Archive for March, 2023

Viewing our Industries Up stream and Down Stream and around the world.

Monday, March 27th, 2023

 

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

When I travel whether it is for business or pleasure, I have always checked in on customers and suppliers to watch them in action and to learn.

As an example, for 20 years, I drove across the country at least twice per year. If you own a #c-store and it’s on the highway or off an exit in a large or small town, I have been in it. I have an impression of the operation that includes your associates, cleanliness, service levels, rest room quality and quality of service. I can also tell you if you were open on the four corners of an intersection, who might do the best in attracting business.

I am currently in Europe and have watched with amazement how our supply chain works and how companies use the various modalities. Even with all of the technology available today it is still surprising just how important the people are. I watch a barge get loaded today via chain gang where forklifts, dollies etc. would not really work. This included the boat captain including a chef and the driver of the truck as well as a dozen others. It was a get it done and done right attitude that I still applaud, and we don’t talk enough about, our people. How we hire them, train them, and use them is so important.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

Knowing Who Your Suppliers Are – Onsite Visits – Part II of II

Friday, March 24th, 2023

 

Yesterday we posted  about the importance of onsite visits with your suppliers, how to prepare, what to look for, and the value of performing these visits.  This week we will be taking a look at some of the additional things that you need to think about when visiting a supplier in another country.

Visits to international sites will need to encompass the same types of information gathering as a domestic one such as reviewing the cleanliness of the facilities, observing production, logistic and storage processes, but there 3 important areas that must be considered in addition to these that may determine the success or failure of the visit.

Language – Assuming you are visiting a supplier that is not located in a predominantly English-speaking country, the capability to communicate onsite is an important one that should be addressed well in advance of the visit.  Many times the supplier will have staff that is fluent in more than language and can act as an interpreter, however procuring your own interpreter is also a suggestion and possibility. Also, some basic considerations of your own communication style would be to speak more slowly than usual and pause in between sentences to be understood more easily.

Culture – This is an important area to prepare for because in some countries seemingly minor things can create a tense atmosphere.  Determining whether to bow and the details surrounding when and how, if the country shakes hands when they greet and which hand they shake with are all important items in some countries and should be learned prior to your visit.  On the other hand, it is equally important to note the things that are normally unaccepted behaviors in the U.S. which many times are not viewed the same way in other countries.  Americans would generally never answer a phone call in a meeting or show up to an appointment late, but in other countries these behaviors are far less important and frequently occur during the course of doing business.

Capturing the details – Visits to international suppliers generally come with a price tag that is not insignificant to your company, so capturing as much data as possible is important on these visits.  Wherever you go during your visit take a notepad and camera with you to record what you see and hear while on the visit.  Many manufacturers will allow you to take occasional pictures as long as you ask in advance and have it cleared.  Some may not allow it and others may allow it as long as no employees are included in the pictures.  Capturing these details will be very useful to you and your team in the future and can potentially save trips for other employees in the future.

Onsite visits to your suppliers are incredibly valuable and important to your organization and are a terrific tool for knowing who your suppliers are and how they do business.  They are also important forums to gather details necessary for later contract negotiations.

If you are interested in locating potential new sources of supply, please contact SafeSourcing.  The SafeSourceIt™ Supplier Database contains 457,000 globally.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Customer Service Expectations

Tuesday, March 21st, 2023

 

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

As a consumer, it was understandable that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to adjust our expectations. There were legitimate challenges that companies had to find a way to navigate through before we could even hope to get back to normal.

Now, there have been such drastic changes in the expectations of consumers that it is easy to wonder if we will ever see services return to their previous levels.

One example I have found is call centers. After years of being told by a recording to expect a longer than usual wait due to COVID, the messages are gone and the longer wait times have stayed. It is not uncommon to have to wait hours for a representative if you need live support for some services like for travel. We have recently waited hours online just to talk to someone in a chat window for a specific service provided by a resort because the resort is pushing everyone to register online rather than in person. This was for their benefit but was very costly for us.

Another example is while shopping. Companies continue to move toward a kiosk approach to checkout and ordering, such as for quick service food. I recently went to a large national retailer and decided to also grab some lunch. I tried to pay cash at the register, but the employee was the only one in that area and pointed me to a kiosk to order. The kiosk does not accept cash. I asked if it were possible to pay cash and was told it would be “a while.”

I wonder if or when we will ever get back to pre-pandemic service levels. I believe we will not until the companies find an external force that makes them adjust. The reality is that over the past years, these service providers have adjusted their staffing models to run with less resources and found that consumers continue to pay. Beyond that, consumers are paying more for these reduced services and longer waits. If that trend continues, expect the services to maintain their current levels at best.

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

 

 

 

Words of Advice

Monday, March 20th, 2023

 

Words of Advice

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

Like many others, I sometimes read for enjoyment or inspiration. Recently I read some words that struck me as not just wise words for myself, but something many more people can relate to. This particular bit of advice came from Warren Buffet, and when reading about extraordinarily successful people, I take into account that they may be coming from an entirely different outlook or situation than my own. This tends to warrant those wise words to be taken with a grain of salt or at may not be entirely applicable to many of our lives. This advice however, hit home. It read, “Choose a direction and make sure you surround yourself with the right people who have the strengths you lack.”

To me, this advice can apply both personally as well as professionally. In my personal life, we surround ourselves with those we care about and play to each other’s strengths. For instance, I if I am having car trouble I may reach out to one friend, or if I am looking for help solving a problem, I may reach out for someone else’s advice.

This also applies to business life, perhaps more so than personal life. This directly correlates to the team you work with within your organization. We rely on each other for strengths and use those skills to improve the organization as a whole. This benefits everyone in the company by improving productivity and morale, and help ease the burden of difficult situations.

In addition to using this advice within your organization, you can use this advice when searching for partners to your business, such as a procurement partner like SafeSourcing. You are able to use those skills as needed for the projects and sourcing you need assistance with and know that the right skills and people are there to help. In fact, SafeSourcing is so sure we can help your team with their procurement efforts, we even offer it on a risk-free trial.

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.

Are you waiting longer for a replacement debit or credit card?

Friday, March 17th, 2023

 

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

My daughter recently misplaced her debit card and had to contact the bank to send her a new one.  This is something that occurs now and then and when it happens it usually takes seven to ten business days to receive a new one in the mail.  Well, it’s been past that time period now so I went online and discovered that the ongoing chip shortages are affecting the cards as well and it can now take almost two months to receive a new card when it is requested from the bank.  From some of the articles that I read this longer delay could be the case though the end of the year.  What I didn’t know was the banking industry is in competition with the auto manufacturing industry because they use the same kind of technology for their chips.  This competition has created a higher demand for the chips and is causing the longer delays we are seeing from the banks.  The chips were added to the cards a few years ago to ensure more security when used in the card readers.  The chip cards contain a gold or silver microchip that is embedded in the front of the credit or debit cards.  Just like the magnetic strip that is located on the back of the card, the microchip contains the account information about the account that is connected to the card.  When the card is inserted into the chip reader like at a local store or gas station the customer’s information is read from the chip and if the account balance is available the transaction is approved.  If it does not then the transaction is denied, and the purchase does not go through.  This chip makes it harder for people to skim your card for account information because the information has an extra layer of encrypted security that does not exist within the magnetic strip.  When the chip is used it generates a unique code for each transaction made.  This code is generated using complex algorithms which makes it difficult to replicate and makes it almost impossible for someone to create a fake chip card.  So when making your future purchases if you have a choice between swiping and inserting the chip, insert the chip for a more secure transaction.

If you need help with any of your security needs, 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.

 

How functional is your procurement team?

Wednesday, March 15th, 2023

 

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

I was reading an article by Kearney titled The future of procurement, with a subtitle of Where procurement is going and how it will get there. It’s a great short read. One quote that caught my attention was credited to an Enterprise leader who said, “Our procurement process is complicated, unclear and slow”. “All it does is create frustration and the illusion of control”. WOW. Whoever said this should be proud of themself because there is mor of this out there than there are exceptional procurement teams.

Sometimes we just try to do too much. We invest in enterprise software without a real awareness of what that means. Are you staffed to use all of the feature functionality? Does someone need to be trained? Has someone else taken over their old role? If you don’t think these issues through, you may just default to old practices with a new tool.  If you bought a sourcing solution, did you also buy a supplier database or are you just using your AP file of the vendors that you already do business with.  Maybe it’s time to look at a company that can do most of the work for you so that you are in the decision mode instead of the doing the work mode. Just a thought.

The article is pretty good so enjoy a quick read. The future of procurement,

If you’d really like to avoid frustration and 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.

 

Procurement Trends and Thought for 2023.

Friday, March 10th, 2023

 

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.

It seems there are Famous Steps to Strategic Sourcing

Thursday, March 9th, 2023

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this current period of massive Layoffs. What’s more important to you as a leader?

Wednesday, March 8th, 2023

 

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

This sounds like a tough question, but it shouldn’t have to be. I have waxed for years that the first thing most new executive suite leaders do when they get that new job, is study the existing business and propose changes. They have to do this because ownership and or the board are watching. Generally, any plan they provide includes heavy headcount adjustments. Why, because it is the single biggest expense on the P&L. Cut headcount by 10% and if the business is not poorly managed, the dollars should drop to the bottom line pretty quickly and you are now the new wunderkind. Too bad you were not more creative and more interested in your employees than to look at them as money. You’ll probably also get a nice bonus while they get the breadline.

Another thing learned in management school is to be able to define your job in terms of your passion in an easy-to-understand elevator type statement. That being something that you can recite in the short elevator ride between less than a few floors.

When I am asked what we do at SafeSourcing, my response is that “we are passionate about assisting our customers in reducing all costs, that result in improved Gross Margin and Earnings in the current period, to support growth and sustain and grow associate headcount”. Anyone that understands accounting should understand how that statement can apply to any business.

It’s always an easy decision to restructure and go after headcount, it’s more difficult to look at the bowels of your business and realize there are other maybe better ways. That’s my passion. Why not join me and see if we can accomplish this for your company.

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.

 

Why should suppliers want to participate in eRFX events?

Tuesday, March 7th, 2023

 

Today’s re-post is by Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing.

Quite often when speaking with new suppliers in order to invite them to participate in an eRFX event like a reverse auction or an on line request for information or proposal the question comes up; “What’s in it for me”? This is almost never the case for suppliers that have been involved in the practice before.

Supplier benefits may include but are not limited to the following:

1.  Suppliers can accurately represent their company and its capabilities to a buyer or group of buyers.
2.  Suppliers benefit from reduced cost of new business acquisition.
3.  Suppliers are exposed to more opportunities for new business.
4.  eRFX events bring more potential business partnerships directly to the supplier’s door
5.  eRFX events are transparent and all requirements are clearly defined
6.  Suppliers can have access and compare their offering to the best pricing during the auction, which helps suppliers position themselves correctly in the marketplace
7.  All of the buyers terms and conditions, product specifications, and other pertinent information is clear and concise which allows for accurate quoting
8.  Suppliers are introduced to tools they can use in their businesses in order to compress their pricing.
9.  Suppliers can instantly submit and modify their bids electronically rather than submitting paper bids, providing a faster, more efficient purchasing process.
10.  Suppliers can upload pertinent CRM data that they would like the host company to consider.

The next time an customer sourcing company like SafeSourcing calls you on behalf of their host company requesting your participation in an eRFX events, ask to be added to their database and what you have to do to be invited to all events in the future.

If you’d like to learn more about the SafeSourceIt™ Global Suppler Database, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Services Account Manager!

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.