Archive for the ‘E-procurement’ Category

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All we Want for Christmas…

Thursday, December 23rd, 2021

 

Today’s post is from our archives at SafeSourcing.

SafeSourcing continues to work with hundreds if not thousands of vendors and clients during the year, and here are some things we’d like to see Procurement professionals deliver to all of us this festive season.

Let’s get clients talking to us again. You can’t sit back and think clients are chomping at the bit to call us. So let’s have a chat. Things change quickly and you might be surprised about what we can do for you now. With a new year upon us, it is a perfect time to talk about your upcoming procurement challenges and areas where you see savings. And, while we’re on the subject…

Let’s bring back a new level of interest for vendors. Start the New Year by contacting those vendors (email survey) who have participated in more than two or three events. Access their level of interest in participating in future events and/or find out ways we can improve our process.

Say what you mean. Request for Quote documents are often hard to interpret, and the specifications can lack important detail. With better instructions and better details, any vendor with a bit of common sense will be able to bid more confidently. That’s good for everyone.

Provide a timetable that has a response period that’s fair and reasonable. We run a pretty tight ship these days; our staff is stretched and it can be difficult to keep up with complex requirements and decreasing deadlines. Pressing us for time because you’re late to respond, only means you get rushed and submit sub-par results. On the other hand…

Don’t issue a timetable only to issue a last-minute extension just before the deadline. This unfairly disadvantages (and discourages) the vendors that are prepared, and have made it a priority to respond to our request.

Please Client, answer our questions. We don’t ask many, but often, we don’t get meaningful answers (or any answers). Giving us better data will mean better proposals for you to evaluate. And finally…

If you give us a service or supply to run, mean it! We have a hard working dedicated team that loves working on your projects. We pride ourselves in getting back to you the necessary data for you to approve to run an event. But please, let’s not waste either of our time.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, and a successful and prosperous 2021.

SafeSourcing associates are focused on our customers and vendors in order to deliver the best possible white glove service that there is. We would be happy to discuss how SafeSourcing can help you with your eProcurement planning. For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.  

 

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So you think you can do it yourself and do it better than an e-procurement service provider?

Tuesday, October 12th, 2021

 

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

That is if you want to drive the greatest possible savings across the broadest range of categories in the shortest amount of time; and have a sustainable process moving forward.

The question one needs to ask is; what type of event services does my e-procurement provider offer? If your company is deciding to try self service, which is to be 100% self-sufficient, you need to know if your provider offers readily available classroom education that can be conducted on-site in order to train your team in all the nuances of event creation and support. These skills are the foundation that allows e-procurement providers to support large volumes of events in a full service mode, which drive greater savings over the long term. Knowledge transfer in this area is one thing; the passion, skill and headcount to carry out these practices on a day by day basis are what drive results.

Typically event services falls into two broad categories:

1. Event management
2. Event monitoring and support.

Event management provides end to end e-sourcing support that begins with a companies overall strategy and ends with the actual execution of the e-procurement event. This is a true cross category effort that includes a rather lengthy list of services that may include buyer training, supplier selection, category discovery, supplier communication, data analysis and the overall strategy for taking a specific category to market including timing, training and overall supplier expectation management.

Event monitoring and support is actually the tactical implementation of the over all e-procurement event management process. This may include all communications with suppliers on the day of an event including making sure they have access to the system, get logged in properly, don’t have problems placing quotes, monitoring supplier and buyer system communications techniques during an event such as notes and texting and being available post event for questions as needed.

These services are normally provided by people behind the scenes with a very specific skill set. If you plan to do self service it would be very wise to make sure you have them covered at the same quality level.

If you are interested in learning more, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Services Account Manager.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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This post is from a year ago! I know that your costs are going UP! And they still are!

Friday, September 24th, 2021

 

Today’s post is from Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

Its amazing to me that with all the increases in spending resulting and continuing  from COVID-19 Pandemic, some of which would have been classified as tail spend that companies continue to not use tools available to them that will help to keep these and other costs down. Please contact me personally if you’d like to discuss.

At SafeSourcing, we help buyers save considerably on costs by providing tools that enhance the ability to do business in a better, safer, smarter, more streamlined and cost-effective way. Our flexible service offerings and suite of e-procurement tools deliver savings that can be referenced that are greater than 10 times the cost of our services and often much higher. Our annualized savings across all customers and all categories over the last 24 months are greater than 24%. You can not do better on your own!

We can help Improve your profitability and increase your efficiency. Both areas that  should and can help during these stressful times.

Here’s what one of our customers had to say. “We would not be where we are with our Indirect Spend if it were not for SafeSourcing.” SR. VP FINANCE OF $20B DISTRIBUTION COMPANY.

If you’d like to discuss our risk free trial, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Services professional.

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What’s the difference between a non-responsible and a non-responsive bidder.

Wednesday, May 26th, 2021

 

 

Today’s post is our archives at SafeSourcing.

The California Court of Appeals offered a good explanation of the difference between responsive and responsible. “A bid is ‘responsive’ if it promises to do what the bidding instructions demand; a bidder is ‘responsible’ if it can perform the contract as promised.” [1]

Non-responsibility is determined based on whether the bidder can actually fulfill the Invitation to Bid (ITB). Does the company have the necessary facilities and delivery capabilities to fulfill the required products? Determining if a vendor is responsible would have you assessing if the bidder is capable of fulfilling the products as specified, not if the bid itself meets the specifications.

Every ITB has product specifications, terms, and deliverables that each bidder must abide by. For a bidder to be considered non-responsive,  they will not conform or meet one or any of these requirements. When determining if a bid is responsive, you would assess if the bid offered meets the product specifications, terms, and deliverables; not at how well the bidder will actually perform.

When a bidder is categorized as non-responsive there are normally three steps. First, you will notify the bidder with indications of their non-responsibility. Second, the bidder will be given the opportunity to contest those indications. Finally the bidder should be permitted to present evidence that they are qualified to fulfill the products.

Please contact SafeSourcing for any needs with your non-responsible and non-responsive suppliers. 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. We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

We look forward to your comments.

[1] http://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/195/1331.html

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Understanding the Relationship Between Procurement and Marketing

Thursday, April 8th, 2021

 

Todays post is from our SafeSourcing Archives

The relationship between a retailer’s Marketing and Procurement Departments has been one struggling to maintain cohesiveness in many companies for quite some time.

While the Marketing team is continually trying to find creative and cutting-edge ways to increase sales within a retail organization, Procurement is constantly looking for ways in which to not only reduce costs, but find the best fit of suppliers with their company.

In many cases, marketing will expend a good deal of effort to find vendors to work with them on projects that when turned over to the procurement team can’t even be considered because their price is too high.  In the end this costs the company money, creates continued division between departments, and causes unnecessary lost time and sales.

Studies and reports have shown, and we at SafeSourcing agree, that the involvement of the Procurement department, even at the most basic level, into marketing projects can reap huge benefits as both departments work toward finding partners in their suppliers to achieve both their marketing and procurement objectives.

Retailers whose Marketing departments can leverage the database of the Procurement department’s suppliers will find a positive effect on their spend while achieving the ROI they are looking for on their campaigns and will create a better team environment within the company to achieve like-minded goals.

For more information about how the SafeSourcing database of known suppliers can help your company’s marketing and procurement departments work together to achieve these goals, please contact a Customer Service representative today.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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What Procurement KPI’s are on your dashboard?

Friday, March 26th, 2021

 

Todays post is by Ron Southard CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

At a minimum the following data fields; start date, event date, award date, letter of intent date, contract date, initial delivery date, total low company quotes, total all low quotes, award of business quotes are the basis for e-procurement KPI’s that will help to measure how your procurement department is performing and progressing over time and where opportunity for additional savings exist.

Wit the above data you can measure the following daily by department and associate assigned to that project. You should be able to actually click on any of the KPI’s to drill down for further analysis and causal data.

1. Opportunity lost cost results
2. Timeline analysis of a project launch to event, letter of intent and contract
3. Low quote company versus all low quotes or missed savings
4. Average days to complete event
5. Average days to complete award
6. Average days to complete LOI
7. Analysis of supplier count and line item count versus where savings were maximized.
8. Number of events occurring above and below average.
9. Average or mean performance by KPI
10. Deviation or the best and worst events by KPI

If you had these KPI’s on your desktop of mobile dashboard, how much easier would it be for you to manage your business? If you don’t have this data please contact a SafeSourcing?Customer Services Account Manager to find out just how easy it is to retrieve.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Getting Savings Through the Learning Curve

Thursday, March 18th, 2021

 

 Today’s post is by Dave Wenig, Senior Vice President of Sales and Services at  SafeSourcing.

Learning is a topic that has no shortage of sayings and idioms, and common phrases that refer to it. To name a few…

  1. “You learn something new every day”
  2. You can “learn the hard way”
  3. You can “learn from your mistakes”
  4. And, of course, you may experience a “learning curve”

The list could go on, but the point is that learning is a fact of life. In eProcurement, you will likely find plenty of opportunity to learn, but there are a few things that you can do as you get started to make sure you learn quickly and that you’re able to enjoy the benefits of your eProcurement process even as you’re learning. Here are a few thoughts on the matter so that you can learn from the experience of others.

The first one  I’ll share is that it is absolutely possible to learn as you go with eProcurement. In fact, the best way to learn how the process works and what works best for you is to select some categories to start with and to begin sourcing. With SafeSourcing, we help our customers get off and running very easily because of our full-service SaaS model. That eliminates many of the typical barriers to entry that would prevent a new user from experiencing how eProcurement works and from getting the immediate value created when we reduce costs in those early categories.

Secondarily, I would note that you don’t need to learn anything the hard way. For customers willing to embrace eProcurement and are willing to be open minded in their learning, SafeSourcing can offer much guidance. From experience, the more closely you are willing to work with us and communicate regularly, the better your learning experience will be. We’d rather help you learn from the mistakes of other than your own and we’re going to guide you around the types of challenges and pitfalls that exist.

Like any subject, learning in eProcurement is an entirely subjective experience. From our perspective as the eProcurement provider, we can make learning a very easy process, but everyone learns their own way. No matter your learning style, just know that we’re here to make sure that you succeed.

If  you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help you, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

 

 

 

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Looking for a new Procurement Service Provider? Look no further!

Wednesday, March 10th, 2021

 

Today’s post is our archives at SafeSourcing Inc.

SafeSourcing, Inc. is here for you, where we focus on YOU and YOUR needs, and not just sell you a tool, we provide you exceptional service!

10X

 

 

 

 

About us:

Just in time, an innovative alternative has arrived. SafeSourcing is loaded with efficient and comprehensive tools and programs that turn the procurement process into a highly productive endeavor. SafeSourcing® is, literally, a one-stop shopping center.

At SafeSourcing, we focus on safety and security. All our vendors are part of a high quality supplier database with many associated tables that support security and safety in the supply chain. SafeSourcing’s suppliers are also checked for their support of socially responsible initiatives including their eco-friendly practices.

To that end, our SafeSourceIt™ Supplier Database of over 427,000 global suppliers contains over twenty-five unique certification standards that are supported by our best practice initiatives such as GFSI, ISO 22000, Green Seal, ECO-LOGO, Fair Trade, SQF and Certified Humane Raised & Hand-Fed.

The SafeSourcing objective is to help buyers save considerably on costs. History shows that in selected categories, buyers have saved as much as 30-40%. Auction events can literally be set up in minutes, creating a significant efficiency improvement over traditional offerings. Studies have shown that a 5% saving in procurement costs translates into an effective increase in sales growth of 30%.

“As our technology advances, new companies are given the tools to do business in a better, smarter, more streamlined and cost effective way. SafeSourcing is one of those companies and delivering these advances to the procurement community is why we are here.” Ron Southard, CEO, SafeSourcing.

SafeSourcing is committed to proactively supporting safety and environmental standards in the global supply chain. We donate a portion of our net profits to retail education, green and safety initiatives.

Are you interest in learning more about SafeSourcing and how we can help your company? 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.

 

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The Central Procurement Function!

Tuesday, March 9th, 2021

 

Today’s post is from Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

As you can imagine the answer to this question could actually be pages in length. However the following is directionally correct based on the question and minus the organizational structure and alignment. However, it is this authors firm belief that Procurement should ultimately report to Finance. Example: CPO reports to CFO.

The Central Procurement Function in responsible for the procurement of goods, services and capital projects by an authorized group within a company’s hierarchy. Central procurement in a best case scenario includes the financial decision making authority specific to that procurement on behalf of the entire company for reuse or resale from an approved list of vendors or suppliers. In some cases the budget for a specific spend may reside within another functional area  where central procurement collaborates and negotiates on behalf of that areas subject matter experts but the subject matter experts approve the final vendor selection.  In the case of manufacturing company’s  this function also includes the purchase of commodities used in the manufacture of finished goods.

The central procurement function is typically authorized within a company in order to insure consistency thought-out the organizations procurement process by eliminating the potential negative effects of non-collaborative, non-aggregated purchasing by multiple divisions, departments and other corporate entities that can support rogue or unstructured buying.

Measurements of a central procurement organizations success can differ widely from company to company depending upon where they fall relative to a procurement maturity model. Typically these organizations are measured by overall procurement Key Performance Indicators or KPI’s at the procurement department level that usually includes the following at a minimum.

1.  Percent of spend under management
2.  Price Improvement
3.  Quality Improvement
4.  Safety Improvement
5.  Reduction in Carbon Footprint
6.  Service Level Improvement
7.  Distribution Flexibility
8.  On  Time Delivery Improvement
9.  Supplier Management

Management of these KPI’s is intended to insure that  companies have a defined  processes in place so as to promote a fair and open competitive model for the supplier community that’s  interested in soliciting their business.  This also minimizes the opportunity for fraud and collusion while insuring the best possible product or service is purchased at the best possible price and overall value to the company.

If you’d like to learn more about the central procurement function, please contact SafeSourcing.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Part II of here is some Lasik for retail e-procurement professionals in order to create better focus.

Thursday, January 28th, 2021

 

During yesterdays post Here is some Lasik for retail e-procurement professionals in order to create better focus we discussed the following four retail P&L measures and how to use them to pin point a starting point for e-procurement evaluation and events. They were

  1. Gross Sales,
  2. Cost of Goods Sold,
  3. Gross Margin and
  4. EBITDA.

Also in yesterdays post, we promised to review what underperforming the above measures means and how careful evaluation will point you in the direction as to where to begin your e-procurement journey.

Here you go!

If your EBITDA is low, and your top line sales are in line with your plan, it is pretty clear that you have either an expense problem or a cost of goods problem. If the problem is expense related the first indicator is that your gross margin is most likely in line and your costs of goods are ok relative to your plan. In this case since the issue looks like it is below the gross margin line you have an expense problem. This does not always mean that the issue is your largest expense category like health benefits. Often times the problem can be caused by mid level expense related categories particularly categories that are hard to monitor and as such hard to control like hired services. A few examples are items like landscaping, snow removal, pest control, window washing and other similar types of expenses. These expenses have multiple invoices from multiple suppliers multiple times each month and are approved at store level. As a result, eProcurement results for these categories return impressive results while also streamlining suppliers as well as the process. With out going into to much detail the exact same process works if you turn this issue around and sales are near plan and gross margin is out of line, you most likely have a cost of goods issue.

A caution that procurement professionals should be aware of is that of measuring yourself solely against your own plan. You may be achieving your plan, but underperforming the industry you serve. This author believes that this is the 2nd level of analysis required once you have addressed the items indicated above and want to take the next step in creating a sustainable e-procurement process.

I hope this helps and allows you to use the lyrics from the 1972 song by Johnny Nash titled ?I can see clearly now? as your sourcing mantra.

If you’d like to discuss further how I can personally help your company, please use our contact page as I get the updates as soon as you submit it.

 

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