Archive for the ‘E-procurement Solutions’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Why do you need to use eProcurement tools like eRFQ’s or Reverse Auctions

Thursday, October 13th, 2022

 

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

Because of terms like Off-Invoiced Amount which is not a sustainable negotiation tactic

What aggravates me in Business-to-Business supplier/customer negotiations are old tactics like the term off-invoiced amount which are generally not captured properly or sustainable in your ongoing negotiations. The use of eProcurement tools that capture all information from suppliers drives better measurable savings that can be easily tracked across any enterprise.

The term off-invoiced amount is an amount which is reduced to a retailer in return of purchasing specific quantities of goods in a specific period of time to increase the volume of sale to the retailer.  Also, an off-invoice amount could be a sales promotion in which the manufacturer offers the retailer a price reduction on the product price at the time of ordering.

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.

 

 

 

Posted in ,

Can you go to one place to view and access all of your procurement required data?

Wednesday, October 5th, 2022

 

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

Most Procurement knowledge workers I talk to cannot!

SafeDashboard™ is the configurable entry point for companies to view every piece of information and tool that they have access to within the SafeSourceIt™ Portfolio.

Custom fit for every company, and to some extent every role and user within the company, the SafeDashboard™ allows a company to see the information that is most relevant to specific users in a way that does not require them to jump from screen to screen.

KPIs and scorecards can be included to give executives and other procurement knowledge workers an immediate and up to date overview of their overall sourcing event activity within the system.

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.

 

Posted in , ,

Just what does SafeSourcing mean by eProcurement White Glove Services?

Friday, September 30th, 2022

 

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

A customer asked me this question today. While there are some fifty-four specific touch points in our SafeSourceIt™ online event check list or project plan that are aligned by customer responsibility and SafeSourcing responsibility. What follows was my answer without touching on each. My only addition was to ask your provider if they include all of this in their pricing without engaging third parties.

 SafeSourcing Responsibilities:

  • Category Selection Guidance
  • Category Event Strategy
  • Terms and Conditions Development
  • Supplier Research
  • Specifications Documentation
  • Supplier Invitations
  • Supplier Q&A
  • Supplier Training on SafeSourceIt™ Platform
  • Host Live Event
  • Provide Final Report Package and Recommendations
  • Request Samples if Required
  • Send System Thankyou to all participants
  • Send Award Decision to all participants.

Customer Responsibilities:

  • Designate executive sponsor, if applicable.
  • Designate project champion/manager.
  • Provide item specifications for the selected category.
  • Provide incumbent supplier information and invoice copies.

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.

 

Posted in ,

What Educational Offerings does your eProcurement provider offer?

Tuesday, September 13th, 2022

 

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

SafeSourcing’s educational offerings support the SafeSourcing mission of providing information and services to our customers through e-procurement tools that proactively support consumer safety and environmental standards in the global supply chain. SafeSourcing educational offerings encompass the teaching and learning of specific e-procurement skills as regards:

  • Category to Market Strategy
  • Event Set-Up
  • Event Training
  • Supplier Selection
  • Buyer Training
  • Supplier Training
  • Category Discovery
  • Supplier Safety Certifications
  • Supplier Eco Practices
  • ROI Delivery

SafeSourcing also endeavors to do something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of retail e- procurement and supply chain knowledge, positive judgment and well-developed retail wisdom that supports a safer and more eco-friendly global supply chain while driving increased efficiency and improved profitability for our customers and their stakeholders. For more information, please https://www.safesourcing.com/Contact-Us

Posted in ,

Shrinkflation?

Wednesday, June 15th, 2022

 

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

In a recent post titled “How are you dealing with your overstock issues” Where I discussed using eprocuremnt tools to help reduce retail shrink. Then today I opened the paper and there it was Shrinkflation. Which is the Reduction in the size or weight of retail products, especially items of packaged food, with no corresponding reduction in the retail price. This improves financial results for the company with the expense born by the consumer who end up getting less for more.

In economics, shrinkflation is the practice of reducing the size or quantity of a product while the price of the product remains the same or slightly increases. In some cases, the term may indicate lowering the quality of a product or its ingredients while the price remains the same.

When I was studying Psychology in college out professor brought up the term Just Noticeable Difference or (JND). He asked us if anyone though that candy bars were getting smaller year over year. We all know the answer to that question, particularly if you ever trick or treated or now take your kids trick or treating. Those darn candy bars keep shrinking. So just what is a Just Noticeable Difference

According to Helensinblog on WordPress, Just Noticeable Difference, also known as the difference threshold, is the minimum level of stimulation that a person can detect 50-percent of the time.

For our senses, there is a measure called an absolute threshold. The absolute threshold shows that we can hardly see the difference in stimulus and are able to perceive its ability, and the difference threshold is that we cannot notice the difference, better known as the” Just-noticeable difference” (JND). For example, if you hold a bag of 100 pounds of oranges, plus a pound will not be noticed. But if you hold 5 pounds, then you add a pound, you will notice.

SafeSourcing is an eprocurement company that operates across multiple industries. As such we have specific experience in helping our customers source their products through a variety of tools. One of those is our SafeSourceIt™ Templates Library. Here we house thousands of specifications that have evolved over the years as products have changed. Having the proper specification is key to sourcing the correct products at both the manufacturing and the retail level. Take care of your customers the way they deserve to be. Don’t sell them less for more, they are already hurting enough.

To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

References: shrinkflation meaning – Search (bing.com)

Just-noticeable difference (JND) – Consumer Behaviour (wordpress.com)

Posted in ,

What is a Request for Quote (RFQ)?

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022

 

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

Although this process can be defined with relative simplicity, it is anything but!

What is A Request for Quote (RFQ) is a document that a business submits to one or more potential suppliers in order to receive quotes for a product or service. Generally, an RFQ seeks an itemized list of prices for products or services that is well-defined, such as hardware. Another type of document is called a Request for Proposals (RFP), which is customarily used when the requesting business’s requirements are more complex, or a Request for Information (RFI), which collects written information about supplies or services.

SafeSourcing offers a suite of eRFX tools under its SafeSourceIt™ Family of Products including RFI’s, RFP’s and RFQ’s. Often to achieve the best net landed cost, all three may be required to source certain categories. These tools are supported by our white glove proven seven step process that delivers on average savings of 24% below what you may be able to achieve on your own.

If you like to learn more about how we can reduce your costs, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

Posted in

Procurement is based on Data Part II

Thursday, March 31st, 2022

 

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

I asked you to Check back today to learn more about the types of data I discussed in the whitepaper.

The following is second excerpt from my White Paper Titled Re-Imagining Procurement where I will discuss my view of the types and availability of the data that you have to work with. In doing so, please remember the old saying of “Garbage in Garbage out”. Oh, that it was not still true today!

For our purposes I like to place this data as the following Three Pillars:

  1. Pillar One – Your Data: This is the data that your company has available that can be accessed and used in the procurement process. Where is it and who controls it?
  2. Pillar Two – Our Data: This is your e-Procurement provider’s data such as specifications, templates, and historical category data. I call this our data because SafeSourcing is a Cloud based SaaS provided Procure to Pay SafeSourceIt™ family of solutions. See a summary below.
  3. Pillar Three – Their Data: This is the Suppliers or Vendors Data. This will include all data associated with getting the best possible product or service at the best possible price, at the exact location, and at the exact time it is needed.

The first question that should come to mind is where this data comes from both internally and externally. The answer is that it depends. It depends on how sophisticated your internal business solutions and processes are and the level of drill down (meta data) that is available in your business systems and how well they interact or are linked for a corporate view.

  1. Here is an example: Company A has a purchase order system that has all the attributes required to provide a clear historical view of what has been purchased. The CPO asks a procurement professional to get a copy of the P.O. for a particular product or service that has been purchased. The requested P.O. arrives and has one line on the entire document that reads per the attached purchase and sales order (a vendor document). Come on, admit it. This has happened to you more than once and it will continue to. So now what? Get a copy of the order from the vendor? Cool idea. When it arrives, the pricing is different, so what now. Let us review the contract. Who has the original signed copy? Get my drift?

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.

Posted in ,

The importance of RFx in the Procurement Process – Part I of II

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022

 

As businesses continue to use reverse auction tools more frequently to reduce their costs and introduce competitive pricing from existing and new suppliers, it is inevitable that the events will also begin to increase in complexity.  With complexity comes the need to understand the offerings of the invited companies before price is ever brought up.  You need to know that the companies you may be dealing with have experience and can handle your business.

To ensure that the right companies are involved in competing for your business many times it is necessary to run a Request for Proposal or Information (RFP or RFI) to gather information about the suppliers before a pricing event is run.  Some of the important things to keep in mind when doing this are:

• Be Specific! – Make sure the RFP/RFI is specific about the types of information requested.  Leaving the document open-ended will result in several completely different responses that will be difficult to compare to each other.

• It’s ok to run an RFx for something you have already purchased.  Many times, especially in technical product purchasing, the landscape can change so fast from contract to contract that running an RFx is not only a possibly but is probably the wisest thing to do especially if the spend is large and/or the contract is longer than a year.

There will be more tips in my next post but if you would like more information about the SafeSourcing Rfx tools and professional services, please contact a Customer Service Representative today.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in , ,

Do you know how a price index plays into e-procurement best practices?

Wednesday, January 5th, 2022

 

Todays post is a repost by Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

Todays post is a little long in the tooth, but still relevant for sourcing professionals.

Being overly simplistic an index is a system used to make finding causal information easier! There are any numbers of indexes or indices available to help procurement knowledge workers insure they are sourcing products at the best possible pricing. The key word here is price as what we will be discussing are specifically price indices.

According to Wikipedia a price index (plural: “price indices” or “price indexes”) is a normalized average (typically a weighted average) of prices for a given class of goods or services in a given region, during a given interval of time. It is a statistic designed to help to compare how these prices, taken as a whole, differ between time periods or geographical locations.

Price indices have several potential uses. For particularly broad indices, the index can be said to measure the economy’s price level or a cost of living. More narrow price indices can help producers with business plans and pricing. Sometimes, they can be useful in helping to guide investment.

Normally an index reflects the current and historical price of a variety of commodities ranging from metals to grain. A common index used in sourcing petroleum products is OPIS or the Oil Price Information Service which you can learn more about by visiting www.opisnet.com.  However in order to drive the best possible fuel pricing there are other dependencies such as whether you are doing spot buys or bulk purchases and these strategies will determine what specific index you would want to review as well as it’s relation to other product information sources such as Platts or the Gulf Coast spot assessments.  This will put you in a better position to determine how to bid the product and also earn a discount relative to the lowest common denominator.

All other commodities have similar sourcing issues dependant on what the highest cost item is in their product makeup. An example here might be the cost of grain in the feeding of cattle or poultry.

Ask you solution provider to explain these tools to you and to recommend how you might use them toward the best outcome.

If you’d like more information, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Services Account Manager.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in , ,

As Services Expand So Do Sourcing Needs

Wednesday, October 27th, 2021

Todays post is from our SafeSourcing Archives!

In today’s increasingly competitive landscape, retailers are getting more and more creative with the types of services they are offering their clients to get them into the stores. Dine-in space that offers music, internet access or scheduled events such as wine-tasting are becoming more popular every year as retailers compete for the customer’s time, attention and money.

With so many of these services being implemented quickly and by the individual stores, at least initially, the opportunity to consolidate and organize the entire spend for the company presents a very big and potentially profitable opportunity.

One growing service retailers are offering is in-store internet access. Customer internet is a service that can easily be sourced for the entire company either through one national vendor, or a handful of regional vendors. Leveraging the purchasing power of all of the company’s locations for internet services can be a highly successful process as there are so many more providers today than there were even 5 years ago.

The music played in these new areas is also another service that can be sourced as there are many suppliers that can either supply music that can be played and sold at the point of purchase creating yet another new revenue stream or that provide internet streamed music complete with customized marketing messaging in between songs.

Another way for retailers to successfully reduce their spends by purchasing for the whole company is with the supplies being used for their coffee or dining services. In many cases these new areas are not treated as their own profit centers and the materials needed to run them are purchased on a store by store, as needed basis. Napkins, utensils, cups, condiments as well as all of the ingredients that go into the finished product are examples of items that could be taken to the vendor community for more competitive pricing.

So many of these new ideas for bringing customers are highly affective and are difference makers for someone shopping at one location over another and by bringing the services and products they offer under solid sourcing practices they can also be highly profitable new channels of revenue for the company.

For more information on SafeSourcing and how we can assist your company with sourcing these goods and services, please contact a Customer Service Representative for more information.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »
© 2025 SafeSourcing