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

Well, if you have not heard we have another product that is rising in price and will continue rise into the near future.  This time it has nothing to do with Covid-19 or the rising inflation.  The wholesale price for eggs is reaching historical highs just in time for Easter and Passover.  This rise is being caused by a highly infectious avian flu that has swept across more than half of the country so far.  Because this flu is so highly contagious and deadly to birds, it is forcing farmers across the country to kill millions of the egg laying birds.  So of course, a lack of birds means a lack of eggs which intern causes prices to rise as the shortage of birds continues.  So far, we are seeing the prices of large eggs from the Midwest are approximately three times higher than last year at this time.  The price of the eggs is now reaching around three dollars a dozen and according to researchers this has only happened one other time.  So far, the flu outbreak has been detected in almost thirty states.  According to some experts the price may not go to much higher because retailers will often take a loss on products like eggs to bring in more traffic into their stores.  The good news is that the bird flu is only affecting our pockets for now and should not affect our health.  According to researchers this type of flu is rarely transmitted to humans.  So, we only need to be concerned with rising costs until this passes.

Interested in learning how SafeSourcing can help your company save money during these and other shortages?  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.

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

For too long now, we have been experiencing a seller’s market and many organizations’ buyers have had to suffer through price increase after price increase. At SafeSourcing, we have talked with buyers that have reported continuous price increases every month and year-over-year price increases that add up to paying nearly 100% more from one year to the next for the same products.

The question is then is – when will this situation change?

We are noticing that a change is already taking place. The list of categories below is just a sample of the categories that we have sourced for our customers recently. What is interesting about this sample is that the average savings for the categories listed here is over 33%.

• Windows and Doors – 14% savings
• Labels – 32% savings 
• Towels and Wipes – 64% savings 
• Appliances – 16%
• Cappuccino, Tea, and Hot Chocolate – 27% savings 
• Concrete and Pump Cleaner – 64% savings
• Hot Dogs – 24% reduction
• Cigarette racks – 27% reduction 
• Napkins – 56% reduction plus an increase in quality 
• Refrigeration equipment – 31% reduction 
• Creamer etc. – 20% reduction 
• Waste removal – 24% reduction

 Another signal of a change in the markets is that we have seen an increase in the number of vendor participants in RFQs. That increase directly corresponds to a decrease in the number of vendors that are declining citing challenges such as capacity limitations.

For those that are watching closely, the opportunity to claw back against the recent price increases is right in front of you. For those that listen to your vendors, expect the price increases to continue.

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

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

What concessions go into your dead net pricing?

Dead net pricing is not always an obvious outcome of your suppler negotiations.

Dead net sales income refers to the income that a retailer earns after considering any discounts that they earn from their supplier. Some vendors will provide allowances, trade credits, and other deals, so using the suppliers list price to calculate income requires adjustments for these factors. The retailer adds the effects of these supplier concessions into the cost of goods sold, and it subtracts this net cost from its sales revenue to get dead net sales income.

If you’d like to learn more about how SafeSourcing goes about collecting information relaitive to  dead net pricing, please contact a SafeSourcing customers services associate.

Sources: http://www.ehow.com/info_8491288_dead-net-sales-income.html#ixzz2BOm9lhDW

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

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.

The SafeSourcing Supplier Database with over 450,000 suppliers contains the information necessary to support all of your supply needs horizontal, manufacturer or specific vertical.

If you’d like to learn more about how SafeSourcing goes about sourcing vendors or other distribution options, please contact a SafeSourcing customers services associate.

Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3740530

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

If you have construction projects on your books or are currently working with general contractors, are you asking the right questions in support of our global environment. Today’s post which is also listed in our wiki and originates from techtarget.com. It is also another certification we hold our suppliers accountable too.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system is the nationally accepted benchmark for design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings. LEED is an ecology-oriented building certification program run under the auspices of the U.S. green building Council (USGBC). LEED concentrates its efforts on improving performance across five key areas of environmental and human health: energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, materials selection, sustainable site development, and water savings.

LEED has special rating systems that apply to all kinds of structures, including schools, retail and healthcare facilities. Rating systems are available for new construction and major renovations as well as existing buildings. The program is designed to inform and guide all kinds of professionals who work with structures to create or convert spaces to environmental sustainability, including architects, real estate professionals, facility managers, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, construction managers, private sector executives and government officials.

On its Web site, the USGBC says that LEED defines “a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance Green Buildings” and “provides building owners and operators with the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance.” According to the American Institute of Architects, the 69 LEED points that make up the program’s specific design points and considerations can be reviewed in a two-hour meeting, during which time the design team and the owner can decide what level of LEED compliance is desirable for their building project.

State and local governments around the United States are adopting LEED for public buildings of all kinds, and LEED initiatives at the US Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy and State drive activity at the federal level. In addition, various types of LEED projects are currently underway in over forty other countries, including Canada, Brazil, India, and Mexico.

If you would like to learn more about our supplier certifications, contact a SafeSourcing Customer services associate.

If you’d like to follow the source for this post, please click the link.

Source: http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/definition/LEED-Leadership-in-Energy-and-Environmental-Design 

Procurement is based on Data Part III

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

Today I offer the final excerpt from my White Paper Titled Re-Imagining Procurement  where we summarize how to use the Three Data Pillars. Pillar One: Your Data, Pillar Two: and Pillar Three: Their Data. You can review them again here in yesterday’s Part II.

If you agree that the Pillars above represents Data that is required to successfully source products and services for your company, this author will guarantee the following. Your data will not include everything you or your procurement professionals need to make the best possible decisions for your business within the timeframe it needs to be made and all the sophisticated systems in the world will not solve this problem for most companies. The data will not be readily at hand; and your team will not know all the correct questions to ask to collect the data in a timely manner because they may only source this category once every couple of years at best, while solutions providers like SafeSourcing may source it dozens of times every year.

I offer the following as a solution.

SafeSourcing is a data rich company built to support procurement professionals. Included on our website are several million words in the form of white papers, a sourcing wiki, a specifications library, a daily blog focused on procurement and a supplier database including a query tool that allows you to search global sources of supply. There are many more tools and data sets that are here to make your life easier.

If you’d like to discuss the use of our data or have us review yours, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate, please click here.

Today’s post is our SafeSourcing Archives.

Employees spend approximately one-quarter of their day reading or writing emails. The following are some basic guidelines on email etiquette.

1. Include a clear, direct subject line.
2. Use a professional email address.
3. Think twice before hitting ‘reply all.’
4. Include a signature block.
5. Use professional salutations.
6. Use exclamation marks sparingly.
7. Be cautious with humor.
8. Know that people from different cultures speak and write differently.
9. Reply to your emails — even if the email wasn’t intended for you.
10. Proofread every message (do not rely on spell check).
11. Add email address last. Keep your fonts classic. Nothing is confidential — so write accordingly.
12. Emojis do not belong in your emails.
13. Keep tabs on your tone – you could be misinterpreted.
14. Double-check that you’ve selected the correct recipient(s).

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