Today’s post is from our SafeSourcing archives.

When completing a successful eRFX event, who comes first? “The client always comes first” is the general answer, but what about the suppliers? The suppliers’ full participation brings success to your event. This raises the question, “does the supplier come first?”

With eRFX events on a rise and being used with many companies now it allows a competitive, fair, and easy quoting process for the supplier. Suppliers’ full participation is necessary for a successful eRFX event. The following steps are crucial to a successful event:

•  Detailed and thorough eRFX requirements- If the scope of work or supplies does not make sense to you it probably will not make sense to your supplier.

•  Be open and ready for feedback and questions from suppliers- if you dismiss their questions and concerns, they will in turn feel the  information is inadequate and could either provide quotes that your client cannot use or will quote beyond your clients’ needs to cover their liability.

•  Continuous engagement between the supplier and intermediary- Your suppliers may be experienced with eRFX events, but some will be very frightened of the idea. Keep your supplier engaged with continuous communication and availability.

•  Provide feedback- The supplier put in a lot of time and effort in to provide competitive pricing. Acknowledge that. Follow-up with suppliers after the award of business has been made. This is going to be the reason they engage in another eRFX event. Provide feedback to the suppliers when necessary.

It is not always the outcome of the quote, so even if the supplier did not get awarded the business, which impacts their thoughts on eRFX events; it is the process that leaves an impact on the supplier. The supplier will be encouraged by the process and feel confident in the quotes provided to your client.

We, at SafeSourcing, practice this level of service to all suppliers.  For more information on how we can help you with your procurement needs 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.

Today’s post is by Dave Wenig, Director of Sales at SafeSourcing Inc.

Many post have been written about the reasons for implementing eProcurement into your purchasing process. Today, we’ll assume that this decision has already been made. The question now is how do you start realizing savings? When will we see the results?

The reality is that you should be able to see results within the current quarter. Whether or not you do depends on several factors, but is completely within your control.

First, have you targeted categories that range in complexity from simple to complex? The quick win categories are often fairly simple and can be achieved while you continue to work through the details necessary for more complex categories. Make sure that you constantly achieve savings by avoiding the pitfall of only selecting complex categories, especially as you begin sourcing with eProcurement. The excitement from success is contagious

Second, you’ll need to be sure that the entire team understands the eProcurement process. The most successful eProcurement initiatives are driven at the C level. From there, everyone involved in the purchase process should know what is involved in the process and how the award of business will be made. This will go a long want to prevent rogue spending and negotiations with vendors outside of the eProcurement process; both of which will derail your initiative.

Third, there comes a time to simply take action. Avoiding analysis paralysis is necessary to achieve savings. It’s understandable that you wonder if making optimization changes to your existing program will drive better savings or to seek out higher volumes in search of better savings. However, the time required for these considerations comes at a cost as you continue to purchase at your existing price. The alternative? Decide to reduce your current costs now and plan to optimize process or collaborate and renegotiate again only once you are ready. This allows you to buy at a much better cost while you work on your longer term strategies within that category.

There are other considerations as well, but the fact is that the success of your eProcurement program depends on your organization’s commitment to identifying and achieving savings at every opportunity.

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

We look forward to your comments

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

If you’re a follower of eProcurement and a reader of our blog and other great blogs out there, you likely understand that there are many different ways to leverage eProcurement in an organization.

Chiefly, we recognize two distinct types; those that are software or platform oriented and those that are service oriented. Both types may refer to their offering as Software as a Service (SaaS). Setting bias aside, I can acknowledge that there are pros and cons for each and that both have their merits. Picking back up my bias, I’d like to elaborate on some of the reasons why we recommend choosing an eProcurement provider with a service oriented approach. You might think of it as Full-Service Software as a Service (FSaaS).

First, and not to sound like a broken record, is time to value. When you’re standing up a new eProcurement platform, you have to be conscious of how long it will take before the results – your savings – are realized. When you work with a service oriented provider, you can lean on your provider during the first weeks and months as your organization gets up to speed. The provider can offer intellectual property (IP), expertise, staff augmentation through customer services, and the platform itself. The combination of these offerings is what will, ultimately, provide fast time to value. If you’re doing it right, results should be realized in the current quarter.

Second is cost. While it might seem as though the software or platform only options will be the lower cost alternative to the full-service options, you have to look at the total cost of ownership (TCO). Again, while the upfront software or platform only costs may seem low, you have to be careful of the factors that will drive your actual costs up. These might be user training, support, additional features, or additional user licenses. Also, to stand up an eProcurement platform without the assistance of a full-service provider, an organization should be prepared to allocate several FTEs to use the tools, work with suppliers, and provide supplier support. The fully loaded cost of these employees should be factored into your TCO estimate and should not be underestimated.

Many of the most successful clients that I have worked with have found their success using a full-service provider. Some have tried a software or platform only approach as well and have ultimately determined that the right approach is full-service.

Dave Wenig is the Director of Sales, North America at SafeSourcing. Dave or any member of the experienced team atSafeSourcing would be happy to discuss how SafeSourcing can help you with your eProcurement planning. For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

We look forward to your comments.

Today’s post is by Dave Wenig, Regional Sales Manager at SafeSourcing.

When an organization begins leveraging eProcurement for its sourcing needs, there are many great ways to select the initial categories. In today’s post, we’ll discuss the three most common considerations that we see and often recommend to our clients who are either beginning their utilization of eProcurement or are looking to strategically plan their sourcing schedule.

One consideration when choosing categories has to be the spend. We recommend considering large spend categories as they are often a great way to reduce costs significantly. While the reward of sourcing your large spend categories will be great, bear in mind that these categories are likely to be more complex.

Another consideration is the number of suppliers in the category. We work with our customers to identify and understand categories with high supplier counts. Once we understand the category better, we often find that there is opportunity to reduce the number of suppliers. Often there are many suppliers who are all providing similar products or services. Reducing the number of suppliers creates an opportunity to better control the category and to create a larger opportunity for savings by consolidating the spend as well.

A third consideration that we recommend is to identify quick categories that can be sourced right away. These categories should be of a relatively lower complexity, but should also still be categories where there is sufficient spend and very large savings opportunity. We identify these quick categories as great areas to begin and to help build momentum for the overall eProcurement initiative within the organization.

Ultimately, where to start is driven by your organization’s spend and is best decided after careful consideration including analysis of spend data and budgets. We work with our customers to develop this plan with them and more often than not, the outcome is a plan that has a healthy mix of each of the three types of categories that we considered in this post.

Dave Wenig is the Director of Sales, North America at SafeSourcing. Dave or any member of the experienced team at SafeSourcing would be happy to discuss how SafeSourcing can help you with your eProcurement planning. For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

We look forward to your comments.

Today’s post is by Dave Wenig, Regional Sales Manager at SafeSourcing.

Recently, I wrote about “Enjoying the benefits of eProcurement.” In this post, I wanted to elaborate on that same topic. Specifically, my aim is to highlight strategies to perpetuate your enjoyment of the benefits of eProcurement while minimizing the impact on your organization.

Once you start enjoying the benefits of eProcurement in your organization, you may find an unusual challenge. You might feel that you are generating savings faster than you can actually realize those savings. As previously discussed in me last post, there are several reasons why you might feel that way, from sample reviews to internal discussions about the results. That said, you need a plan in place so that you continue to generate savings and so that you wind up with rogue spending outside of your eProcurement process.

One way to address this challenge is to have a clear understanding of your timelines. Work with your eProcurement partner to identify the milestones in your larger Procure-to-Pay lifecycle. Once you understand when each milestone will occur, you can better manage the timing of all projects. For example, you might be able to time lower-priority projects so that your team does not become inundated with samples. Properly timing these projects will also help keep the contracts from piling up as it comes time to begin working with a selected supplier.

Another way to address this challenge is to work closely with your eProcurement partner to identify areas in which you can take advantage of their expertise to streamline key steps in the Procure-to-Pay lifecycle. For example, are you leveraging your partner to help you track and manage sample requests? While this task may seem fairly routine, it is very important to the award of business decision making process and can also become time-intensive. Work with your eProcurement partner and ask them to help. Lean on them as you would an internal resource.

While these are not the only two ways to create efficiency in the eProcurement process, they are two great ways to ensure that your organization is constantly generating savings and is constantly enjoying lower costs as a result of eProcurement.

Dave Wenig is the Director of Sales, North America at SafeSourcing. Dave or any member of the experienced team at SafeSourcing would be happy to discuss how SafeSourcing . can help you attain and quickly realize savings. For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

We look forward to your comments.

Today’s post is by Jericia Stevens, Account Manager at SafeSourcing

Relating my life to e-procurement

e-Procurement is a lot like couponing, in the sense you have to approach it with a different mindset. For example, with couponing you have to leave behind the old way of shopping and open your mind to something new.

The old way of shopping:

• long grocery lists planned out without considering price
• weekly menu planning
• bulk shopping trips to the local wholesale store

The new way of shopping :

• Meal planning according to sales
• Shopping at various stores for discounts and savings
• Buying more while spending less because you stock up on product while it’s on sale

This same concept applies as it relates to procurement versus e-Procurement.

The traditional procurement way involves:

• procurement was paper- and conversation-based
• done face-to-face, or via telephone
• longer turn around approval time

The e-procurement way involves:

• an online procurement process to cut out steps and save money
• Simplified software and faster turnaround times
• Real-time interaction with pre-approved suppliers
• Orders can be approved online and completed within minutes

We, at SafeSourcing want to you to see the savings and ROI the way couponers get excited about the saving in their pocket. Let SafeSourcing better manage your sourcing projects. We enjoy bringing this blog to you every week and hope you find value in it. For more information on how we can help you with your procurement needs or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.

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References

1. http://thekrazycouponlady.com/beginners/
2. https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/operations/purchasing/pages/traditional-vs-e-procurement.aspx

Today’s post is by Steven Belvin,Account Manager at SafeSourcing

An Account manager is a person who is responsible for handling the accounts of a company, right?

Correct. However, there are many more things an Account Manger may handle for a company. According to the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) website (www.cips.org) an Account Manager can be defined as “In the hierarchy of sales positions, an account manager is responsible for managing the relationship with a series of accounts. Typical responsibilities include diagnosing business opportunities, planning communications, managing relationships, negotiating agreements, reporting and troubleshooting problems.” (CIPS). As I step into the Procurement world as an Account Manager, I see where this is very true. As Account Manager we are all responsible for understanding a company’s needs and how to get them that fast and efficiently. Also, it is important for us to maintain relationships with different companies and figure out the correct method of getting them both to an agreement that is beneficial to both parties. However, our work is far from over, we also have to maintain the relationship with both companies and extinguish any problems before they become a major issue.

As one can see this seems to be a lot of work, especially for one who is trying to run an efficient business and hiring another employee just to handle this aspect of the company seems to just be a waste of resources. This is where SafeSourcing comes into play. SafeSourcing is a Strategic Sourcing company. What that means is we approach Supply Chain Management in a way that formalizes information to help a particular company gain leverage on its purchasing power. Information like Delivery time of current supplier, Cost Analysis, Quality Assurance, etc. By analyzing this information we find the best values in the market.

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.

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“CIPS – Procurement-glossary.” Charted Institute of Procurement & Supply. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

Today’s post is our SafeSourcing Archives

An Agile approach to project management methodology is most commonly used in software development, but has seen extensive use in business as well. Agile in and of itself is a relatively unspecific concept in execution, and as such has been flexible enough to find wide use in a variety of industries, and has been particularly well deployed in small or start up companies that must be adaptive to their customers’ needs and volatile markets.

The Manifesto for Agile Software Development^[1] summarizes the methodology as:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

Several sub-categories of Agile methodology have emerged that break down execution more specifically:

• Scrum – The most widely used Agile framework, it incorporates product owners, cross-functional teams, and “sprint” planning and reviewing.
• Lean – Probably the most well-known and practiced outside of the development community, made famous by Toyota’s just-in-time manufacturing practices
• Dynamic Systems Development Method – Follows the mission of “fitness for business purpose”, and ranks activities by incorporating the pareto principle.
• Crystal – Focuses on team size, system criticality, and project priorities.

One of the greatest strengths of the Agile approach is adaptability. Most procurement projects are necessarily iterative; It usually takes several exploratory steps for all parties to reach parity between the customers’ needs and the suppliers capabilities. During each step, the project’s direction may fluctuate quite a bit, and the procurement team must be ready to recreate timelines, reformat strategy, relocate product or even change team members. Diving into the details of the frameworks above can be arduous, but the benefits of finding a framework to sync your team’s workflow can be enormous once you find a methodology that works for you.

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.

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^[1] “Agile Manifesto.” 2003. 25 May. 2016 <http://www.agilemanifesto.org/>

Today’s blog is by Margaret Stewart, Executive Assistant at SafeSourcing.

Whether you have been involved in the business world for just a short time or for decades, despite whether you are at the top or bottom of a company, you probably have heard about procurement, but might not really know too much about it. A common misconception is that procurement is just for big companies or retailers, or that a procurement company just couldn’t help you. Procurement is, in fact, for everyone.

First, if you aren’t familiar with what exactly procurement is, it is defined as the “acquisition of goods and/or services at the best possible total cost of ownership, in the right quantity and quality, at the right time, in the right place for the direct benefit or use of governments, corporations, or individuals, generally via a contract.” In other words, it can help anyone get the goods or services they need.

But procurement is more than that. It can help to lower the costs of those goods and services, realizing immediate up-front savings, as well as back-end savings on things like warranties and discounts. It also allows for a better purchasing process, providing better visibility into an organization’s spending patterns and allowing for better forecasting of future spending.

If those reasons aren’t enough, e-procurement, like SafeSourcing’s suite of tools, can help with a multitude of other aspects. First, through their electronic database, vendors are hand selected for their ability to deliver quality goods and services and are researched to ensure the specifications match exactly what is needed. The electronic platform makes the procurement process easy, understandable, and smooth to run, which can free up the time of your employees, allowing for better utilization of your workforce. On top of that, it can help with contract management, document management, and overall supply chain management.

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