How should a company react when a supplier tells them that e-procurement tools have been around for a long time and are an old way of sourcing products and services or that they are not interested?

I think we all know what APATHY is, but to ground us I looked it up at answers.com and got the following definitions.

1. Lack of interest or concern, especially regarding matters of general importance or appeal; indifference.
2. Lack of emotion or feeling; impassiveness.

The question now is what do you do when you run into it during the e-procurement process?

Before I address that particular question, let me go on record as saying that any supplier who does not currently have a piece of a host companies business may not be worth doing business with if they tell you that they do not participate in reverse auctions or e-procurement events. I can’t imagine as a CEO taking that position or not wanting to bid on business that we don’t already have, particularly when it is being brought to us by a third party when my own sales team had not already uncovered it or created an opportunity with the company in the 1st place. I do not believe I would get any argument there from any other CEO either. So, to begin with make sure you are getting the answer from the top.

Here’s what to do if you are the host. Either have your sourcing partner call the supplier or call the supplier yourself. At SafeSourcing this is something we agree upon during the early stages of customer SOP development.

During the call be considerate of the supplier’s position, be brief and to the point and politely provide the following information.

1. We appreciate your concern with this process but want to make sure you understand that this is our preferred method of sourcing and it is fully supported by our executive office.
2. This is the only method we will use to evaluate vendors.
3. If you choose not to participate you will not be awarded any portion of the business going forward.
4. In the current economic environment are you sure you want to pass up an opportunity for new business?
5. Is your senior management aware of the fact that you are rejecting this opportunity?
6. Thank them for their time and request that they reconsider!   

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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

The problem is too big. We want to hide and avoid it many times. This is increasing in many organizations and unfortunately leaving money behind.

We all know how to solve a problem, but it usually isn’t the right problem we easily see.

If you don’t face the big problems too, then the simpler projects savings are being washed away by the elephant in the room. Being able to surface all the issues and building on that concept, not solving overnight, but admitting the problem and working towards a solution, will keep you out of any future pitfalls.

According to an article, Surfacing Problems Daily, has four steps to improve your company’s problem solving.

1.  Assess the current condition- what does your organization feel is a problem and what needs attention?
2.  Develop a mechanism- track/display/monitor the problem(s)
3.  Develop non-monetary incentives to surface problems- it gives people a reason to share the issue
4.  Define how leaders should respond- train leaders to not attack a problem that arises

Here at SafeSourcing we will solve your problems. No problem is too big for us.

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 Michael Figueroa, Account Manager at SafeSourcing.

A story is told about a researcher  who held an experiment to see how conceptually framing a problem influenced the outcome. He showed group 1 a pendulum swinging from a string, and told them to hang it up after providing them with nails and nothing else, and they ended up not completing the task in the allotted time. Group 2 was shown the pendulum weight, a string, and the nails, used the pendulum to hammer the nail into the wall, then hung it up with the string.
 
Group 1 couldn’t complete the task because they were thinking within the constraints of what they had just seen: A pendulum swinging from a string that needs to be hung up. Group 2 didn’t have that picture in mind, they saw all of the objects in front of them as tools to accomplish a given objective.

Creative problem solving requires the freedom to think outside of traditional constraints. Sometimes even mentioning these constraints can influence individuals and organizations in ways that negatively impact their ability to problem solve. If you really want to discover your teams innovative potential, give them all the variables, define the criteria for success, and set them to work. Counterintuitively, you may find that the less you define HOW the task is to be done, the more efficiently it will be accomplished.

We love finding creative ways to solve your procurement challenges! For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist your team 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.
 
We look forward to your comments.

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

We take project management very seriously at SafeSourcing, Inc., and we have a very strong team of Project Managers working for our customers. We utilize tools, procedures, policies, and strategies to place your business in a prime opportunity to save you money on any category of procurement. Our first priority is project forecasting, without this key element, a project can fall apart. To back up the project forecasting is through and concise communication not only internally with our team, but with you, our customer!

How do we do this is by following the basics. This excerpt is taken from LeanKit, one of the fastest growing online project manager tools:

Project Management 101

Project Forecasting:

Project managers must analyze whether a project is on target in terms of timeline and cost and provide estimates for how delays will impact the overall project. As things change, throughout a project (as they inevitably do), a project manager must update the forecast to reflect the new information as quickly as possible. Without a clear picture of a project?s status, a project manager would be hard-pressed to make an intelligent analysis.

Successful project managers look to the past to determine the future. Using historic data from other projects and advanced forecasting tools, managers are able to project more accurate forecasts than ever before. While project managers may have traditionally relied on estimates, or educated guesses, to predict the cost and timeline of a project, they are now using more advanced techniques for providing accurate project plans that save time and money.

Communication Breakdowns:

Maintaining great communication in project management may seem like a no-brainer. The ability to inform someone what needs to be done via email, over the phone or, better yet, in person may seem like a simple thing. But when you multiply the amount of communications that must take place by all the instances of change throughout an entire project, while tailoring each communication to specific people receiving it, ensuring timely and accurate communication can quickly turn into a logistical nightmare if the proper work systems and tools are not in place.

A project manager must ensure everyone is on the same page – without overwhelming the team. Maintaining a proper balance of communication can be challenging: Too little communication can create confusion, while too much communication can cause team members to freeze amidst the pressure of too much information. Finally, if all information is not properly conveyed during all phases of a project, miscommunication can easily occur, which leads to wasted effort.

Our Project Managers are the best in the industry! For more information on how we can help you with your procurement needs and to know how we can put these best used practices and our team to work for you on a ?Risk Free? trial program?? Please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.? We have an entire customer services and project manager team waiting to assist you today.

We look forward to your comments.

Todays post is by Ron Southard CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

This author has been in and around the freight business for years. Actually for 40 years. Just like the unrelated movie, I have seen it all. Planes, trains and automobiles (trucks really) to be sure but also ocean bound freight. The ships and planes get bigger, but at the end of the day the same issue exists. How do companies get their products to where they need to be efficiently and at a cost that is acceptable in order to satisfy customer demand?

This is not necessarily about your internal optimization models; it is more about the data that feeds your internal optimization models. That is of course if you even have one. The basis for collecting that information is not all of the math calculations and pivot tables; it really is the following types of data.

• Lane data in distance for your delivery model such as Plant to DC.
• Volume discount data from carriers
• Lane rate per mile
• Fuel Surcharge rate
• Human resources rates for loading and unloading (Lumpers in the US)
• 3PL storage rates
• Load balancing charges for LTL versus FL

There may be other data that is required for your individual model, but the above will cover most of what you need to come up with a well rounded format that freight companies can easily bid on. An example of other information may be questions such as “What is  your overall logistics strategy”. With the cost of rail down versus traditional freight lanes, are you thinking about developing a  rail hub service model. do you even know what this is?

Relative to who should be bidding; this authors recommendation conducting a three step process that includes a detailed RFI, followed by a detailed RFP and then ultimately the RFQ data compression piece or a reverse auction.

• RFI  – Incumbent and other participants selected from a quality sourcing database
• RFP – Participants include a reduced number from the RFI process
• RFQ – Includes all RFP participants unless otherwise indicated by the host.

The terms and conditions of the reverse auction or RFQ can cover the balance of information needed by providers that relates to quality, certifications, payment terms, safety, insurance etc.

If you want to get control of your freight costs, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services representative.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Todays post is by Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

I?m sure that there is no one reading this post that has not heard about the disastrous implementation of the Affordable Care Acts website. Although there are other ways to apply for coverage such as by telephone, the vast amount of coverage has been about the implementation of the website and its lack of accessibility.

This author reads several newspapers every day. They include but are not limited to The Wall Street Journal, The Arizona Republic, The Financial Times and USA TODAY. Quite often when I am traveling I read local papers as well. I augment that with several posts such as the Huffington Post. As such, I have read and viewed a lot of commentary and viewed a lot of political cartoons about the missed opportunity our government had to deploy a quality product regardless of the political support it has publicly to its constituency (The Public).

The first question that comes to mind is; did anyone with any procurement experience have anything to do with the development of the website and registration tool? If they did, they should be fired. Since we can?t fire our elected officials, we should fire their appointed individuals. If a tool deployed by my company had the success rate of this tool, the customer would fire us.

The fact is that exchanges have been around for a long time. As an example, The New York Stock Exchange comes to mind. Exchanges for buying products and services have been around for more than a dozen years.

So the next question, is did we ask anyone if the technology already existed to implement a competitive tool that would allow millions of people to bid their insurance needs with as many as fifty potentially different implementations (50 states) supported by a diverse insurance supplier database.

The basis of all quality development begins with a simple three pronged strategy. That is Person, Product and Process. I know this can get very detailed, but in this case the Person is the general public, the product is the tool that allows you to list a product for sale (your policy requirement) of which there are four types? and a process that insurance companies (the suppliers) follow in order to bid for the business. This sounds like and RFP or actually a Reverse Auction to me. SafeSourcing has sourced these types of insurance products for companies in the past. Doing it for individuals is not much different philosophically. There are many other players in the procurement space that can make the same claim.

Finally since we know the audience we are targeting it is pretty simple to test the system for the volume of activity you might expect. I know that our Website would handle a state implementation very easily.

So is ObamaCare also known as the Affordable Care Act a good program.? I?ll leave that up to each of you to determine. Was the deployment of a tool that offers everyone regardless of preexisting conditions some level of coverage done professionally and with the proper oversight? The answer here is obvious. It?s NO.

To learn more about SafeSourcing, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services account manager or call me at 480-773-7524.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.