Today’s post is from our SafeSourcing Archives

e-Procurement comes with distinct benefits over manual purchasing, ranging from increased cost efficiency to greater access to suppliers. Let’s delve deeper into some of these noticeable advantages.

Increased cost efficiency is considered the primary benefit of utilizing an e-procurement purchasing platform. E-procurement puts a single buyer online with many suppliers, thus lessening the leg work traditionally associated with the buyer narrowing his or her field of suppliers.

Using the e-procurement platform, buyers have access to essentially an unlimited list of suppliers, which equates into a wider selection of goods and services. These suppliers have normally undertaken rigorous vetting procedures to ensure that they are the correct supplier for the specific job or work the client is requesting.

e-Procurement applications can be tailored to fulfill the distinct needs of buyers and sellers and be scaled to grow as the organizations expand. For example, suppliers from new territories can be added to supplier databases as the organization grows into new market segments.

e-Procurement processes can greatly increase productivity. Customers can acquire the items they want to procure from a catalog of approved items through an on-line requisition and ordering system. Purchasing staff can be relieved from processing orders, filing paperwork and handling lower priority tasks to focus on strategic sourcing and improving supplier relationships.

In some organizations, purchasing duties are dispersed over several different departments within the company. E-procurement platforms will enable a company to merge orders for similar items with one supplier, resulting in greater volume discounts and cost savings. Additionally, e-procurement may allow a company to simplify purchasing by reducing the number of products involved. Instead of having to sort through large volumes of paper or electronic catalogs, buyers are able to build custom catalogs that include only the items the company is interested in. Additionally, this method increases volumes of smaller numbers of items, which is another process used to generate volume discounts.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you in exploring your procurement solutions for your business, 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.

Todays post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

Have you ever heard a buyer say I can’t find or don’t have a specification for that product or service? Or, I’m not sure how much we spent on that last year. Or I’m not sure if we have a current contract in place or when it expires if we do. Don’t’ laugh, because this is all too common at the best of companies. We all know this is true and that it happens every day of every week. How in the world can the specification be missing or not exist in the for something you are currently buying? How would we even understand if what we are receiving is what we ordered? Back door receiving systems have tracked this for years. What happens if we order one type of copy paper like recycled 96 white, and receive a lower quality product?

The above examples have always amazed me because an original order had to be placed at some point in time. In many cases the invoice (at least the original one) may even reference the product number or description if not both. Sometimes the invoice even calls attention to the terms and conditions. In fact, it’s a pretty good bet that the incumbent supplier has a copy of the original contract and specification on file that can be obtained with a simple phone call. On many occasions when hosting e-negotiation events new sources of supply may help to clarify specifications through their questioning about the upcoming bid collection. And then, and it is a big and then, there is of course the internet and sites like Yahoo, Google, and Bing.

If your procurement department has this type of issue, please contact a SafeSourcing customers services account manager. I’m sure they can bail you out in about 5 minutes ninety nine percent of the time.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Today’s post is by Dave Wenig, Director of Sales, North America at SafeSourcing

Reducing spend is important. It’s actually among the most important and impactful methods to improve your company’s bottom line. In most industries, you’ll be hard pressed to generate the same effect through any other means. New stores, new accounts, improved processes, and more all have merit. The fact is, reducing spend while maintaining quality can create a one-to-one savings to bottom line improvement opportunity. Where else are you getting results like that?

So, reducing spend is a top priority. But, is it the most urgent priority? Right now? Chances are you have something going on that cannot wait. Maybe you have a fire that needs to be put out before you can tackle the job of reducing the cost of the floor tile for your upcoming new stores. Maybe that’s a literal fire that needs to be put out. It happens.

At the end of the day though, we have to make time to focus on reducing our spend. One way to handle this is to improve efficiency by working with a partner, such as SafeSourcing, to increase the number of eProcurement projects that you complete in a given time period. Let somebody work on your behalf by delegating responsibly. Then, instead of one project per month, you can easily achieve three. Your input will still be required, but your time commitment will be greatly reduced.

So put out that fire and let us focus on the details so you can realize the savings. For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

We look forward to your comments.

Todays’s Post is by Eli Razov, SafeSourcing  Account Manager.

The internet has to be one of the greatest tools of our time. Or is it? The invention of the internet has brought with it changes that have completely altered the way we do virtually everything. From the way we shop, to the way we conduct business. The world is at our fingertips. We need to simply type in what our heart desires and viola the answer appears; but is that helping us? Not too many years ago research reports for school, or gathering information about a potential client required a lot of leg work with just as much paper; but it involved the researcher. It made researcher learn more about what they we searching for. Today it is very simple to find the answer and just copy and paste it into a document . Some may believe this makes us lazy or removes our involvement all together. Some may also say that this is expanding our horizons and gives us the ability to learn more at a faster pace. But what is it doing for us? Is there a correct answer? Look at what we do here at Safesourcing. We help clients in many ways, mostly by helping save a lot in the procurement process. We use the internet and our vast database of companies, locally and internationally to find the right supplier and vendors for our clients. Whether it is helping find a service or a product, we can do it. Communication is a large part of it. From emails, to instant messages, or the VOIP phone services that most companies use, almost every aspect of communication is driven by the internet. Our online tool that we use to run our events depends on the internet to have a seamless successful campaign from start to finish. But that’s not all. We are constantly improving our website and online tools to keep up with the demands of an ever-changing digital age.

Coming from an age where the internet was just coming into play and seeing the changes it has made in almost every aspect of life, from ordering my coffee, to getting live directions to the nearest shoe store, I believe the internet has had a great impact on the advancement of humankind. Yes, there are downsides. Fake news is spreading like wildfire, seeing horrific images that may scar younger viewers, as well as the darker sides of the internet. But just like everything in life, with good there is always bad. It is all up to you, the user, how you weld your power so choose wisely and try to make the world a better place, even if it is just by helping each other by passing on uplifting words or helping to teach younger generations learn to cook.

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

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

We have recently celebrated Memorial Day and Flag Day and the Fourth of July is coming up quickly. We certainly see a lot of Old Glory this time of year.   The following is just a little flag trivia:

1.  Betsy Ross is credited with designing the flag, but there is almost no evidence to support this. The only evidence was from her own grandson in 1870, when he presented The Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia with affidavits from his own family members as evidence. Early journals from the Continental Congress claim Francis Hopkins deserves the credit.
2. Karen Burke of Walmart’s Corporate Communications stated Walmart sold 115,000 flags on September 11, 2001 compared to 6,400 on the same day in 2000.
3. A 17-year old student by the name of Robert G. Heft, designed the flag as it appears today. With the addition of Alaska and Hawaii as states, he designed the 50-star flag as a history project. He got a B- from his instructor that was later changed to an A when President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Heft’s design.
4. Six flags were planted on the moon during the Apollo missions. Only one flag fell. According to Buzz Aldrin, the one that fell was blown over by Apollo 11 liftoff from the moon’s surface.
5. According to the US Department of State, the official colors are “old glory red” and “old glory blue.
6. Flag Day is not an official federal holiday outside of Pennsylvania and New York. New York doesn’t observe Flag Day on the 14^th, but rather the second Sunday in June.
7. Richard Williams the animation director of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” said he modeled the rabbit’s colors after Old Glory (red overalls, white fur, blue tie). It looked like an American flag and subliminally everyone like it.
8. There are federal regulations governing the handling and display of the flag (the U.S. Flag Code) in advertising or printing or anything intended for temporary use or display.
9. Old Glory was a nickname for a particular U.S. flag. It was owned by a sea captain given to him by a woman in his home town of Salem, MA. He named it Old Glory after seeing it on his mast in 1831. The name became synonymous with the American flag.

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.