Today’s post is by Ryan Melowic; Vice President of Customer Services at SafeSourcing.

When running an eRFX event there are many benefits that go far beyond savings. Most all benefits will eventually save you money, but it has value-added benefits that won’t show savings right away.

During the sourcing process it is best to establish goals that your company wants to achieve. What part of the current process is costing you money, where is there room for savings? The following goals are achieved when running a sourcing event.

Fewer Suppliers– Managing suppliers can be very costly to your company. All suppliers come with different invoices, contracts, contacts, and terms. The amount of time it takes to manage all the different suppliers will hinder any savings you originally planned on receiving. Lower the amount of suppliers will be great value in minimizing time with managing them.

Location– Are your shipments coming from across the country because the cost was so low? But are you washing away those savings in expediting shipments due to a current process and standard freight takes too long. Finding suppliers within closer proximity will save you shipping time and result in savings.

Standardizing Items– When sourcing item(s) in the customer-facing industry it is best to have a standard appearance and be able to control costs with identical item at a larger volume. Whether it is for new construction or remolding, standardizing the specifications and gathering a quote on the total volume/spend can save your company money.

Here at SafeSourcing we will work with achieving all your goals, however many there may be, and we can also help you create goals for sourcing events.

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 Ryan Melowic; Assistant Vice President of COE at SafeSourcing.

Why the Hired Service Category is a great choice when executing eProcurement events

When attempting to reduce cost at your company, please take ample time to investigate hired services. Typically, SafeSourcing sees above 20% savings on Hired Services that are taken to market. The key to hired service projects is to have a thorough understanding what it is your company requires from the service providers.

Category research must be completed to determine the scope of the current work, frequencies of the work, cost per unit for the work and locations where the work will be performed. Terms and conditions will need to be identified to inform the service providers of contractual expectations.

Depending on your companies geographical location (s) service providers will need to be researched on a National, regional and local level. In some cases consolidating vendors makes sense. In other cases with geographic outliers require regional and local vendors.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help you with your hired service procurement needs or on our ?Risk Free? trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative. We look forward to your comments.

Today’s post is by Steve Schwerin, an account manager here at SafeSourcing.

I come across the thought quite a lot these days that the overnight success is a myth.  I’m left wondering if there was a time this saying was gaining force.  The idea of overnight success is everywhere, and yet it constantly proves untrue.  Certainly, some victories are decided in this fashion.  During some game or some battle, one party suddenly musters overwhelming force seemingly out of nowhere.  The end.  This is a horrible metaphor for business, yet it is embedded in the modern psyche.  As you watch the training of Olympic athletes, class valedictorians, chess grand masters and concert pianists, you come to realize that success is made up of a lot of incremental victories.  I venture to guess that all great entrepreneurs are in this same class.

What I see authors writing about these days is often the incremental changes over time that end up defining a great company or winning team.  For this to happen, companies need a willingness to learn incrementally, and who really wants to learn incrementally?  I know I don’t. 

Applying this thought to what we do here at SafeSourcing, procurement is a process.  A successful company isn’t defined by one purchase or the next big purchase for that matter.  Are you steering your company away from eProcurement, because you can’t see how it can work for your company or could you be looking for the quick, infallible plan?  As with most worthwhile pursuits, eProcurement is a process.  Procurement victory constitutes success over not one individual spend element, but a process over time that involved learning about what your company buys, why they buy it and from whom they can buy it.

Here at SafeSourcing, we know the risks of change which is why we offer risk-free trials in learning more about procurement with us.  Honestly, how much is procurement victory worth?  One answer is more than free.  Contact one of our customer service representatives at 888-261-9070 and start the process.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President and COO at SafeSourcing.

It is easy for a company to tender an RFP to the IT world of the top 3 or 4 Computer Peripheral Equipment Resellers and make a decision after reviewing the responses and conducting interviews.  In many cases companies will create a contract for nothing more than an agreement of category discounts that will apply to purchases moving forward.  Sometimes the catalog prices are furnished sometimes they aren’t, but many times changes occur to the catalog that never get reviewed by the customer once the contract/agreement is signed.  Today and tomorrow we will be looking at how much more there is to learning about the incentives and control your company should be asking for when deciding on a new IT VAR or in evaluating the current VAR you have today.

Price the things you buy – A surprising number of customer we deal take a look at the IT VAR category and immediately want to make sure they are getting the best category discounts available.  This is good information collect and negotiate with the vendors but upon digging into their actual spend, 75% (or greater)  of the spend tends to be from just a handful of items.  In these cases, beating the IT VAR up on a category discount for network equipment does not do you much good if laptops and docking stations make up half of your spend in this category.  Review the best historical data you have to determine what items you frequently purchase and make sure you capture individual pricing on those items.

Category Discount Options – Since IT VAR projects will inevitably include collecting category discounts, understanding the options the suppliers will bring you in advance will help shape what you collect and expect.  The first model is the traditional discount off of list price.  This requires a catalog to be collected in advance of the final agreed upon discounts and updates to be supplied in advance of any pricing reviews during the length of the contract.  The cost plus model is one that is increasingly popular with the suppliers because it is easier to show their costs and calculate the markup from there.  This gives visibility into the supplier margins and is one suppliers and their customers like.  The third option which is newer but gaining popularity is the discount off of published list pricing (usually their website) so that invoices can be audited at any time and so that customers can take advantage of special pricing that is offered to the public as well as their discount.

Rebates – There are two areas that customers frequently overlook when evaluating IT equipment suppliers.  Both things tie directly into business 101 principles.  The first, rebates, we will talk about today the second we will cover in tomorrow’s blog.   Suppliers like numbers they can factor into their own company’s revenue stream.  The more accurate the number the more willing they will be to give you better deals to get your business.  Many will also be willing to “sweeten” the pot for spends that exceed estimates in the way of Volume Rebate Programs.  Make sure you are either requesting each supplier’s rebate program, or define the rebate program to the suppliers that you are expecting.  These rebate models should be tiered based and should be linked the amount of business you do with the supplier, increasing with each higher level.

IT peripheral equipment spends for many companies can be hard to manage especially if they are being managed by a non-technical procurement staff, but taking some of these items into consideration will help you find a “partner” who can help you manage the items and ensure that your staff is staying compliant with the agreement.  For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist with helping find an IT VAR that fits your situation 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.