Today’s post is written by Heather Powell, Manager of the COE Department & Project Manager at SafeSourcing Inc.

5. Sloth – Being too slow or lazy at doing something.
     a. Laziness is giving in to the desire to do nothing.  Being lazy can mean avoiding doing something else; whatever the hard thing is that you want to avoid doing.   Taking laziness too far is avoidance of undesirable tasks (including thinking hard).  We grow by doing challenging things.

 
In e-procurement sloth can be defined as- not having a contracts register/database meaning renewal dates are missed.

This results in missed opportunities to renegotiate contract terms and influence renewal pricing. This is especially prevalent in the area of utilities but also impacts photocopiers, maintenance contracts and additional services. In many cases you need to be giving notice on contracts 1, 3 or even 6 months in advance.

• How to avoid this:
• 1.  Keep a contract register with all relevant dates. SafeSourcing offers a SafeContract™ for their customers who need to record, store, and track contracts.
•  2. Make sure you include those categories where others are in charge of renewal too as if the individuals move on, or happen to be off sick when a renewal is due it can very easily fall down the cracks and get missed. It also enables you to engage with colleagues throughout the renewal process to ensure they’re getting ‘best value’ on the customer’s behalf.

Do you recognize Sloth as a sign of sins in your business practices today? Stay tuned tomorrow for the 6th sin in e-procurement: Wrath and how to realize and avoid it.

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.

Today’s post is written by Heather Powell, Manager of the COE Department & Project Manager at SafeSourcing Inc.

Envy – Jealousy; wanting to have what someone has.

• Envy is wishing you had an emotion. Example:  I see someone waterskiing, and I am envious of the gleeful feeling that person has.  YOU   CANNOT ENVY AN OBJECT.  Envy is of the people who use the object.  I am not envious of a Corvette; I am envious of a person who owns a Corvette because I would like the emotions of glee, power, and speed that come with driving it.

In e-procurement envy can be defined as- inadequate implementation processes.

Unfortunately, this is a very common sin and means that all the hard work up to this point can be wasted.  Once a new or renewal contract has been signed you never want to say, “now the hard work begins”. It’s imperative that you implement the new processes/systems/logistics as quickly as possible in order not to lose momentum from the negotiation phase. Too many times we see the customer not realizing the potential benefits from a deal because they get side-tracked during the implementation phase and things aren’t set up properly. Photocopiers that never have their full functionality used or IT used to assess who’s doing what, stationery being ordered from the old suppliers because staff haven’t been consulted or trained on the new system for the new supplier. The list goes on.

How to avoid this:

1.  Have a proper implementation plan in place.

2. Ensure that during the entire e-procurement process those involved in the area being reviewed are included. Invite them to comment on, or even assist in the development of, the Request for Proposal. Let them be the subject matter experts. 

3. Ensure they are consulted on the choice of supplier.

4. Most definitely get them introduced to the new supplier as early as possible once a decision to change has been made. The more they feel a part of the process and decisions made the more likely they are to embrace it and implement it in full. This ensures the customer gains maximum benefit from the savings identified in the e-procurement process.

Do you recognize Envy as a sign of sins in your business practices today? Stay tuned tomorrow for the 5th sin in e-procurement: Sloth and how to realize and avoid it.

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.

Today’s post is written by Heather Powell, Manager of the COE Department & Project Manager at SafeSourcing Inc.

3. Lust – The need to fulfill unspiritual desires; to have an intense desire or need.
      a.  Lust is blind to consequences.

In e-procurement lust can be defined as- not having a clear specification of what you want before engaging with potential suppliers.

Trust us when we say that if you don’t know what you want before approaching suppliers you’ll be faced with a number of problems in the e-procurement process.

First, the suppliers themselves have the ability to add in additional features, functionality, upgrades etc. Not only will this then confuse as to the best options but you will end up with an inability to compare like-with-like (see Gluttony yesterday’s blog). It’s actually unhelpful for the suppliers too as an inadequate specification brief makes it hard for them to understand your true requirements.

How to avoid this:

     • Before you start any negotiations for a product or service ensure you have a detailed specification of what you are looking for. This helps both you and the potential suppliers. If it’s a cleaning service, have a floor plan and specification document. If it’s a requirement for photocopiers, have details of the functionality you require, how you wish to finance it, what additional features you require.     

     • From your own perspective you can note which requirements are the ‘need to haves’ and which are the ‘nice to haves’. The specification document is just that and it can be changed once you have chosen your preferred supplier.

Do you recognize Lust as a sign of sins in your business practices today? Stay tuned tomorrow for the 4rd sin in e-procurement: Envy and how to realize and avoid it.

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.

Today?s post is written by Heather Powell, Manager of the COE Department & Project Manager at SafeSourcing Inc.

??2. Gluttony – Similar to greed, but gluttony is the action of taking too much of something in.

???? a.?Gluttony is excessive consumption of something.? This usually relates to eating too much, but broadly speaking it?s any time you use more?? than is your right to.? This is not greed (desire for power over others).? This is the mistreatment of your own body and the absorption of constantly doing something.? It?s possible to be a glutton in the use of video games or social media; you?re using the entertainment as brain candy.

In e-procurement gluttony can be defined as- comparing apples with oranges.

This is probably the single most difficult aspect of e- procurement. To make a decision about offers on the table it is imperative you are comparing like with like. This ?sin? encompasses a number of the others i.e. not reading the small print, not having a detailed brief and confusing low cost with value for money. All of this will lead to you making an ill-informed decision.

How to avoid this:

??1. If your current supplier is providing a service which you feel may need to be changed, ensure that prospective suppliers provide two quotes ? one like-for-like and one based on an enhanced specification.
??2. Draw up a robust RFP (Request for Proposal) document asking for all sections to be completed as detailed but then having an additional section for the supplier?s own suggestions about how to improve the current offering.
??3. It?s also helpful to add a weighting to the responses in a RFP i.e. 10% of the marks for product specification, 10% for financial strength, 20% for customer service and so on. This ensures every supplier is benchmarked in the same way.

Do you recognize Gluttony as a sign of sins in your business practices today? Stay tuned tomorrow for the 3rd sin in e-procurement: Lust and how to realize and avoid it.

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.

Today’s post is written by Heather Powell, Manager of the COE Department & Project Manager at SafeSourcing Inc.

1. Greed – Wanting too much of something.
     a. Greed is wishing you had more power over the people around you.  This comes from having money or valuable objects.   (Note: wanting   the power of respect is a sin of pride, not of greed.)  Greed is wanting the power to force someone to do what we want.  Money is the universal solvent; enough of it can make anyone do anything.  Wisdom is knowing what your price is.  Greed, the obsession with power, can drive out all positive forces in your life, even if you think your objective is a just one.

2. In e-procurement greed can be defined as- confusing low cost with value for money.

An area to be wary of is maintenance contracts. The headline cost of an annual maintenance contract may look very attractive but delve in to the details of labor and parts costs and you may discover that the low price will work out as anything but.

Likewise, we all know that poor service often negates the benefit of low cost.

Think too about items such as desk top printers. The printer itself may look like good value for money but what about the ink cartridges? These days you might be better off looking at a MFD (Multi- Functional Device) with toner included as a more cost effective option.

How to avoid this:

• Look into the details of ALL of the potential costs of a contract including those aspects that might initially be a little ‘hidden’.
• Ensure when benchmarking goods you don’t just use a select basket, do the whole lot. With regard to the service element, always take  references on potential suppliers to check they’ll be able to deliver. There is nothing worse than choosing a new supplier based on a good price only to discover you have to waste hours of your valuable time because their service is not up-to-scratch.

Do you recognize Greed as a sign of sin in your business practices today? Stay tuned tomorrow for the 2nd sin in e-procurement: Gluttony and how to realize and avoid it.

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.

Today’s post is written by Heather Powell, Manager of the COE Department & Project Manager at SafeSourcing Inc.

This series of blogs will focus on the 7 deadly sins of e-procurement and how to overcome them, but first what are the original 7 deadly sins and why do they correspond with life and business as we know it?

 Seven things that are the worst things to do:

1. Greed – Wanting too much of something.
2. Gluttony – Similar to greed, but gluttony is the action of taking too much of something in.
3. Lust – The need to fulfill unspiritual desires; to have an intense desire or need. 
4. Envy – Jealousy; wanting to have what someone has.
5. Sloth – Being too slow or lazy at doing something.
6. Wrath – Vindictive anger; angry revenge.
7. Pride – Being too self-satisfied; quality or state of being proud – inordinate self-esteem.
Will you recognize any of these sins in your business practices today? Stay tuned on how to realize each and avoid them.

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.

Today’s post is by Alyson Usserman  an Account Manager at Safesourcing

I have been SUV shopping for close to three months. I have researched, test driven, looked at, researched again, and I am still not ready to buy quite yet. There are so many lingering questions that need to be answered before I sign a contract for x amount of years.

This past week I test drove two SUVs that were virtually the same on the outside. However, the inside was extremely different. SUV A had Bluetooth, and heated seats; however, SUV A was an automatic. SUV B was not equipped with Bluetooth or a back-up camera, it had a standard black interior, but the most intriguing part about SUV B was the fact that it was a 6-speed Manual Transmission.

Most people do not know how to drive a manual transmission, which is fine, however I prefer the manual over the automatic especially in the awful Ohio winter. I can control the manual completely, how fast it’s going, which gear it is in on the ice.

I already knew I wanted the manual over the automatic any day. But then questions started coming up more frequently. Will this SUV be a good long term investment? Will my 17 month old son be safe? Will he have enough leg room in 10 years? Can I fit four teenage boys in it and comfortably? Can two car seats fit safely, what about three? The car saleswoman I was speaking to and expressing concern to, attempted to convince me that that SUV was the one I had been searching for! Of course she did, that is her job to sell cars whether she believes it will be a good fit or not. Without pre-existing knowledge of the industry, the top brands, and potential issues, I may have left with SUV A instead of the one I actually wanted.

Sometimes well-meaning sales consultants think that their product is the best out there. Some of them are right, and some of them are wrong. At SafeSourcing we dig beyond face value for our customers, we not only try to find the best price possible, but the best product for that price as well.

Let SafeSourcing help you find the products that your company needs. We have an entire customer service team that can help with your procurement needs.

We look forward to your comments

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

In yesterdays post of the same title we discussed many reason why using these tools can help to make your company more competitive and profitable at the same time. What we left out is that the might also keep your company in business.

A number of years ago as a young sales person I traveled to a regional retailers store to demonstrate the newest scanner/scale technology. Yes, believe it or not there was a time when scanners and scales were not an integrated product. I had practiced my demo for days and planned on using labor reduction, customer throughput and error elimination as part of my ROI discussion. When I arrived at the store and met the manager I asked him to find some produce that I could demo. What was curious to me was that there were no customers in the store and I mean none. The manager explained that Wal-Mart had opened a Hyper Mart down the street. These were much bigger than today?s Super Centers. All the productivity in the world could not help this retailer as the competition offered greater selection and better pricing. Throughput, error reduction etc. did not matter because customer traffic was down substantially. This retailer is no longer business today.

I am not against Wal-Mart or any other quality retailer like them that wants to compete for new business. Tesco from the UK actually came to the U.S. with their small Fresh N Easy format a couple of years ago. What should concern retailers, acualty smaller ones is that Wal-Mart now plans to open small urban stores that are predominantly focused on groceries. Because of whom they are and how they buy. small retailers and I mean regional and small chains will not be able to compete, will loose business and unfortunately some may fail.

E-procurement tools just might be what allows your company to compete and exist. It will take quite a while for Wal-Mart to test and roll out this model, so now may be a good time to prepare by improving your bottom line and creating your own war chest.

As an example, SafeSourcing does a lot of work with regional and small drug store chains. These chains have seen average savings of 24.7% during the last year using our tools. That?s not bad for an industry with a 1.5% bottom line.

If you’d like to learn more as to how SafeSourcing can improve your earnings, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services account manager.

Give us a call at1-866-623-9006; if you don?t save you don?t pay.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

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

Nothing else that a retailer is doing including remodels, customer marketing campaigns, new formats, new products or any thing else focused on sales increases can have the impact on your bottom line that e-procurement tools can. If you choose to use hosted or SaaS based offerings, the cost is so low as a percentage of savings that it?s almost silly. If you want to free up some cash in order to fund those other opportunities mentioned above now is the time to reach out to companies like SafeSourcing.

Cost of goods and services is the largest area of retailers P&L. Focus on this area can drive cost from their business immediately. Since the early 1990?s, initiatives focused on the customer? in the form of CRM programs, Efficient Consumer Response initiatives, and Large scale data warehouses or decision support systems have been implemented, but have not appreciably improved the bottom line for many retailers.. E-procurement solutions? immediately improves the effectiveness of buyers and category managers by offering them a broader universe of choices over a shorter period of time, without the need to conduct detailed research, and as such makes their job easier.

Calculating the dollar and percentage return on investment at the conclusion of an e-procurement event is immediate so the ROI in most cases is also instantaneous. Historical savings in the retail industry? have averaged? as much as 20% and in? many cases has been as much as 10X or greater. In almost all cases these are direct savings versus budgeted expenses. As such the dollars drop directly to the bottom line and can easily be converted to basis points of improvement that are factual and reportable within a current quarter. To this authors knowledge there are no other applications or tools that can make this claim.

If you’d like to learn more as to how SafeSourcing can improve your earnings, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services account manager.

Or, just give us a call at 1-866-623-9006; if you don?t save you don?t pay.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.