Today’s post is from Dave Wenig is the Senior Vice President of Sales and Services at SafeSourcing Inc

For those that follow the industry, you already know that the constraints placed on the construction industry are causing rising costs and limited availability of key construction materials. While I can certainly understand how this is a challenge for most organizations because they are being challenged on just about every procurement need they have, I also have seen how some rise to the challenge and overcome it.

For an example, let’s looks at a couple of recent RFQ event we hosted for a large real estate development company. Using recent quotes and costs from September, we were able to establish a previous baseline cost for items they needed. These ranged from appliances to doors to windows. What we learned was that the vendor community were telling us that the prices per their initial quotes had risen yet again in the last three months by somewhere between 15% and 20%.

What would you do in that situation?

Here’s what SafeSourcing’s customer did. As a result of their RFQ events, they established savings opportunity between 5.6% and 9.4% against the September prices. That’s remarkable in this market and leaves one to question what the real costs are and just how much of the price increases being passed along by vendors is necessary based on the market conditions and how much is margin.

There’s only one way to know.

The only thing to do as a buyer in the face of frequent cost increases of this size is to push back and verify. The best way to verify whether your vendors’ prices are fair is to invite open competition. The best way to host that is with a full-service eProcurement provider like SafeSourcing. To do anything less is to leave these purchases to chance and to risk becoming a high-margin account for your vendors in the name of “the market.”

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing, or keep overpaying!

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

Here’s the bad news. Statistically, most of us who set a New Year’s resolution will fail. While there are surely many reasons for this, I wanted to give you some good news as well. It doesn’t have to be like this.

I know that most of us think about resolutions as personal. We say this year I will lose weight or this year I will practice mindfulness every day. But resolutions are really just goals and setting them in your professional life is just as important as in your personal life.

So how do you keep a resolution or meet a goal? The answer is accountability and support. SafeSourcing delivers accountability and support for your procurement goals. If one of your resolutions is to diversify your supply chain, SafeSourcing has the knowledge and the database to support you in that goal. If one of your goals is to focus on more categories in your negotiations, SafeSourcing has the ability to help you stay accountable and to work with you every step of the way to make sure this happens.

Without accountability and without a support network, we’re far less likely to reach our goals and keep our resolutions beyond January. If you want to be successful, you need to have support. Talk to us about your goals and let us assist and we guarantee you will be exponentially more successful in exceeding your goals.

Get ready for a successful New Year!

Contact SafeSourcing with your procurement needs and we can help.  If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement efforts, or on our Risk-Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

 Today’s post is written by Ivy Ray, Senior Procurement Specialist at SafeSourcing Inc.

We have all come to look forward to and enjoy the beautiful displays of lights which have become one of the bright traditions of the holiday season.  We have certainly come a long way from when Christmas trees were lit with actual candles. These were later replaced by lanterns and glass bulbs, which were still considered a fire hazard, so they were usually not lit until Christmas Eve.

The tradition of string lights was not a thing until long after the first string of Christmas lights were invented in 1882, by Edward H. Johnson, who was a friend and associate of Thomas Edison. The first electric tree lights were displayed in New York. This was actually displayed in order to win a bid on a contract to power all of Manhattan with electricity. President Grover Cleveland requested lights on the White House Christmas tree in 1894, but the tradition didn’t take off until President Calvin Coolidge started with the lighting of the National Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve 1923.

The first-string lights were considered pricey and too expensive for the average person to afford. A single set of lights cost $12.00 to rent for the holiday season which would run you more than $300 in today’s dollars. There have been many types of bulbs and string lights created since the original, but none really took hold until over 80 years later, when General Electric developed its new Merry Midget mini lights in 1966.  These lights were smaller, cheaper, and more outdoor-friendly, and more people began lighting their Christmas trees and houses all over the country.

In recent years, tube lights, track lighting, and LED Christmas lights have become popular for decorating both indoors and out. These lights take up less power, and really show the advancement of Christmas lights. Today an estimated 150 million light sets are sold in America each year, and they light 80 million homes and consume 6 percent of the nation’s electrical load each December.

For more information on how 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.

Today’s post is by Troy Lowe; Vice President of Development at SafeSourcing.

Now that winter is here the days are shorter than ever.  It seems like it gets dark way too early, and you don’t have time to go out and enjoy the positive effects of the sun.  Around this time of the year some people start to suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD).  SAD is a type of depression that’s related to changes in seasons.  For most people that suffer from SAD it is usually triggered in the fall and continues through the winter months.  The symptoms often resolve themselves during the spring and summer months.  Some studies have shown that it is more prevalent among young adults and women.  People that are experiencing SAD may have a wide range of symptoms, but the most common ones are a sense of fatigue, oversleeping, recurring low moods and strong craving for carbohydrates.  SAD can be serious and affect your day-to-day life if the symptoms become sever enough.  It may prevent you from doing the things that you normally do like going places, engaging with friends and family and other normal activities that you would normally pursue.  Because one of the main causes is lack of sunlight, one way to help you deal with this is to seek out more exposure to natural light.  One way to do this is through light therapy.  Light therapy can be done by using a light therapy box which mimics outdoor light.  It is usually done once a day shortly after waking up.  Below are other ways to help coping with less daylight.

• Maintain sleep schedule
• Spend time outdoors during daylight
• Stay active
• Do outdoor winter activities
• Socialize more often
• Exercise more
• Enjoy a nice fire in a fireplace or fire pit

Interested in learning how SafeSourcing can help your company run more efficiently?  If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement efforts, or on our Risk Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

Today’s post is from our December Newsletter written monthly by Gayl M Southard VP of Administration at SafeSourcing Inc.

According to Santa’s Elf Grumpy, many people want to know how Santa makes it around the world in just 24 hours. Some speculate it’s a government conspiracy, its Santa’s magic dust, perhaps Santa rides the magic of Christmas, could it be the theory of Santa-Relativity, the Naughty/Nice Matter/Anti-Matter, time bending, or time warping. There’s only one slight problem, Grumpy can’t tell you how Santa does it. (And he’s not even being grumpy about it!)

Have you heard of time zones? Well, Santa uses them to cheat — on time! He takes advantage of the Earth’s time zones! He starts by delivering presents at the International Date Line and travels west following the Earth’s rotation around the sun. By doing that he gains many, many extra hours of time. Children are actually waking up and opening presents while Santa is still delivering! Did you know that, if you live in the U.S., today is already tomorrow in Australia? Likewise, when Santa is in Australia, it is already yesterday in the U.S. This is a handy trick to know when you’re Santa Claus! So now you know the secrets to Santa delivering presents! And now you know how fast Santa can travel. You even know how Santa gets around the world in one night! Just please don’t tell everyone. I don’t want people appearing and disappearing all over the place like they were Santa Claus delivering all the presents!

If you’d like some help with your procurement or supply chain needs, please contact SafeSourcing. We’ll treat you with the same spirit in which this post is written.

References

Bob Tita, WSJ, 10/28/2021

Today’s post is by Troy Lowe; Vice President of Development at SafeSourcing.

If your company is like most companies these days, you have people working in all dissimilar locations and serving people across multiple regions and countries.  With work habits changing over the last couple of years a lot of employees are working from home (WHF). Whether this is full time or just a few days a week it can put a strain on communication throughout the organization.  One thing that can improve communication is video conferencing.  Video conferencing can offer businesses countless opportunities.  Whether it is connecting remote workers, allowing collaboration between departments, managing suppliers, or interviewing potential employees.  From what I have found by using video conferencing for most of my remote meetings is that everyone involved in the meetings feel more connected than they do when we have a normal audio conference call.  When using audio calls only, it is easy for participants to get distracted and multitask and not apply their full focus on the call.  Adding the video makes people more attentive by knowing that others in the meeting can see them and allows them to stay focused on the meeting at hand.  Also using video conferencing allows for more effective communication and a more personal experience during the meetings.  Being able to see all the members makes you more inclined to use communication skills that we all have learned from face-to-face conversations. If you are thinking about adding more video conferencing calls to replace the audio, below are some other benefits.

• Improves Communication
• Improves Efficiency
• Helps Build Relationships
• Saves Time
• Saves Money on Travel
• Connects Departments
• More Personable and Engaging
• Flexibility Improves Attendance
• Adds More Structure
• Improves Associate Lifestyle

Interested in learning how SafeSourcing can help your company run more efficiently?  If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement efforts, or on our Risk Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

Today’s blog is by Margaret Stewart, Director of HR, and Administration at SafeSourcing.

With the rising problems with shipping, the global market, and product shortages, it may be time to take a look at what you can do to overcome your challenges and prosper.

With shipping rates up and packing supplies in high demand, if you can get something locally and avoid shipping altogether then you are in luck. You may be able to avoid shipping altogether. This may only work on small scale items but could be a fantastic opportunity with the upcoming holiday season.

With the global market being where it is now there may be a rise in local businesses. Businesses located nearby your home or office could mean shorter wait times for goods or services, which may in turn help you get back to business sooner. While local or small businesses can often cost more than big box stores, there is the benefit of investing your money and support to your community and helping it grow. This can work to not only keep products on your shelves, but also drive more business in the area you supported.

One other benefit to sourcing some of your goods and services locally is that you may find something you like and never expected. Often, some of the tastiest goodies or well-made items are hand-made and sourced locally. Having unique items that are well received can even bring more business in to your organization because of its uniqueness and originality.

Whether or not your organization has sourced locally, you may benefit from attaining the assistance of a procurement partner like SafeSourcing. We can help to find the products or services you need and maybe even find something you never knew you needed.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement efforts, or on our Risk

Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

Today’s post is by Patrick Quinn, Procurement Specialist at SafeSourcing Inc.

Ensuring the consistency of any of your business activities is always top priority, and for SafeSourcing, that means making sure each of our events runs as smoothly as possible. In an eRFX event, many participants will be competing for the business of our clients, and that means that each of them must be focused on their pricing, and not on how to properly submit their quote with a ticking clock running.

In order to provide a consistent experience for our participating vendors, we invite each associate who plans on submitting quotes to attend a brief one-on-one training session with us. Our training will cover the basics of how to submit a quote as quickly and efficiently as possible, what each listed piece of information on the screen means, the rules and procedures of the event, and how to know if you have submitted the lowest price for an item. In addition, we’ll also allow time for questions on your end at the end of the training in case there’s something that we didn’t cover.

This may seem like a lot of hassle just to compete for a sale, but with twenty to thirty minutes of your time, you’ll be able to quickly jump into any event that we run in the future, and strategize with your sales team without having to worry about what each and every number on our interface means, and if it even applies to your bid at all. So, if you are a new vendor about to participate in your first eRFX event with us, give a call to schedule a brief training session!

For more information, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services specialist.

Todays post is taken from the SafeSourcing October News Letter written by Gayl M. Southard, VP Administration at SafeSourcing.

The COVID-19 pandemic sickened many meat packing workers earlier this spring which forced factories to shut down. Fast forward and the price for ground beef and pork loins have returned to pre-pandemic prices. The price for chicken wings and prime rib are cheaper than before the pandemic started. The rise in production and lower overall demand are pushing prices down.

Gordon Foods Service Inc., one of the largest U.S. restaurant distributors, is selling beef for half what it cost a few months ago. B&R Stores, Inc. restricted the amount of beef people could purchase in the spring but have recently put it on sale for a discount. The same factors that drove prices up in the springtime now are driving prices down. Plant shutdowns which hurt production in the spring have now led to a backlog of livestock. Slaughterhouse shutdowns in April and May that cut deeply into meat production, processing has resumed now. Tyson Foods Inc., the largest meat company by sales, reported an estimated one million cattle and three million hogs remain backed up on US food lots.

If you’d like more information as to how SafeSourcing can help you mitigate price increase, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

References

Jacob Bunge and Jaewon Kant, WSJ, 9/21/2020

Today’s post is by Troy Lowe; Vice President of Development at SafeSourcing.

In a BLOG that I wrote about a month ago, I warned about the upcoming supply shortages that could occur this holiday season.  Well a month later it appears that it may be worse than expected.  Many are saying that you need to start your holiday shopping now to ensure that you get the items need.  Almost everything that we will be buying this season will be affected in some way or another.  But the items that will be most affected are the ones that are usually the hottest items of the season, electronics.  These items will be hard to find because of the shortage of semiconductors which experts are saying could last well into 2022 and they do not expect things to return to normal before the first half of 2023.  Below are some of the hot electronics that you may to start buying now before it’s too late.

• Laptops
• Computer Monitors
• Televisions
• Soundbars
• Robot Vacuums
• Nintendo Switch
• Sony PlayStation 5
• Xbox Series X and Series S
• Amazon Echos
• Amazon Kindle Paperwhite
• Apple TV 4K
• Apple Watch
• Apple iPads
• Samsung Galaxy Buds+
• Apple AirPods Pro

Interested in learning how SafeSourcing can help your company run more efficiently?  If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement efforts, or on our Risk Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today.