Today’s post is by Dave Wenig, Regional Sales Manager at SafeSourcing.

Recently, I wrote about “Enjoying the benefits of eProcurement.” In this post, I wanted to elaborate on that same topic. Specifically, my aim is to highlight strategies to perpetuate your enjoyment of the benefits of eProcurement while minimizing the impact on your organization.

Once you start enjoying the benefits of eProcurement in your organization, you may find an unusual challenge. You might feel that you are generating savings faster than you can actually realize those savings. As previously discussed in me last post, there are several reasons why you might feel that way, from sample reviews to internal discussions about the results. That said, you need a plan in place so that you continue to generate savings and so that you wind up with rogue spending outside of your eProcurement process.

One way to address this challenge is to have a clear understanding of your timelines. Work with your eProcurement partner to identify the milestones in your larger Procure-to-Pay lifecycle. Once you understand when each milestone will occur, you can better manage the timing of all projects. For example, you might be able to time lower-priority projects so that your team does not become inundated with samples. Properly timing these projects will also help keep the contracts from piling up as it comes time to begin working with a selected supplier.

Another way to address this challenge is to work closely with your eProcurement partner to identify areas in which you can take advantage of their expertise to streamline key steps in the Procure-to-Pay lifecycle. For example, are you leveraging your partner to help you track and manage sample requests? While this task may seem fairly routine, it is very important to the award of business decision making process and can also become time-intensive. Work with your eProcurement partner and ask them to help. Lean on them as you would an internal resource.

While these are not the only two ways to create efficiency in the eProcurement process, they are two great ways to ensure that your organization is constantly generating savings and is constantly enjoying lower costs as a result of eProcurement.

Dave Wenig is the Director of Sales, North America at SafeSourcing. Dave or any member of the experienced team at SafeSourcing would be happy to discuss how SafeSourcing . can help you attain and quickly realize savings. For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

We look forward to your comments.

Today’s post is by Jericia Stevens, Account Manager at SafeSourcing

Relating my life to e-procurement

e-Procurement is a lot like couponing, in the sense you have to approach it with a different mindset. For example, with couponing you have to leave behind the old way of shopping and open your mind to something new.

The old way of shopping:

• long grocery lists planned out without considering price
• weekly menu planning
• bulk shopping trips to the local wholesale store

The new way of shopping :

• Meal planning according to sales
• Shopping at various stores for discounts and savings
• Buying more while spending less because you stock up on product while it’s on sale

This same concept applies as it relates to procurement versus e-Procurement.

The traditional procurement way involves:

• procurement was paper- and conversation-based
• done face-to-face, or via telephone
• longer turn around approval time

The e-procurement way involves:

• an online procurement process to cut out steps and save money
• Simplified software and faster turnaround times
• Real-time interaction with pre-approved suppliers
• Orders can be approved online and completed within minutes

We, at SafeSourcing want to you to see the savings and ROI the way couponers get excited about the saving in their pocket. Let SafeSourcing better manage your sourcing projects. 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.

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References

1. http://thekrazycouponlady.com/beginners/
2. https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/operations/purchasing/pages/traditional-vs-e-procurement.aspx

Today’s post is by Steven Belvin,Account Manager at SafeSourcing

An Account manager is a person who is responsible for handling the accounts of a company, right?

Correct. However, there are many more things an Account Manger may handle for a company. According to the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) website (www.cips.org) an Account Manager can be defined as “In the hierarchy of sales positions, an account manager is responsible for managing the relationship with a series of accounts. Typical responsibilities include diagnosing business opportunities, planning communications, managing relationships, negotiating agreements, reporting and troubleshooting problems.” (CIPS). As I step into the Procurement world as an Account Manager, I see where this is very true. As Account Manager we are all responsible for understanding a company’s needs and how to get them that fast and efficiently. Also, it is important for us to maintain relationships with different companies and figure out the correct method of getting them both to an agreement that is beneficial to both parties. However, our work is far from over, we also have to maintain the relationship with both companies and extinguish any problems before they become a major issue.

As one can see this seems to be a lot of work, especially for one who is trying to run an efficient business and hiring another employee just to handle this aspect of the company seems to just be a waste of resources. This is where SafeSourcing comes into play. SafeSourcing is a Strategic Sourcing company. What that means is we approach Supply Chain Management in a way that formalizes information to help a particular company gain leverage on its purchasing power. Information like Delivery time of current supplier, Cost Analysis, Quality Assurance, etc. By analyzing this information we find the best values in the market.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist your team with 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.

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“CIPS – Procurement-glossary.” Charted Institute of Procurement & Supply. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.