How does your company control all of your purchasing at all levels?

October 25th, 2023

It is nice to have a PO system, but when integrated with a robust catalog system, you now have control.

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc

SafeCatalog™ is a tool that allows companies to consolidate the products and services they order into one online view for employees. This tool is easily customizable and allows users to create different catalogs for multiple departments within their organization. It also provides control over ordering by listing only approved vendors at negotiated rates.

When integrated with the SafePO™ module, users can have their catalog orders automatically processed and entered into an online purchase order system that allows suppliers to be notified of the order once it has been approved.

Catalogs can be populated with items from one or multiple suppliers and are presented in a way that includes descriptions and provides prices in one location.

SafeCatalog™ provides users the leverage to monitor and control spending through spending thresholds that ensure that users are receiving the correct price for all items.

SafeSourcing is a Procure to Pay SaaS based provider of a number of e-Procurement solutions and associated white glove services that are part of our SaaS offered SafeSourceIt™ eSourcing suite. These include but are not limited to SafeContract™, SafePO™, SafeDocument™ and our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database that includes over 557,000 vendor/suppliers.

To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

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Ghost of Prices Past

October 17th, 2023

Fall has arrived and with it comes the anticipation of the holiday season.

 

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

Fall has arrived and with it comes the anticipation of the holiday season. October starts with the cooling temperatures, theme and costumes galore, and the eerie décor of all thinks spooky. Some of us celebrate with the day of the dead, remembrance, and those spirits that are never truly gone.

Something often remembered fondly are the prices we once paid for the things we needed, often just a few years ago, as if the spirit of what the price used to be still lingers when they are far from present. Indeed the spookiest things to be seen are rising grocery bills and prices tags of the things we need.

But there is hope. You can still utilize procurement partners to help find the suppliers, goods, or services you need and potentially stop the ever escalating prices. In fact, many customers wind up saving more than they expect when utilizing a procurement partner, like SafeSourcing. We can help you find what you need and help to save money too. There’s nothing spooky about begin able to get what you have already been buying, but for less than you thought you could.

In addition to finding what you already purchase, a procurement partner can help identify areas that could be good candidates to save even more. If you are starting a new project, the entire process can take resources and time away from your team and partnering with SafeSourcing can help streamline your process, provide central reporting tools, and also keep your team’s time free for their other activities. A collaborative opportunity would be a great treat, just in time for the season!

For more information on what the SafeSourcing team can offer you, or on our Risk Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

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Is your property ready for the upcoming winter season?

October 16th, 2023

Well, it’s hard to believe it’s that time of year again.

 

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

I decided to go ahead and repost this BLOG that I wrote a while back because it is that time of year again and we had done our end of the year maintenance to make sure everything goes smoothly this upcoming winter.  Remember, you are less likely to have expensive repairs if you maintain and inspect the items listed below.

Well, it’s hard to believe it’s that time of year again.  The leaves are turning colors, and the temperatures are starting to drop.  It’s time to start thinking about what kind of fall maintenance needs to be done before winter weather arrives.  With these cooler temperatures, it makes for the best time to take care of any outside maintenance that needs to be done before the really freezing weather arrives.  For example, mowing the lawn for the last time this season.  Your lawn should be approximately 2 to 2 ½ inches by wintertime.  This is considered to be the right height so that it will not be stressed during the chilly winter months.  This height will also ensure that your lawn will not be affected by snow mold.  Snow mold is a type of fungus or turf disease that can damage or kill grass after the snow melts.  It is also a known allergen that can trigger allergies and asthma.   Along with mowing the lawn, it is important to make sure that you clean out your gutters once all of the leaves around your property have fallen.  Leaving these leaves and other debris within the gutters can cause them to become clogged which can lead to leaky roofs or water damage to the exterior or interior of your property.  Since the weather is nice, now is a good time to make a list of all the things that need to be done and get prepared for winter.  Below are some things that you may want to add to your list.

  • Aerate the soil.
  • Fertilize the lawn.
  • Check for foundation cracks.
  • Inspect exterior walls for peeling paint.
  • Inspect the roof for loose shingles.
  • Inspect driveways for cracks.
  • Install storm windows.
  • Disconnect hoses from outdoor water valves to prevent freezing pipes.
  • Clean basement window wells
  • Winterize sprinkler systems.

If you need help finding a licensed maintenance company to maintain your property, feel free to contact SafeSourcing.   We can gather all the necessary information for you and help you decide which company meets your needs.  If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help you, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

 

 

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How does the Law of Diminishing Return apply to eProcurement RFQ reporting?

October 10th, 2023

When designing your eProcurement RFQ reporting, Don't ask for more than you need!

 

 

Today’s re-post is from our archives at SafeSourcing

My experience with eProcurement RFQ reporting is that procurement team’s eyes are often bigger than their stomachs.  I say that because there are lots of numbers gathered during an eProcurement RFQ.  That data can be sliced and diced many different ways in order to show many different scenarios.  What procurement teams need from an eProcurment RFQ is just a few options.

One option is to look at all of the Low Quotes.  What this identifies is how many vendors would need to be awarded  in order to realize maximum savings.  As an example when  a company has 81 current suppliers and they can now award 14 companies in order to maximize savings it makes good sense to explore this opportunity because 14 suppliers represents an 83% reduction in sources of supply and the administrative improvements associated with that reduction..

A second option  to consider is that of the Low Company.  This  provides a single source of supply option.  In some cases it’s just plane scary to put all of a companies eggs in one basket.  In most cases this option is a reduction in savings compared to the all low quote scenario.

A third option to consider is a hybrid award scenario.  This  takes into consideration low quotes, overall low companies and another potential option like by division or number of vendors.  Typically, the top performers are defined globally and then  an analysis is  conducted by location.  This data shows which of the top companies show the most savings by location.

A final option  might be to identify what savings look like when vendors are selected by division and a split award is considered.  For instance if a company has 10 locations 3 locations are awarded to one vendor  and the remaining  to another.  When you do this type of scenario analysis  savings numbers are typically reduced.

When you apply the Law of Diminishing return to eProcurement RFQ reporting please keep in mind anything outside of what procurement teams need to make the award decision is an over abundance of data.

If you are interested in learning how  SafeSourcing’s team can help your company get the right amount of data in order to make a decision please contact our customer service team.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

 

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Did you win Monday night’s Powerball?

October 4th, 2023

I did not think so. However, we do have a new customer that recently won!

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc

While I can’t provide the customer’s name, they are NOT a $5B retailer per yesterday’s posts example. However, they are smart and focused and may well be some day. They took SafeSourcing up on our No Risk Offer. Their ROI will more than pay for their contract moving forward. Most procurement teams do not believe these types of results are possible in the current economy. Most of your teams will tell you this is a waste of time. I’ll bet you could use another $338K right now.

Here are the results:

  1. Expense Category: Pilot Event Number One:
    1. Savings $298,270.80
  2. For Resale Category: Event Number Two:
    1. Savings $40,072.32
  3. Total Savings: $338,343.12
    1. ROI 26X

You can still test me, if you’d like, this link will come directly to me. Your team will tell you this is not possible. I guarantee that your odds are better than 1 in 292 million to win Powerball.

SafeSourcing is a Procure to Pay SaaS based provider of a number of e-Procurement solutions and associated white glove services that are part of our SaaS offered SafeSourceIt™ eSourcing suite. These include but are not limited to SafeContract™, SafePO™, SafeDocument™ and our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database that includes over 557,000 vendor/suppliers.

For more information, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Services Associate.

 

 

 

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Best Practices to ensure that you have a sufficient supplier community for your eRFX process.

September 26th, 2023

We provide White glove supplier selection for your eRFX events.

 

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

Suppliers can be broken into multiple categories such as Manufacturers, Wholesalers, Distributors, jobbers etc.  SafeSourcing maintains a robust database called the SafeSourceIt™ Supplier Database that consists of greater than 427,000 global suppliers. While this is our primary research facility for identifying suppliers that participate in our eRFX events, we also use other sources such as the Thomas Register, Alibaba, and a variety of Search Engine tools.

While it would be ideal for manufacturers, growers etc. to be the primary participant in an RFP or RFQ, for the most part these companies determine how and to whom they want to take their products to market. In many cases, Manufacturers refuse to go to market directly and often direct us to use their distributors. Quite often they will recommend a couple of distributors because distributors typically have value added services that they want to provide and may bid the base products differently even if they are receiving similar volume discounts. In some cases, there may only be a couple of manufacturers of a particular product. An example in the C-store space is spill bucket liners and drain plugs where historically there were only two manufacturers.

Once we have compiled and reviewed a list of suppliers internally for a category, we review it with our customers who may from time to time have the name of a supplier we are not aware of. Although that is rare. Upon approval from our customers we then send invitations out to the suppliers and await acceptance over a pre-determined period. After that time has expired, SafeSourcing will reach out to all suppliers whether they have accepted or not and encourage all suppliers to participate. We are well practiced at this methodology and do not accept no as an answer. Our team regularly goes through training as to handling objections from suppliers to convince them to participate.

Historically the average number of suppliers participating in eRFX events has been between 5 and 7. That is over many years with categories like hotels or temporary labor that included 100’s of participants. We quite often will have to invite more than the 5-7 average to get that many to accept. Ultimately it is up to the suppliers if they want to bid on our customers business.

Obviously, the number of suppliers we end up inviting, convincing to participate, training, answering questions and hosting increases SafeSourcing’s workload as the numbers grow. As such we have always charged a second event when the number of actual participants reaches 10 or exceeds twenty-line items.

While one may think that the larger the number of participants involved, the better the results will be, that is not actually the case. The spill bucket and drain plug category mentioned above, we have achieved 19.7 percent savings with just two participants and have hosted events with just one participant. Suppliers do not know how many others are bidding in any given event and that is part of the process for them not to know.

While customers may challenge participation from time to time, rest assured that SafeSourcing is continually driving to get as many participants involved as possible.

If you’d like to learn more about working with SafeSourcing, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate. Make sure to ask about our risk free trial program.

 

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Did you know APPLE changed the charging port again?

September 22nd, 2023

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

 

It’s been a few years since they did it, but they did it again.

The new iPhone 15 will have a new charging port, ditching the Lightning port that it came out with a few years ago.  When I first heard this I was thinking here we go again, time to throw out all of my recently purchased cables and buy something else from Apple at an expensive price.  The good news is that they finally did something right and the new charging port is USB-C which is the standard for other devices and not something that is proprietary to Apple.  This port is widely used in other smartphones, computers, gaming systems, tablets, cameras, and headphones.  So, you may already have some of these cables lying around your home or office.  Just think if you misplace your cable now you can just grab a cord from your laptop or one of gaming systems and not have to hassle with looking for the correct cable.  The change made by Apple was partly caused by a European Union mandate that requires all mobile devices to switch over to USB-C by late 2024.  The reason this standardization was put in place is so that people do not need to continue to purchase different cables for all of their devices.  It’s a little too early to tell but who knows Apple may end up getting rid of the USB-C port in the future and go to wireless charging.  They already removed the headphone port when they released the iPhone 7 to make it even slimmer than previous versions.  If you are thinking of upgrading to the new iPhone 15 here are a few other new features to research.

  • New Titanium Design
  • 48 Megapixel Camera
  • 120Hz Display
  • New Active Button
  • More Repairable Design
  • Improved Imaging Software
  • Brighter Display

If you are looking to purchase new smartphones or devices for your company and would like help researching available options, feel free to contact SafeSourcing.   We can gather all the necessary information for you and help you decide which one meets your needs.  If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help you, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today

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Seasonal Preparations

September 18th, 2023

It’s nearly fall. Are you ready for winter and spring?

 

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

Whenever we see the seasons change, it’s easy to just enjoy the changes as they come. For many people, that means cooler temperatures, favorite sports teams playing, and changing of foliage. For many other people, that means preparing for what most aren’t yet thinking about.

You may be surprised to learn that right now is the time to prepare for the next few seasons. This means having your snow removal company lined up and having agreements in place. You may even want to get a jump on your winter supplies.

While many retailers like to pull holiday decorations and festivities out into the store ahead of time, you can benefit from doing so supply searches ahead of time too. While your organization might not need Halloween candy or pumpkins pies, you might need ice melt or extra windshield wash fluid in stock. If you run out of stock, they can be much harder to find and you can’t sell or use what you don’t have.

Thinking ahead and planning ahead can save you time and money. For instance, if you don’t have someone for your snow removal and it snows early in the season, you might just lose out on business if a competitor has their lots and sidewalks cleared.

A procurement partner, like SafeSourcing, can help your organization not only determine the categories you could benefit from sourcing, but also help with every step along the way.  We can work for you or with your team to find the services or supplies you need from vendors that can help.

For more information on what the SafeSourcing team can offer you, or on our Risk Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

 

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He Who Has the Gold or BITCOIN

September 14th, 2023

He who has the gold or BITCOIN, makes the rules

 

 

Today’s re-post with a twist is written by Ivy Ray, Senior Procurement Specialist at SafeSourcing Inc.

Most people are familiar with the phrase, “He who has the gold, or BITCOIN today makes the rules”, believed to be coined by the writers of the comic strip “The Wizard of Id” originally published in “The Dallas Morning News” in 1964 and later became syndicated. The phrase has been commonly used in reference to oil, one of our most lucrative resources. Currently the oil of the digital era is data. Data rules the world and technology is changing our economies, societies and daily lives.

Our personal data is constantly being collected by retailers and service providers that we utilize every day. Initially this practice was designed as an effort to discover the customers’ likes, dislikes, preferences, needs, and goals and then use that information to shift gears to better meet their needs in the future. Also this assists the supplier in retaining customers by creating incentives for repeat purchases. Our data is valuable and we give it freely in exchange for access, or for discount offers and select promotions.

In some cases, it simply gets taken from us by use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) software such as Facial Recognition Systems and Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA). Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google Assistant are at the forefront, so it’s no surprise that the current giants that “deal in data”, are Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft. They are the five most valuable listed firms in the world. Amazon has been systematically collecting data from its customers since its inception as a book reseller in the mid ‘90s and now runs a cloud service and it’s the most powerful cloud service in North America. The global intelligent virtual assistants market size is expected to reach USD 25.63 billion by 2025.

Information from marketing campaigns, customer service inquiries, and purchase histories are encoded and used to run predictive analytics, and projections. The data utilized must be based on complete and correct data. If the data is not complete and correct then projections will have limited value. We all create and utilize data daily. Creating quality data the first time saves time and money in the long run.

Although data is an essential tool, it is only as valuable as its quality. Remember the garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) concept, the quality of output is determined by the quality of the input. As Albert Einstein once said, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you in exploring your procurement solutions for your business 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.

We look forward to your comments.

 

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How does your company protect their important non-contract documents?

September 12th, 2023

SafeDocument™ is a document repository that allows companies to collaborate

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc

How does your company protect their non important noncontract documents?

Every company, in fact every individual has important documents that they would like easy access to as well as tracking and check in and checkout sharing features to maintain continuity and history of use. While maybe not to the degree of a contract, but then again why not?

SafeDocument™ is a document repository that allows companies to collaborate on documents through an online tool that is a cloud-based SaaS offering available through simple internet access. This tool Provides document sharing and collaboration options where users can organize, edit, protect, and track their documents.

SafeDocument™ includes safety features and controls that enable users to safely share large files across their organization, including the ability to save and recall multiple versions of a document and a notification system that alerts users when changes to the document have occurred.

Implementing SafeDocument™ provides companies with a cost-effective alternative to enterprise content management solutions that is safe and easy to use.

SafeSourcing is a Procure to Pay SaaS based provider of a number of e-Procurement solutions and associated white glove services that are part of our SaaS offered SafeSourceIt™ eSourcing suite. These include but are not limited to SafeContract™, SafePO™, SafeDocument™ and our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database that includes over 557,000 vendor/suppliers.

To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

 

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