Archive for the ‘Strategic Sourcing’ Category

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Hey retailers; how green are your suppliers? You can not manage something that you do not measure.

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

When we think about safety and eco standards relative to our supplier partners, I honestly believe that retailers say quietly to themselves; how are we supposed to monitor this with everything else we have to deal with in procuring products?

This issue becomes more complex when you consider that data may be required from your organization relative to your existing suppliers, data from your supplier as to their own interpretation of their adherence and practice and finally other external data that neither organization may have.

Reflecting on safety, the question that retailers should ask all suppliers old or new is pretty simple. What certifications do you carry relative to food safety such as Safe Quality Foods (SQF), Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), American Humane Certified and others? Another area to question should be regarding USDA and FDA inspection history.

Although Green Initiatives fall into the social consciousness area of a company, there are a variety of questions that can be asked in this area as well such as Green Seal, Eco-logo and Green Star certifications and participation in other partnerships that are environmentally focused.

A source that may make it easier for retailers would be to rely on their e-procurement solutions providers for this data if the provider has it included in their portfolio such as a supplier database. E-procurement specification templates can act as a form of scorecard for existing suppliers and potential news sources of supply if they are used as a repository for database queries relative to the above subject matter. This can become a type of automated RFI process which can save retailers a lot effort when trying to find additional sources of supply or when trying to drive cost down with existing suppliers. These data may also help to protect retailers from harmful litigation when products end up not being as safe as promised.

Can your e-procurement solutions provider provide these types of data on demand as a normal byproduct of your standard e-procurement process?

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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How should companies decide what products and services can go through the e- negotiation process?

Monday, April 19th, 2010

There really is no reason to shy away from taking any product or service to reverse auction as part of your overall e-negotiation strategy to compress pricing.

There are however some simple questions companies can ask themselves when considering any product, service, or category for consideration in the e-negotiation process. Several but not all of those questions would certainly include the following three.

1. How many suppliers are available and willing to bid on your business?

It?s obvious your company is already aware of your incumbent suppliers. The more important question is what other suppliers are available and how can you find them.
Several will exist within you own geographical area that you are not even aware of. Many others may be located across the country that are also very interested in earning your business.

2. Does your company have the complete detailed product specifications for this product or service readily available or are you familiar with a source from which you can get them easily?

Are your products specifications kept in some form of central repository or are they in the mind of your buyer? This is the single largest obstacle to successful e-negotiation events.

3. How much of the product or service are you willing to commit to buy over what period of time?

What period of time are you buying for? Is there an opportunity to contract for a longer period of time in order to raise volumes? Is there an opportunity to aggregate dissimilar products in order to increase the e-auction size?

If you are well prepared, there are suppliers willing to bid for your business that offer quality equal to or better than what you are presently receiving for your products and services at a better price and with better service. That?s win-win-win.

We always look forward to and appreciate your comments

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What are we discussing when we speak or write about sustainable procurement?

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

I have quite often written about what is required to build a sustainable process in e.negotiation or e.procurement. I have also posted quite often on the subject of Sustainable Procurement. To that end I offer the following.

According to Wikipedia, Sustainable procurement which is also called green procurement is a spending and investment process typically associated with public policy, although it is equally applicable to the private sector. Companies that practice sustainable procurement look well beyond cost only benefits using more intrinsic measures that include society and a broader view of the world.

Often company?s focused on sustainability measure their results by Triple-bottom-line accounting or TPL which is a process by which companies can measure the economic, social and environmental performance of a project or a business. This method of assessment aims for synergy among these three aspects rather than compromise or trade-offs among them.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Understanding the complexity of contracts and their lifecycles.

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Contract Management is the management of contracts with customers, vendors, partners, or employees. Contract management includes negotiating the terms and conditions in contracts and ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions, as well as documenting and agreeing upon any changes that may arise during its implementation or execution.

Contract Management or (CM) can be summarized as the process of systematically and efficiently managing contract creating, execution, and analysis for the purpose of maximizing financial and operational performance and minimizing risk.

A recent study found that 42% of enterprises indicated that the top driver for improvements in the management of contracts is the pressure to better assess and mitigate risks. In addition, nearly 65% of enterprises report that contract lifecycle management (CLM) has improved exposure to financial and legal risk. Common commercial contracts include employment letters, sales invoices, purchase orders, and utility contracts. Complex contracts are often necessary for construction projects, goods or services that are highly regulated, goods or services with detailed technical specifications, intellectual property (IP) agreements.
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A significant problem with the life cycle of contracts today particularly in the retail space is a process called evergreening by which a contract is renewed automatically, often with less favorable terms. These evergreen contracts between two parties will automatically renew after the completion of the contract period. This will occur until the agreement is cancelled by either party.? Without a system in place to monitor or manage contracts, evergreening can add unnecessary costs to businesses, often for millions of dollars as well as damage ongoing relationships between suppliers and buying organizations.

Ask you solutions provider how they can help you in this area.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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If I save and you save shouldn?t we all save?

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Historically this author has heard the buzz phrase that this is a? win win situation? far too often because far to little thought is put in to what it should really mean. As such when I do hear it, it makes me want to puke. What we should be doing is focusing on win-win-win relationship in the supplier-buyer-consumer supply chain model.

E-negotiation tools offer benefits to both suppliers and hosting retail companies which should also provide a benefit to consumers if the retailer and supplier are savvy enough to figure it out. Some but not all to consider follow.

1.?Suppliers have an opportunity to bid on business they might otherwise not know about.
2.?Forces retailers to formalize their specifications for further use.
3.?Retailers are exposed to far more sources of supply than they were previously aware of.
4.?Focuses the buyer-seller relationship on a fair trade approach to conducting business
5.?The best total solution based on more than just price generally rises to the top.
6.?Focuses both suppliers and buyers on reducing their net landed costs for products and services.
7.?Unbundles costs to reveal and eliminate hidden costs that provide little or no value
8.?Creates a competitive and balanced marketplace.
9.?Offers a lesson that in cost cutting those suppliers should use with their raw material suppliers.
10.?Collectively provides an opportunity for improved margins and earnings
11.?Provides a tool to offer products to consumers that are of better quality, safer and at a lower price.

If this is not win-win-win, someone is not paying attention. Even though I still don?t like the buzz word.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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If I save and you save shouldn’t we all save?

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Historically this author has heard the buzz phrase that this is a” win win situation” far too often because far to little thought is put in to what it should really mean. As such when I do hear it, it makes me want to puke. What we should be doing is focusing on win-win-win relationship in the supplier-buyer-consumer supply chain model.

E-negotiation tools offer benefits to both suppliers and hosting retail companies which should also provide a benefit to consumers if the retailer and supplier are savvy enough to figure it out. Some but not all to consider follow.

1. Suppliers have an opportunity to bid on business they might otherwise not know about.
2. Forces retailers to formalize their specifications for further use.
3. Retailers are exposed to far more sources of supply than they were previously aware of.
4. Focuses the buyer-seller relationship on a fair trade approach to conducting business
5. The best total solution based on more than just price generally rises to the top.
6. Focuses both suppliers and buyers on reducing their net landed costs for products and services.
7. Unbundles costs to reveal and eliminate hidden costs that provide little or no value
8. Creates a competitive and balanced marketplace.
9. Offers a lesson that in cost cutting those suppliers should use with their raw material suppliers.
10. Collectively provides an opportunity for improved margins and earnings
11. Provides a tool to offer products to consumers that are of better quality, safer and at a lower price.

If this is not win-win-win, someone is not paying attention. Even though I still don’t like the buzz word.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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There are a number of places from which procurement professionals can collect or solicit your RFI data.

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

According to Wikipedia and others a Request for Information (RFI) is a standard business process whose purpose is to collect written information about the capabilities of various suppliers. Normally it follows a format that can be used for comparative purposes.

A Request for Information (RFI) is primarily used to gather information to help companies make a decision on what steps to take next. RFI?s are therefore most often the first stage in the procurement process particularly with new sources of supply. They are used in combination with: Requests for Quote (RFQ), Requests for Tender (RFT), and Requests for Proposal (RFP). In addition to gathering basic information, an RFI is often used as a solicitation sent to a broad base of potential suppliers for the purpose of preparing a supplier?s thought process in preparing for a Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Tender (RFT) in the government sector, or a Request for Proposal (RFP).

Much of the data required for an RFI is generally available and can be found on company websites, U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings for publicly traded companies in their Edgar system, industry guides from companies like Trade Dimensions, or from sources like Dun and Bradstreet.

The challenge for most companies is that they do not have the necessary resources to complete this research. Therefore providers of supplier data should be able to make this data available in templates that companies can begin with. Simple data should always be available in any database as to Company Name, Annual Sales, Product category expertise, contact information, e-procurement experience and product specifications. This data should be easily exportable to a variety of formats such as MSFT Excel.

A simple request of your e-procurement supplier should get you well on your way to completed RFI?s that lead to quality RFP?s and RFQ?s without spending a lot of your valuable time on basic research. If they do not, we?d be glad to hear from you.

We ?look forward to and appreciate?your comments

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Part II of II. Is critical thinking in supplier selection a key to quality and sustainable retail reverse auctions?

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Continuing from Part I of II Is critical thinking in supplier selection a key to quality and sustainable retail reverse auctions?

The following scenario offers one example as to how the careful management of your suppliers and a little strategic thinking can drive the type of results you desire as well as a long term sustainable process.

Suppliers will almost always not be of the same size. This does not mean however that they are not of the same quality. Smaller vendors that have accepted your invitation will most likely bid early during your event and then drop out after the early rounds. These suppliers will most likely not agree to participate in the future as they consider their chances of winning the business unrealistic. This too is manageable however back to our first premise. Suppliers that finish first or second or your incumbent that may have been replaced will in most cases agree to participate again, but? a lack of new competition will make the auctions less successful.

Thinking more strategically, an apparently logical question might be… If we only have six suppliers available how many should we invite to participate the first time and is more always better over the long run? Should we invite them all? Every company will answer this question differently. When considering the future, do we want successful early events or would we like a continual process improvement that drives continuous savings?

There are several possible solutions to consider. One scenario might be to only invite four participants to your first event. This will create a competitive environment for your reverse auction. After all it only takes two suppliers both interested in your business to drive quality results. Now back to our story. Let?s make the assumption that in twelve months or in the next purchasing cycle when you wish to repeat this auction that the two largest suppliers from the previous event agree to return. You could now invite supplier?s number five and six that were not included in the original auction. You have now created a competitive auction for the second year or purchasing cycle. An additional thought might be to not invite all of the largest suppliers to your first reverse auction, in order to manage the quality of your suppliers for future auctions. This type of critical thinking supports continual process improvement in e-procurement implementations.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Retail spend management basics for e-procurement professionals and knowledge workers.

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

I meet with buyers or other e-procurement knowledge workers on a regular basis that want to know what categories are the best to select in the short term to prove the benefit of e-procurement or e-negotiation tools. This quite honestly is not a bad approach for pilot selection as it creates an almost sure thing that results in a lot of excitement and the energy to move the process forward within a company.

Quite often before meeting with a new client, I will analyze their annual report and their summary P&L to get a good idea of where the opportunities are hiding that can have quick hit impact. However in order to have long term viability as a way to conduct the business of buying, a more detailed analysis is required. Quite frankly before you can even begin to discuss vendor or supplier selection, management or evaluation this process is critical to long term success.

Key data required to prepare you for this analysis can consist of but is certainly not limited to the following. All of this data is readily available from a variety of industry sources. Quite often the data is a year old but you can bet it is better than anything else your customer may be using today.

1.?Research and accumulate your specific Industry data
2.?Analyze last years P&L
3.?Compare your cost of goods with your Industries averages
4.?Compare your gross margins with you Industry averages
5.?Compare your net earnings with your industry averages
6.?Conduct the same comparisons with selected retailers with whom you compete
7.?Compare your departmental sales and contribution margin results to those of your specific industry.
8.?Look for department level anomalies
9.?Look for specific product anomalies within major and sub departments.
10.?Select top categories that are below plan and outside industry average for cost of goods and margin.
11.?Select top products that are underperforming to industry averages and plan

An example of the above might be to look at the major department of grocery and the major category of pet care then drill down to the sub category of cat and dog products and a list of all accessories. Now look at what products are underperforming to the industry and plan.? Continue your analysis with other underperforming categories.

Ask you e-procurement provider how they can assist you in accomplishing this with their tools.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Here are twenty-one reasons why all retailers should use E-Procurement tools.

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

Since this is not Late Night with David Letterman, our list is not ranked in order of importance although many might argue that not much is more important than improved earnings.

1.?Guaranteed to improve net earnings
2.?Guaranteed to improve safety
3.?Guaranteed to improve Corporate Social Responsibility.
4.?Guaranteed new sources of supply
5.?Retail has less spend assigned than any other industry
6.?Streamlines the? procurement process
7.?Holds suppliers accountable to your standards.
8.?Improves quality
9.?Cost avoidance in a volatile market
10.?Creates a competitive environment
11.?Drives reliable market pricing
12.?Maintains a reliable history for future comparison
13.?Educates suppliers as to how retailers wish to procure products
14.?Supplier training eliminates questions
15.?Improved and consistent product specifications
16.?Improved negotiation.
17.?Improve carbon footprint
18.?Simple award of business process
19.?Frees up time for other tasks
20.?Works for procurement of all product categories
21.?Provides a detailed audit trail.

This author is not sure why a derivative of this list could not become the mission statement for any procurement department.

We appreciate and look for ward to your comments.

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