Today’s post is by Gayl Southard, Administrative Consultant at SafeSourcing, Inc.

People don’t just dislike having their given names misspelled, they often have feelings of rejection when the person who does the misspelling is a relative, friend, teacher or a business associate. Although my first name is common, the spelling is not. In fact, I have only met one person that spelled their name like mine. If you know people well enough to address them by name, please have the courtesy to learn how to spell their name.

The White House press office misspelled the British Prime Minister Theresa May’s name three times. One error referenced a “bilateral meeting” between Trump and “Teresa May”. Teresa May is a former soft porn star and model. That was a huge gaffe.

It is important to check for grammar and spelling errors for three reasons:

1. It limits the chances that your message will be misunderstood or misinterpreted.
2. It reflects your credibility, intelligence and reliability.
3. It indicates that you care about how you do business.

Spelling mistakes can cost millions of dollars in lost sales. A single spelling mistake can can cut online sales in half, according to William Dutton, Director of the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University. There seems to be more tolerance with informal parts of the internet, such as Facebook, towards grammar and spelling. Although Spellcheck is a valuable tool, it does not catch homophones (words that sound alike, but are spelled differently, and have completely different meanings). It can automatically change the spelling of new or unusual words, such as names to a word that is more easily recognized, without your permission,

There are four tips to observe when sending important business correspondence:

1. Slow Down. Never send anything without proofreading it first.
2. Don’t Multitask. Your brain refocuses each time you switch to a new activity.
3. Get a Second Pair of Eyes. Have a colleague review your work.
4. Double Check Facts, Names, and Industry Terminology. Spelling someone’s name correctly is extremely important because a name is part of one’s identity. Messing up relevant information can be interpreted as disrespect, and makes you look unprofessional. It also represents the lack of attention to detail, which can negatively affect the relationship between two parties.

“We are human and therefore bound to make mistakes. But your business reputation is too important to lose out over poor spelling. Try to be as accurate as possible when corresponding with clients, customers and colleagues. Your reputation (and ultimately your bottom line) may depend on it.”1

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help in your procurement 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.

References………………

1. Jessica Robinson, Michigan Mobility Institute, Entrepreneur.com/article/288812, 4/5/2019

Today’s Post is by Eli Razov, Senior Account Manager at SafeSourcing Inc.

Supply chain management (SCM) has a big impact on business. The right product and quantity must be delivered in a timely manner to appease both producers and distributors. Customers want to be able to know the location where they must go to obtain the goods that they want. Customers also expect fantastic customer support. SCM also has a huge impact on the bottom line of a company. A good SCM can improve the efficiency of plants, warehouses, and transportation vehicles. Cash flow is directly increased because the delivery of a product is in a timely manner, and consumers can purchase their goods.

The importance of Supply Chain Management is:

• Decreases Purchasing Cost – Organizations generally prefer quick distributions of costly products and raw materials to avoid expensive inventory
• Decrease Production Cost – Reliable supply chains delivers materials to assembly plants and avoids any costs that may occur due to delays.
• Right quantity and quality – Customer expects delivery of right quantity and quality of products.
• On-time delivery – Customers expect to receive the correct product mix and quantity to be delivered on time. A reliable supply chain can help with in any bottlenecks and ensure customers get their products in the promised time frame
• Services – After sales service is one of the important aspects in any business. If any kind of problem occurs in the product, customers expect it to be fixed quickly. A right supply chain ensures that customers get the service they want.

SCM streamlines everything from product flow to unexpected natural disasters. With an effective SCM, companies can diagnose problems and errors correctly. SCM plays an important role in moving items quickly and efficiently to their destinations. At SafeSourcing we have helped countless clients with their SCM and Wholesalers by reducing costs and consolidating where applicable. Let us help you today!

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact SafeSourcing  we have an entire team waiting to assist you today.

Today’s post is written by Ivy Ray, Senior Procurement Specialist at SafeSourcing Inc.

A visit to the emergency room is never a pleasant experience for anyone, but for the elderly it can be downright dangerous, chaotic, and confusing.  I had never given it much thought until my 85-year old mother-in-law was in town for an extended visit and had to be taken to the ER after experiencing chest pains.

Maneuvering in an ER facility can be quite frustrating for someone with diminished vision, hearing, and mobility. The medical staff is busy taking vitals, and inquiring about the current multiple medications, all of which is taking place under bright harsh lighting along with the “normal” commotion of the medical facility. Fortunately, in my mother-in-law’s case, there was a family member there to assist with answering questions and providing information.

A recent initiative by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) to accredit geriatric emergency departments, is encouraging EDs to better address the needs of older patients and is providing guidance on which EDs are best able to care of such patients. This new voluntary accreditation requires doctors and nurses to have specialized geriatric training and facilities which include mobility aids and easy access to water. Some geriatric EDs include services of a transitional care nurse to coordinate older adults’ transition from the ED to home, which helps to avoid inpatient admission, as well as unnecessary patient risks and costs. Properly caring for elderly patients requires structural design and compliance with guidelines for care coordination services to optimize visits and provide cost-effective care.  In 2016, the U.S. spent 17.8 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on medical spending according to study results. In comparison, other countries spent 9.6 percent to 12.4 percent of GDP on healthcare.

SafeSourcing, Inc. has assisted our clients in sourcing providers of health resources to manage risk, while achieving their operating and performance goals in Interdisciplinary Care Plan, Post-Acute Care, and Utilization Management. For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you in exploring your procurement solutions for your business 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.

References…………

1. https://newsatjama.jama.com/2018/09/12/jama-forum-transforming-emergency-departments-to-better-care-for-elderly-patients/https://www.healthimaging.com/topics/practice-management/jama-us-spends-most-healthcare-and-imaging-reason-why

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

Any SafeSourcing customer know we measure eProcurement success using baseball terminology. It’s a fun way to monitor the level of savings achieved as our customers watch their online Request for Quote (RFQ) Events. Today’s blog post is the first in a series in which we will take a deep dive into the different levels of savings and highlight some of recent wins in each.

SafeSourcing tracks these savings levels in real time as our customers watch their live RFQ Event via an easy-to-understand baseball diamond.

• Single– savings over 5%, but less than 10%
• Double– savings over 10%, but less than 15%
• Triple – savings over 15%, but less than 20%
• Home Run – savings over 20%, but less than 25%
• Grand Slam – savings over 25%

The typical SafeSourcing RFQ Events results in a Home Run as our average savings is 24.8% across all customers and categories. While the average savings is a Home Run, our actual results vary widely depending on the category. In the coming installments in this series, recent wins at each savings level will be highlighted. Our customers know that, while Home Runs and Grand Slams are incredible, it’s just as important to get a base hit as we work through all of their spend categories over time.

In the next installment in this series, we will highlight examples of how even a Single is impactful and worthwhile. We’ll discuss when you might expect a Single and why you should actually try for them just as you would a Grand Slam.

Contact SafeSourcing if you’re interested in learning more about how RFQ Events can help your company advance the bases and achieve savings.

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

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

When we hear big news stories, it seems to be all the talk for the next few days or weeks. Once that initial buzz wears down, life seems to go back to normal until the next story comes crashing through.

So, what do these news stories have in common and how do they affect us? I think any kind of scandal, especially political or involving the integrity of the education system, has further reaching effects than many of us realize. It is left to be determined what effects those will be in the long run. While we know the latest education scam has been exposed, how many kids missed out on chances at those schools? Planes have been grounded, but how many lives could’ve been saved if it were done earlier? Since we have seen recent convictions in the political arena, how many policies were affected and what kind of propaganda has yet to been discovered?

While SafeSourcing can’t help with your college admissions, we can help your business save money, which can be used to help send a kid to college. SafeSourcing may not have the power to remove corruption from politics, but we can help your organization find a vendor that better aligns with what you are hoping to achieve. SafeSourcing can’t go back and ground planes before tragedy, but we can help your organization source its travel needs, including planes, trains, automobiles, and everything in between.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help in your procurement 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.

Today’s post is by Gayl Southard, Administrative Consultant at SafeSourcing, Inc.

Starting a business in 1999 is a lot different than starting and running a business in 2019. In 1999, Google was just launching and people searching for businesses relied on the Yellow Pages. Social media hadn’t been thought of and the iPhone wouldn’t be invented for another decade. Heck, the first millennials were just entering kindergarten!

Looking back twenty years, Rhonda Abrams, a columnist for USA Today, reflected on some of the resolutions she made in 1999 and how they are still relevant today.

1. Keep Learning. Attend trade shows, read journals, attend seminars. Your brain is your most important asset.
2. Keep Priorities Straight. Being busy doesn’t necessarily mean you’re being productive. Make a list of a few items that make a difference in succeeding and failing both in business, as well as your personal life.
3. Keep in Contact With Former Clients. Find a way to communicate with both current and past customers at least two or three times a year. Former clients are a great asset.
4. Use Technology Better. Perhaps moving your contact list from paper to digital files.
5. Know When to Not Use Technology. Every day find time to turn off technology and interact with people and get in touch with yourself.
6. Throw Stuff Out. Get rid of old files. Transfer stuff off your computer and put it on a zip drive.
7. Back up Data. Today files can be moved to the cloud and backed up automatically.
8. Reflect. Stop and think what you’re doing, what you’re saying, and how you are saying it. This is so important in our busy lives. Take a breath, pause and reflect.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help in your procurement 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.

References …………………………………………….

Rhonda Abrams, USAToday, 1/10/2019

Today’s post is   from our SafeSourcing Archives.

It’s easy to imagine that procurement managers look at cost alone in evaluating potential vendors.  At SafeSourcing, however, we have worked with procurement managers in fortune 500 companies and small business all over the world, and we understand there are innumerable variables to be considered with any purchasing project. Today we’ll boil down those considerations into our top 5. While these aren’t exhaustive, they should get you the majority of the way to a complete evaluation:

Net Price: Not only is price of the product important, we must take into account tax, freight, rebates, even installation and maintenance in some cases. We must take into account the total cost of ownership, which will vary depending on the use the product gets in servicing your particular business model.

Location: The obvious consideration here is whether or not the vendor in question even services or ships to your area from their’s. If so, what does it cost to get the good or service to you? What are the freight or travel rates? Is the vendor licensed in your area?

Capacity: What is the production rate and MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity)? Some categories will have growing seasons or other production considerations that will require a buyer to contract capacity within certain seasons; and, of course, the production run capabilities will have to scale with the size of your typical orders.

Lead Time: How much time will it take between your first order, and delivery? Some products need to setup manufacturing equipment for a specific run, others may have full harvest seasons committed and will need 6 months before they can plant, harvest and pack their crops.

Risk: What variable commodity prices are your product dependent on? Does the vendor you are considering have pricing subject to currency exchange rates? How do they handle fluctuations? Are there any changes in the regional regulations, tariffs or licensers that could disrupt the flow of product? For international organizations these concerns multiply for every country involved in the production of the good being sourced.

What other considerations do you have when evaluating a vendor? Please leave a comment or for more information on how SafeSourcing can assist your team with this process 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.

Today’s post is our SafeSourcing Archive. Please Enjoy!

Communication is a funny thing. We communicate day in and day out, most of the time successfully, but it’s easy to think of examples where our message has not be received as intended, or we just weren’t able to pick up what someone else was trying to communicate to us. Much of the time, we find that the fundamental issue in miscommunication is that the message giver and the message receiver have different understandings of the concepts being traded back and forth. For example, one person’s idea of “love” looks completely different from someone raised in a family that expressed love in a totally different way. Another simple example could be if you’re sent to the grocery store with instructions to get “apples”. In your mind, when you hear the word “apple” you have a picture of a Honey Crisp apple, but the person who sent the request has an image in their mind of green Granny Smith apples. All communication is based on templates stored in our minds, on hard drives, on documents, etc. And if we don’t understand what information IS, we’re bound to make mistakes in how we trade it with others in our professional lives.

Information, generally speaking, is a representation of other objects stored within a physical medium. All information is stored in physical objects, such as hard drives, CD’s, brain cells, etc. The higher fidelity of information is stored, the more accurately it represents the object of its focus. For instance, a picture of a widget in low definition, and vague description in a specifications sheet, won’t represent that widget as well as a high definition picture, with several pages of precise descriptors. Similarly, a cell phone recording of a symphony won’t represent the event as well as an IMAX recording would. But the IMAX data will be potentially thousands of times larger, because it takes larger physical space, to record information at higher fidelity. This is because the more possibilities your information CAN’T represent, the more detailed it has to be and the more likely it can only represent what you intend it to.

In the Information Theory context, entropy can be defined as the delta of change from order, to disorder/randomness. Information entropy is the average information of all possible outcomes. In other words, information is most precise, when it disqualifies EVERY possibility other than the very specific one it is trying to represent. If the information you are sending could mean any one of a dozen things, you are bound to have some unavoidable margin of error in communicating to your audience. The tricky thing though, is there’s a tradeoff.

The greater fidelity the information is, more precise your communication will be. However, this increases the size of the information content, making it more difficult to manage, decode, or asses. The tradeoff is that the more precise the information, the more difficult to use. How this translates into procurement specifically, is that there will always be some margin of ambiguity in any specifications document. However, that doesn’t mean an RFP can’t be flexible enough to meet a buyer’s needs. Here are a few ways procurement professionals can make sure their documentation avoids falling into some of the common communication pitfalls inherent to the transfer of information:

•  Identify the most important attributes, and focus your specifications on those. For instance, perhaps the business goal of the purchase doesn’t depend at all on color, or pack size, or the availability of support staff. Keep the more detailed information limited to the important attributes.
• Add flexibility to your bid for consideration of equivalent products. Sometimes being too specific means that a vendor who may have a superior product to offer, isn’t able to propose his alternative if a specification calls for an exact match to a lesser product.
• Ask yourself “would something I wouldn’t want qualify under the specifications I’m creating?” Remember, information should guide your audience to a specific concept, and disqualify all other possible concepts, as much as is possible without overburdening your audience.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist your team with this process 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.

Today’s post is our SafeSourcing Archives

Although we’d like to think that the decisions we make are deliberated by well thought-out reasoning and “common sense”, the truth is we aren’t even aware of most of what goes on in the brain during the decision making process. Much of what we think is a decision is actually a lot of conditioning by our society, culture, parents, schooling, job training, etc. Unfortunately, no one understands this better than marketing strategists, whose aim is to have the decision made for you before you even aware what you are deliberating about.

“Pre-suasion” is a term coined by Robert Cialdini, who wrote a book in 2016 by the same name, and is a well-known author and researcher in marketing and persuasion strategy. The focus of the term is the timing of your attempt to persuade, because the battle for decisions in your favor are often won and lost long before any actual pitch is made. Here are a few ways in which pre-suasion can be used, either in your favor or against it:

Ask questions that get your audience to think about a positive attribute of your proposal. For example, during an interview, ask “what wasy it about my resume that made you want to see me?”. This brings focus onto the attributes that attracted your audience in the first place, and sets you in a more positive frame of reference.

We give relevance to what grabs our attention most recently. Most and recently being the key words here, this concept eludes to the fact that if something impacts us greatly, and a short time ago, it is likely to heavily influence our decision. A recent car crash for instance, will often change how much driving someone will freely choose to do, even though the safety statistics haven’t actually changed.

Change what someone thinks about, not what they think. For Example, direct someone’s memory to an association with something terrible to have them avoid a decision of similar association. Are you hoping your spouse will pick the white car? Talk about things they love that evoke the thought of white: White snow, the wedding dress, bright white smiles, white piano keys, etc.

Discuss a number that will make the number you will actually pitch seem favorable. Also known as “Anchoring”, this concept takes advantage of the way in which human beings tend to rely heavily on the first piece of information received (the anchor), and compare it to future acquired information. This is why you see sale signs all the time stating the price “was” $XX.XX, because you would feel better about buying something if you believe you’re getting it at a discount.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist your team with this process 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.

Today’s Post is by Eli Razov, Senior Account Manager at SafeSourcing Inc.

Are you in a healthy relationship? When working with co-workers, vendors, counterparts, and other business professionals, we tend to put on the professional mask. Sometimes that mask requires us to stand firm on decisions and sometimes become aggressive; but when does that aggression goes too far, it becomes a toxic aggressive emotion. Often in the office setting, stress levels are rather high and are sometimes easily irritated by timelines, lack of involvement with other people, not meeting margins, and the list goes on. We tend to see this situation quite often when a client has worked with a vendor for years and has a rather strong relationship. We must question that just because you have worked with them for years and may be buddies, are they really giving you the “best deal”? We must remember no matter how healthy or great that relationship may be those vendors still need to put food on their plates and somewhere up that ladder, someone is pressing down on them to get better margins. So how do you handle this when you want a better price? Do you call your friend and ask for the best price and hope they are doing exactly that? Or, are you reaching out to other vendors behind their back and hoping you can come across a better deal. Well what do you do if you happen to find a better price? Do you tell your buddy incumbent that you got a better offer and you would like them to match, or do you end the relationship and just move on to the next best thing? During all of this searching and dealing are you upsetting your incumbent? Are they really your friend if they are upset that you are looking for a better price? These are things you must understand. In order for you to be successful, you must worry about your job not the feelings of someone else. This does not mean you must become a callous, aggressive individual, but you must understand you must do what is needed to be successful.

Our tools and professionals at SafeSourcing have years of experience dealing with this exact scenario. By using our online tools we show vendors if they have the lowest price or not and take the guess work out of the equations. So contact us and let SafeSourcing help you with your relationship.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact SafeSourcing  we have an entire team waiting to assist you today.