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

As I write this blog preparing for my 3rd half-marathon it makes me pause and think about the procurement world I am a part of every single day.? Whether actually working on a project or thinking about a project I have just completed or am about to work on, the preparation and execution of successful procurement practices is not that different than that of preparing to run a ? marathon.? In this blog we will look at some of the similarities between preparing for a race and for a procurement event.

The Goal ? I remember when I ran my first 5k and then my first 10k and then my first ? marathon.? My only initial goals were to finish.? I did not care about getting a great result, I just wanted to finish in a way that would keep me coming back.? As I did more and more races a funny thing happened; I started tracking and measuring my times.? My focus shifted and was not just on completing, it was on improving.? I never could have gotten there at the start though, it took time.? Procurement projects for many categories, especially where the spend is fragmented across multiple suppliers or not completely known, can be approached in a similar fashion. Get through the first pass and achieve a basic goal of consolidating SKUs, suppliers or services received.? This helps get things organized and positions things well for the next event.? The next event is where the major improvements in service levels, contract terms and pricing can be a focus.? Set the goal and drive toward it from the beginning and then keep improving.

The Preparation ? Any runner will tell you time and time again that the results you achieve are directly tied to the time and energy you took to prepare well in advance of the event.? While there are differences in the details for training schedules from the web, coaches and books, there are some common principles which can apply to procurement projects.? The first step is to allow the time to properly prepare.? The timeline makes all the difference.? It keeps you on track and it helps ensures that all of the necessary pieces are laid out to be completed while not overwhelming you with too much to do in too short of a time.? Preparing with another person or a team is a second step many runners employ to prepare and this is no different in a procurement project.? Having the right team members to prepare, encourage and execute the project is very important to the outcome you will achieve.? Finally there are long run days.? These are days designed to not only build up endurance but to mentally prepare you for the event so there are no surprises on race day.? In procurement terms these translate into vendor checkpoints.? These constant communications to train and answer questions ensure that there also will be no surprises in the supplier performance the day of the event.?? Great things happen when everything is well planned out, disasters will happen all by themselves.

The Day of Event ? With all of the time invested in preparing for the event, frequently runners will forget important details the day of the race that can seriously affect the hard work and preparation put in.?? In much the same way, forgetting event day details can ruin the preparation of a good event.? First, make sure your team knows which suppliers they will be supporting and that they have the appropriate communication details if they need them.? Second, don?t try new things on event day.? Stick with what you know works and adjust as issues arise; and they will.? Third, remember your goals.? Don?t get caught up in a new supplier who is going much lower than the rest of the pack.? If your goal is to consolidate and get control then it may be more important to track you incumbent?s progress so that change is minimal and keep the new low bidding company in mind for a few test areas to judge their performance.?? Finally, have fun!? The day of the event can be stressful but it is the part of the process we all get into procurement for; the excitement of creating value, of meeting the goal, and of improving from where you once were.

Goals, preparation and hard work are no more challenging for a runner than for a procurement professional and neither is the satisfaction and reward when that work pays off.? For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist with preparing for your next ?event? 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 Dennis Nicoletti; Manager at SafeSourcing

This is Part II from the previous post on August 21st 2013 titled PLEASE!  End your meetings on time

If you recall from last month’s post I titled a topic: “The meeting facilitator is uninformed or without an agenda”.    I wanted to share a quick story.  Not too long ago, during a team meeting our department director wanted our department to be recognized as proficient and productive and to stop the meeting craze that was prevalent at my previous company.  He stated that going forward we are to decline meetings that did not have an agenda within the invite.  Although that sounded a bit extreme it did resolve the numerous meeting invites without a known purpose/objective.  Give it a try…see what happens. But be careful it’s not an invite from your boss.

Have you ever been asked to be the Silent Participant? Sometimes being the ‘silent participant’ in the meeting is a position of respect – your boss may want to re-hash the meeting with you at a later time, have another pair of ears and a second opinion of every detail – let’s face it, we do miss some of the content when we participate. It may at first seem needless or a waste of resources but think of being in the meeting as working – because you are!

Keep Your Questions Brief. When asking questions, be succinct and clear. If your question is detailed, break it into parts or several questions. But be sure to ask only one question at a time; others may have questions as well.

The cell phone.  Abstain from electronics.  Just as the movie theaters requests, “Please silence cell phones”. Unless you’re expecting an emergency call put phones on silent or vibrate. You should also inform the meeting leader that you may receive an emergency call. Additionally, unless laptops are required for sharing data don’t bring or open one…unless that’s how you take notes. Keep in mind that taking notes on a laptop can be distracting to the meeting participants and or facilitator.

Respond to Action Items. After the meeting, be sure to complete any tasks assigned to you as expeditiously as possible; file your meeting notes or any formalized minutes for later review or to have in order to prepare for future meetings

We, at SafeSourcing, take great pride in practicing proper meeting etiquette which in turn allows us to be great business partners for you, our valued client.  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 Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

Market basket sourcing has been around for a long time. Most of us are familiar with a market basket as something we see or use in a supermarket. Every market basket is made up of different items and different quantities of items based on the needs or desires of the individual consumer. The majority of the mix is based on use both planned and historical. In today’s age of big data, the relationships of these items one to another or their affinity is also important although not necessarily well understood. An example would be why someone buying baby diapers might also be buying beer and chips and how that may influence sourcing decisions.

As such it is the uniqueness of these individual market baskets that should concern business owners when they develop their sourcing strategy. This applies as much at an individual shopper level for a retailer as it does at the business to business level.

Understanding the unique characteristics of products and their relationship to other products is key to understanding how to source those products. Just as retailers look at the their top deciles of customers and try to figure out how to get better wallet share from these groups by understanding the mix of the products they buy; businesses can look at the top deciles of the goods and services they buy to conduct their business and figure out how to get a better price for the items they sell or use most frequently. A market basket approach to sourcing where everything is lumped together will never accomplish the compression goals set in a companies sourcing strategy.

Sourcing based on the top deciles within a particular product category on an item by item basis not only drives the best possible compression, it also creates data relative to products and services where incumbents or awarded suppliers are not competitive. This data is extremely useful in setting next cycle strategies. It is also important as to your supplier strategy in terms of who to invite to participate, such as specialty suppliers or regional suppliers within certain deciles of spend.

Sourcing using market baskets combined with sourcing based on deciles as well as strategic unit sourcing will achieve the best overall results over time. To learn more please contact a SafeSourcing customer services representative.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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

Recently Fortune magazine had an article about the future of Apple without their visionary leader and whether they can continue to dominate and command the respect of the world.  The verdict of this article concluded with a “let’s wait and see” feeling; however it prompted a much deeper thought of why one person can have such an impact not only on a company but on the entire world.  The deeper thought still is, as procurement professionals, how do accomplish the same thing?

Over the next two days we will be taking some of the reasons why Steve Jobs was so successful, viewing them through the lens of procurement so that we can learn how we can begin to achieve the greatness that he did while he was alive, and leaving a legacy that will last for generations to come.

Plan for the future– Earlier this week a blog was posted about managing risk and one how of the crucial steps to doing this is by planning for what could lie ahead.   Much of this is understanding how long a particular type of project actually takes to run.  Once this is understood the future becomes a much easier landscape to navigate and timelines and milestones become clearer and more real.  Successful managers are the ones with the knack of seeing their projects honestly, planning realistically, adjusting where necessary and having the flexibility to do so, and accurately forecasting when something will happen by delivering on time.

Pursue Perfection– If one were too closely examine the lives of the world’s most successful people they would share many common threads including the pursuit of perfection in everything they do.  In Steve Jobs’ case it may have been noticing the “O” in the Google icon on the iPhone did not have a yellow gradient; leading many to mistake his passion for micro-managing or his attention to detail as craziness.  The fact is that all managers should be seeking that attention to detail, that perfection in every aspect of the sourcing project we conduct.  They should be going through our strategy and documents and communication with the effort of making them as close to perfect as they can without taking 6 months to finalize a Terms and Conditions documents.  In the world today it may not be possible to BE perfect but managers should care enough to want to try and be bothered enough when they don’t.

Don’t stop; keeping moving ahead– I have seen many perfectly good managers submit to the status quo of the sourcing process when faced with the initial fallout or mistakes and wrong decisions.  They get frustrated by what they were not able to achieve and focus on returning to a safe place going through the motions quietly; not wanting to rock the boat further.  The fact is, mistakes will be made, wrong decisions will happen, projects will get off track.  The key to delivering the results in spite of this is to keep moving forward.  To understand the situation, adjust and correct, own the issue and learn from it for the next time.  Good planning and smart time management can also go a long way to helping this process but the attitude of moving ahead in these situations is the ultimate determining factor for where the projects end up.

At SafeSourcing our team is constantly looking for ways to improve our services and our support of our customers.  Our strategies and plan for customer projects take different approaches than ones many companies continue to follow without question.  Part of a successful process begins with planning, pursuing perfection and moving forward and tomorrow we will conclude with the other pieces of how we do what we do.  For more information on how we can help with your projects 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 Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President and COO at SafeSourcing.

The current issue of Time magazine had an article on the future of television and what new companies are doing to offer alternatives to normal cable and satellite offerings.  The article goes into detail about how many companies are out there offering options for consumers to obtain TV programming without paying the cable and satellite companies big money to get it.  The reason many people are still going down the cable and satellite TV path is simple: they don’t know they have other options.   The reason why people who know about these options and still aren’t using them is also simple: they lack the know-how to do it.

The focus of today’s blog is to look into areas of procurement where the same process is happening and services or products are being purchased because no one has taken the extra time to look for alternatives.  Sometimes these alternatives are in their infancy and some require some expertise to implement them, but the potential return for your company can be staggering in the long-run.

Different methods, current applications – Some of the best ways to find new alternatives for your sourcing needs is to implement different methods to currently sourced items and services.   One hot area where this is happening is in leasing and renting.  Recently we performed a project for a customer who was looking to collect pricing on purchasing new and used equipment he had an upcoming need for.  We asked about looking into renting the equipment for his short term uses and he stated that he had never really explored the option.  The flipside to this is looking into purchase programs where you have historically rented/leased.  This is getting great traction in corporate uniform programs.  Companies are creating purchase programs for their employees to buy the uniforms and maintain them as well.  Where there is a corporate culture to support it, these programs are saving companies hundreds or thousands of dollars in uniforms expenses.

Understand New Options – If you stay in business long enough it won’t take long to see that where companies are making money, others will follow.  When companies get too big and lose great employees, those employees have a tendency to start competing businesses and create new alternatives to old problems.  In both of these cases it means a constant stream of new players coming into the business world with new products and new ideas.  As is the case with any business, no matter how great the idea, if the business is not managed well it will fail.  This is important to your company because as you look for alternatives to some of your sourcing needs that you will find exciting new companies with options that need to be researched and followed up on before they can be chosen for business.  The key is to take the step to understand what they have and where they are currently as well as to commit to following their growth.

Know When to Take a Chance –  On the heels of stating above about monitoring new solutions without committing your business to them before they proven, it is also important to know when you have an opportunity to partner with a company with a revolutionary new solution.  Often times the cost will be lower but it will require an investment in resources and patience to make it work.  These opportunities arise many times in IT as new companies with breaking technology are emerging every day that will work with your company to make the solution work.  Knowing when it is worth the time and resources to invest is important and the return can pay great dividends.  Investing in a young company with a great solution that can quickly adapt to fit your company’s need without having to pay huge custom development charges is one of the big benefits to taking this chance.

There are new solutions emerging every day in every department that can reshape how your company does business in a way that will better prepare them for the future.  Knowing what those solutions are is half of the battle and determining what to do with those solutions is the other half but the results of investing time in each half can lead to great new possibilities for your company.  For more information on how we can help you research these new solutions 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 from?Steve Schwerin an account manager at Safesourcing.

Other times, we also need someone in a position to help us act on that opinion.? Procurement professionals are in position to offer both.? What I am referencing to here, are situations like the recent drop in gold prices.? Whenever I see an article like the recent article, ?Gold?s peak seen by BofA as end to China?s leadership in markets? on bloomburg.com, I think of indexes or how commodities affect prices of finished products.?

Were you someone who thought gold would never come back down from its charge past $1,900 per ounce back in 2011?? I had not given much thought to the price of gold for a while mainly because I was one of those people who figured gold was up around $1,800 to stay.? It wasn?t, though.? It recently dropped to $1,386.35 per ounce.? Does it signal something??? A broad drop in commodity prices?? A prolonged retracement in the price of gold itself?? Who knows??

The point is, the price of gold could go in either direction depending on developments.? This is where indexes and contract management benefit your business.? Sometimes, you have a little more at stake than a curious thought about the price of gold.? There are two things going on here.? We in the procurement industry may have helped you achieve indexed pricing allowing for potential price adjustments if an underlying commodity experiences a large price swing.? Who is going to remind you to act on this, though?? This is where that outside opinion of someone who can help you act comes into play.?

Here at SafeSourcing, our eProcurement tools include contract management tools that can alert you of not only renewals, but the potential to realize savings due to index fluctuation.? Things like index pricing sound easy enough to manage.? One problem is that we have all been in situations where we ?knew? something would happen only for the opposite to occur.? In the meantime, we are busy running your businesses, and are not in a position to take advantage of clauses like index clauses.? This can occur despite our foresight to include the index clause in the first place!

Let us here at SafeSourcing help you realize the benefits of good foresight.? Contact your SafeSourcing customer service representative at 1-888-261-9070 to find out how.