Today’s post is from Patrick Quinn is a Procurement Specialist at SafeSourcing Inc.

It is no secret that the illusion of choice exists in every industry. Most brands you find at the store are owned by only a few companies, and the same problem exists for almost every manufactured product that we see in our homes. This observation can be quantified when you look at the total number of listings on stock exchanges from year to year. In the mid-1990’s, over 8,000 companies were publicly traded on the NYSE and Nasdaq. Because of the 2008 recession that number dropped to around 3,600, and as of Q1 of 2022 6,296 companies were on the two markets. But the growth has slowed down over the last several years. In 2018, 5343 companies were traded, so where has the growth gone?

Instead of going to market for capital, growing companies are acquired and become a brand under a larger firm. More and more industries have been heading this direction and the parent companies can control prices further and further. This can make comparison shopping incredibly difficult, as the more brands and names appear, the fewer options there actually are.

But, instead of letting the same big firms share the space in your market and control each and every price over and over, there is another option. Tip the space between the firms towards each other make them compete directly for your business. An eRFQ forces these firms to acknowledge each other’s existence as competition, if even for a moment. The results can be quite fascinating to see, and beneficial for your bottom line.

To help you pit the big guys against each other, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.

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

With an ever-changing market, shortages of goods and supplies will happen from time to time. Many of us have seen it happen before, but typically when there is a large-scale shortage, production gets ramped, and the shortage is short lived. Since Covid, however, we have seen a number of items across numerous industries become scarce. While some items are beginning to increase production, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has put a lot of other necessary goods out of production. This not only makes that particular good harder to find (if at all even possible) but may even have larger impacts on goods that might need that particular product.

For instance, much fuel globally comes from Russia and the war currently happening has halted supplies and caused prices to increase for everyone everywhere. While we are thankful we are not in the war zone and have deep sadness for those that are, the effects are felt everywhere. In fact, with fewer amounts of fuel comes increased interest and demand for electronic and other battery-operated vehicles and machines. This has also caused a shortage of those as well, making the cost of buying any electronic vehicle much higher, if at all possible.

With the global economy where it stands and the shortages felt across nearly every product and service, from housing and cars to foods and chemicals, the importance of using what resources we cannot be stressed enough. For instance, we may need to look closer to home for many things we seek to buy. If you want honey, you may have the best luck contacting your local honey farm, which will likely be at a higher price, but ultimately is a way to obtain what you need. A procurement partner like SafeSourcing can help your organization navigate different markets and help to source the products or services you need.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help your organization or on our Risk Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

Performance Bonds

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

Do you use performance bonds on your store construction contracts? Should you? So, what are performance bonds and how do they work?

A performance bond is given as a guarantee to clients by specialist insurers or banks on behalf of contractors and at their expense. The performance bond would bind the insurers to compensate clients (up to the amount of the bond obtained) in the event of a default by a contractor. For example, a building contractor may issue a bond to a client for the building which the contractor is building. If the contractor does not fulfill the contract per specifications, the client is protected to a guaranteed compensation.

If you’d like to learn more about how SafeSourcing can assist in properly analyzing the total cost of your construction projects including general contractor section, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

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

For businesses, this may not be the way to get your best price.

While SafeSourcing is not an exchange per se, our services are horizontal in that we offer the same SaaS based white glove eProcurement services to customers in multiple industries such as Retail (all verticals), health care, distribution, sports and education to name a few. It is surprising how many industries can source the same products and services and try to do it in so many ways, often to lacking results.

The Horizontal exchange is an e-marketplace that facilitates transactions for goods and services across several industries. A horizontal e-marketplace connects buyers and sellers across different industries or regions. A horizontal e-marketplace can be used to purchase indirect products such as office equipment or stationery.  Horizontal exchanges focus on leveraging expertise in a particular business process across number of industries. Service industries lend themselves well to a horizontal exchange. The most active horizontal exchanges today are competing in the realm of e-procurement.

If you are using a horizontal exchange,  and you’d like to learn more about how SafeSourcing can source your products and services for less, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3740530

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

Does your company include advertising allowances in your product costs?

An advertising allowances is a fund allocated by the provider to be paid to a merchant for the purpose of advertising a specific product or brand. The advertising allowances could be in the form of either a discount from the wholesale price of a product or a reimbursement to the merchant for advertising costs which have already incurred.

Let’s face it, when sourcing your for resale products, having all costs associated with that product make life much easier for your procurement department or your third-party SaaS partner like SafeSourcing Inc.

Finding out that you have an advertising allowance after you have sourced something creates huge issues. Let’s say that your current vendor embeds those discounts in the up-front product cost and not as a payment at the end of the quarter or year. While it may be a net-net benefit, it is accounted for differently. Management may be looking for that payment only to find out it is now included in your current cost. Oops!

At SafeSourcing we have a list of questions that are part of our white glove services that we ask and document the answers to that allows us to uncover everything that is included in your current contract language and where there are potential surprises in your P&L.

If you’d like to learn more about how SafeSourcing can assist in properly analyzing the total cost of your  annual purchases, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

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

The Judgmental Forecasting Technique involves the use of opinion, experience, and judgment; and is often used when there is little information about a specific set of circumstances. It is usually defined as that which uses instinct along with other resources to predict what may happen. Executive decisions can be made on the bases of these feelings. It goes beyond purely statistical techniques and encompasses what people believe is going to happen. It is in the realm of intuition, interdepartmental committees, market research, and executive opinion.

I call this seat of your pants forecasting, and it is often what gets companies into trouble and aggravates their customers. Generally, this results from what historically were small business that grew too fast and had not yet acquired technology to support their forecasting. You often hear comments in an environment like this such as I’ve been at this for years, and we know what we are doing? Unfortunately, this practice is still widespread today.

If you’d like to learn more about how SafeSourcing can assist in properly sourcing to support your annual purchases, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

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

Throughout nearly every industry this year and even stemming back the last two years, we have seen prices rise. Much of these cost increases have been attributed to inflation and the rising cost of goods. However, with nearly every good being more expensive, how are companies pulling in record profits? Does the extra money paid at the store works its way up the line through the supply chain and eventually settle somewhere? Based on the profits a few people have made over the last two years, most profits have worked their way up to the top and into the hands of only a select few (Bezos, Musk, etc.).

There are some companies that do not fit that model, thankfully. One such company, Gravity Payments, has been among the few outspoken companies criticizing other companies for lack of pay and wealth distribution. You may recall in 2015, Gravity Payments founder Dan Price decided to forfeit much of his own salary and raised everyone else’s pay up to a minimum of $70k per year. That move put a spotlight on the company and has helped garner positive media attention and associated sales and has also improved employee retention and productivity.

In stark contrast, companies like Amazon who have been forced to pay more for their hourly employees and are currently undermining and fighting unionization attempts, has seem huge corporate profits for the few top people and has gained a vast amount of negative press and is often thought of as a terrible company and workplace. Amazon, when faced with rising costs of employment, however, did not rise to the challenge of cutting CEO pay to pay for workers. It instead raised prices for the consumers. Even Dan Price has said that even if you are giving your employees a 5% raise every year, those employees are ultimately receiving a pay cut due to inflation and the higher costs of goods.

While the costs of labor are rising, companies must work hard to keep up – not only with the rising cost of their own internal labor, but also that of the products and services they use. SafeSourcing can help your organization find the vendors that fit the needs of what you are looking for and help offset rising expenses.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help your organization or on our Risk-Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.