of lousy/bad customer service a time or two. You’ve come to a company with questions only to be told by a monotone voice to press this or click that until you arrive once again to your starting place with no help at all. Or worse, you’ve reached some uncaring CSR (Customer Service Representative) who calls you by name but delivers nothing to address your concerns or answers your question(s) satisfactory.
Back in the day…you were raised with basic good manners and along the way ever joined a service group, like the scouts or 4-H (do you remember?), then you’ve got the groundwork for providing excellent customer service. The foundation you need is one of courtesy, caring and an attitude that lets your customers know that you they matter-and that you care. There are skills and technologies that can help you put it all into practice.

Making the most of every opportunity – Whatever your company does, no matter how you do it, you make a promise to each and every customer that darkens your door. The consumer pays you something, and you promise to provide a product or a service. There are multiple pledges of benefits and quickness. Customer service involves living up to your word on these matters, but it really shines when something goes wrong.

The table has turned – Now you find yourself on other side of the equation. You own a business or you manage a department and you want your customers to be happy, to come back for more products or services, and even more importantly; tell others great things about your company. So what should you do?

Mistakes are opportunities — An unhappy customer will become a loyal consumer if you fix his/her complaint and do it quickly. Eighty percent (80%) of these folks will come back to you if you’ve treated them fairly. That percentage rises even higher if you respond immediately.

Aligned Sales and Service Departments – At SafeSourcing we created the framework for our company to keep sales and service closely tied together. Each department shares in the goal of excellent customer service. Authority to resolve problems is what people need to keep customers happy.

If you’re procurement team is searching for the right company to treat you with great importance while helping you to reduce costs, you need not go any further. We at SafeSourcing are committed to helping our customers and can assist you by explaining our strategies for assisting departments that historically have not wanted outside “help.”  For more information on these strategies or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.  We look forward to your comments. 

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

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Taking a look at IT Field Services

Monday, June 3rd, 2013

Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President and COO at SafeSourcing. Mark asks

There are a number of trends occurring in the support of IT products and processes today, not the least of which are the trends of increasing expansion of business through acquisition and the decreasing number of qualified resources with experience necessary to perform the tasks a company needs.  When you couple these two trends with the trend of employees having shorter and shorter stays working for a company, it is no wonder companies are looking to outsourced IT break fix and managed services to provide a backup to their existing staffs.

In today’s blog we will be looking at a few of the points to keep in mind as you explore this area of managed services for your company; looking at your current landscape, the questions you should be asking about where you want to head as an organization and the methods you can use to evaluate the vendors against your eventual goals.

Current Landscape – As with any project, understanding where you want to go starts with understanding where you came from and more importantly, where you are now.  With acquisitions and growth happening in so many industries it becomes a challenge to support new infrastructures and IT equipment that the existing staff may have no familiarity with.  This is especially true in the retail industry where new acquisitions can mean new Loss Prevention equipment, new scanners, new Point-of-sale equipment and software.  Geographic expansion can also create difficulties as recruiting and managing your own IT resources requires looking at areas the company may have less knowledge.  Outsourced field service companies can be a great addition to assist in bridging the gap of new equipment experience or geographical coverage on either a temporary or permanent basis.

Create the Project – How you know where your company is currently, the next step is to determine how the outsourced supplier will be used by your organization.  In the case of expansion this may be filling geographical needs that your current staff cannot support or it could mean providing a temporary knowledge bridge of unfamiliar equipment until your own staff can be brought up to speed or the equipment can be standardized to something more familiar.  Some of the things that will need to be determined with your organization are:
•   Pricing – Generally there will be a “per incident” or monthly flat fee offering.
•   Flow of support for issues from your employees to the supplier
•   The purpose of the managed provider – Staff augmentation (temporary or permanent) or special projects.
•   The services you will be expecting them to perform.

Evaluate the Suppliers –  Once you have determined your current needs and the plan for how best to fill them it is time to evaluate the suppliers who can help you.  Depending on the level of service you have details for; this may begin as a Request for Information, gathering general information about what each supplier can offer and who they are working with today as well as their preferred pricing model.  If the scope of service is well-determined moving right into a Request for Proposal would be the first step.  Locations, detailed service expectations and equipment count are all important pieces that would be needed for suppliers to provide you with accurate pricing.  Once this has been collected and a Statement of Work and pricing model have been established based on the RFP responses the final stage would be a Request for Quote or Tender, requiring all invited participants to provide pricing in the model you have requested. 

Outsourced Managed Services are becoming commonplace in how we do business and will continue to do business in the future especially for National companies how need services across a large portion or all of the country.  Maintaining your IT equipment is one of the fastest growing managed service industries and can be used affectively once your goals have been established for their use.  For more information on how we can help you evaluate suppliers against these goals or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

We look forward to your comments.

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