Today’s post is by Michael Figueroa, Project Manager at SafeSourcing

In 1995, a gentleman by the name of McArthur Wheeler decided to rob a bank. What makes his case more interesting than most bank robberies is that McArther knew that lemon juice contained properties used to manufacture “invisible ink”. Thus, McArther reasoned, lemon juice should render him invisible to surveillance cameras when applied liberally to his face. Unsurprisingly, law enforcement wasn’t fooled for long and McArther’s bank robbing career came to an early end. However, we have this man to thank for inspiring an interesting study by Justin Kruger and David Dunning regarding a form of cognitive bias.

Kruger and Dunning theorized that unskilled (or uneducated) individuals suffer what is called Illusory Superiority, which is where an individual mistakenly assesses their own abilities or intelligence as much higher than is accurate. Interestingly enough, they showed this and the converse to be true: That the higher skilled/well educated tend to underestimate their abilities by assuming that the tasks that are easy for them are also easy for others, and they are therefore no more skilled than anybody else.

In Dunning’s own words: “If you’re incompetent, you can’t know you’re incompetent. […] the skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is.”

How do you overcome unknown unknowns? According to Dunning and Kruger, it’s overcome through both formal and informal training.

We can only know what we learn about.  Knowledge, even “common sense”, can only be known when learned. This is not the same as intelligence, or our ability to understand. Most people have the raw processing power within their brains to understand whatever you need them to, some just need more information to apply to the problems we need them to solve. This is why Kruger and Dunning emphasized the importance of training for overcoming Illusory Superiority.

Training unlocks the hidden abilities of others, and allows us to maximize the potential of others… McArther’s story is sad, if for no other reason than that just a little bit better education could have kept him from ruining his life. Training can be complex, or as simple as correcting difficult behavior, but it’s always a worthwhile investment.

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.
 
We look forward to your comments.

Today’s post is written by Heather Powell, Director of the Customer Focus Team at SafeSourcing, Inc.

Whether it is your personal vehicle, company car, or fleet semi-truck and trailer, you should have a plan for an emergency. There are many types of roadside assistance companies in the world. Finding one is easy; finding out if they can service your needs is easy; finding out what the hidden fees and charges are can be hard! Research and knowing the right questions to ask are the two most important pieces of information to have when shopping for companies such as this or any service oriented company.

Some questions to ask:  

  •  Is there a fee to call into customer service? 

  •  Is there a secondary fee if another vendor is needed? (You were broken down and thought you needed a jump start, but now you need to be towed)  

  •  Are there mileage limitations? What is the fee if service is beyond the set limit?   

  •  Is there an extra charge or fees for bringing fluids to the breakdown? (Coolant, gas, oil, transmission fluid)

Additionally, while shopping for roadside assistance, you may want to find out if you may already have a roadside assistance program. Check with your vehicle insurance company, cell phone company, car rental company, even the place where you bought your tires may offer a roadside assistance program. Some of these programs are add-on services and may have a minimal membership fee, others may be offered for free.

We at SafeSourcing can provide you with quality vetted suppliers, with the ability to fulfill all your specific needs for yourself or your fleet. Even more, we can assist in certification and insurance capabilities, clarification of fees, and identification services from each of the suppliers.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you in emergency commercial roadside assistance 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 your SafeSourcing Team.

It’s an old saying you’ve probably heard a million times, “You don’t know unless you ask.”   Usually another saying goes right with it, “What’s the worst thing they can do, say ‘No’?”  There are so many situations this can apply to and our space in procurement is no different.  As departments work harder and harder to control their prices with suppliers, eventually a point comes when the costs are as low as they can go before the suppliers make no money.  That is when it is time for companies and their suppliers to get creative.

Today, we will look at a few areas you can use to work with your suppliers to generate additional value that is outside of the cost of the goods and services they are contracted to provide today.

Cash Incentives – Like most good companies, driving more sales is a key to being successful.  The more business a company is willing to give a supplier, the happier they are.   To that end, many suppliers are willing to offer cash incentives for activity, such as an increase in length of contract, volume of spend, better payment terms, etc. The problem for their customers is that those programs are not always common knowledge, and many times are only given when the customer asks for it.  Requesting details on incentive programs in RFP/RFQ projects will give insight into what suppliers are willing to offer when they get an opportunity for more business.

Blocks of billable hours – Contracts are tedious, long, complex documents that many people outside of lawyers have never fully understood, much less read all the way through.  Included in most contracts, somewhere in an appendix, is a list of billable hours should something occur outside of the scope of the work that has been contracted.  These not only protect the supplier from having to do hundreds hours of work for free, but also are hours that can and do happen, otherwise they would not be in the contract.  One of the biggest charges is for custom reporting and development, which can range from $150 to $300 an hour.  This is an area that can also be improved upon and many companies are willing to compromise on when a customer requests 100 hours of free custom work as part of the deal.  At $300 an hour, that is an additional $30,000 in value to the company.

Additional Services – Much like asking for blocks of billable time, many times customers don’t try to negotiate other billable services, such as installation and configuration.  These services generally show up on the proposal as a line item with costs attached to it, but many times these are areas that vendors are more willing to negotiate.  Knowing the category, and getting advice on which pieces are the most likely to budge, is an important part of getting these fees.  It can come from an internal team or from outside consultants.  Once again these are services with costs that should be realized as additional savings.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist with ideas for other areas to create increased value on your projects 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 from our SafeSourcing Blog Archives

Yesterday we began to look at some of the steps necessary to minimize the risk of sourcing projects.  Understanding the current landscape and reducing complexity were two of the first steps to take so that the types of risks that may be encountered can be identifying and addressed.   Today we will wrap up the series by looking at three more steps to be considered in the risk management approach to strategic sourcing events.

Plan for unknown risk– Once risks have begun to be identified and accounted for the path to risk management begins to get clearer and clearer but as in every plan in life, unexpected and unknown events will always occur.  One of the popular mottos on the popular reality show “Big Brother” is “Expect the Unexpected.”  This statement is no less true in strategic sourcing initiatives and is an important factor to maintaining timelines and producing projects with great results and great participation.  Some of the common areas to build in added time for unknown risk are: information collecting; specification development; supplier engagement and reporting and analysis.  The more time built in however the longer projects will take so there must be a balance in order to achieve successful projects whose results are able to be realized in a timely manner.

Use your tools– There are many tools that companies have access to that can help with planning for and managing risk be providing “what-if” scenarios and vision into what is happening around them.  Online Survey tools, RFI and RFP tools, Online Bidding tools are all effective means to help build a successful platform for a strategic process.  With so many of these types of tools being accessible through the internet remote resources and suppliers can plan and communicate to each other in a way that provides immediate feedback and collaboration.  When people are working to together the number of surprises and risks begins to go down in direct proportions.

Share in the planning– Include your current partners in discussions as you plan your projects.  Many times companies feel as though they need to covertly plan sourcing events keeping their incumbent suppliers in the dark until the moment that the communication is distributed about the upcoming project.  Some companies do this to reduce the impact on their current service however in many cases, collecting information from your current partners about the services they provide can give them an opportunity to let their customers know what additional services they are currently providing that are not part of the initial scope.  These are the types of things that should be accounted for so that any new suppliers can be measured against what a company is currently getting today.  While no supplier likes to run the risk of losing current business, they must understand that in today’s world expenses must be constantly reviewed.  Good suppliers will know that they have offerings that are unparalleled and will be more than willing to collaborate with their customers in advance of a new project.

At SafeSourcing we are constantly working with organizations to assist them with their sourcing needs in a strategic way.  Part of a successful process begins with understanding and planning for the risks that may occur well in advance.  For more information on how we can help with your projects 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 from our SafeSourcing Blog archive

Risk Management is a term associated with so many areas within a company that there are even entire Risk Management departments dedicated to the protection of a company and its assets, both material and personnel. 

It is no small wonder then that the concept of managing risk within procurement projects is becoming increasingly important as companies move from reacting to challenges they face during the course of a project to planning for the risks in advance of the projects ever beginning.  As companies begin to embrace a style of sourcing that maps out their goals and projects in structured plans, there are important steps needed to achieve this.  To truly understand and plan for risk with a sourcing project we will look at some of those steps to take over the next two days that can help with execution.

Understand the current landscape– Many companies struggle with determining and forecasting risk associated with projects because they do not truly understand what they are doing today.  As example, Company ABC wants to begin structuring a project to make some decisions on their Temporary Labor spend.  They have spend numbers by month and by company location.  They know who their incumbent providers are and they have contracts and invoices that tell them the landscape of what they are currently paying and what level of service they are supposed to be getting.  This is great information except that it does not include insight into a possible strike in one of the locations or the requirement of employees to belong to the local union to be considered other locations.  These special circumstances begin to create the profile of risk associated with a sourcing project.  Risks can be a non-issue if they are planned for and known about in advance; a good way to use internal survey tools to get the information needed.

Determine and Minimize Complexity– It is a common process by many companies to look at a category and in the name of a consolidated National contract, attempt to tackle every aspect of it.  If there is enough time to proceed in this manner and the executive support and personnel are in place this can lead to great results.  Since many companies do not have the resources for a project of this size, it is important to focus on the aspects with the greatest impact.  If the plan is to reduce 100 suppliers to 10, focus the event in a way to accomplish that.  Create one year agreements, work through the transition to the smaller set of suppliers and then in year two, determine if more consolidation is needed or a more focused savings project is conducted with a resulting multi-year deal.   If the plan is to try and get savings for a catalog of 800 items, determine the items that make up the top 80% of spend and focus your and the suppliers’ attention on those items rather than the whole catalog.  Reducing the complexity of events gets a large chunk of success quickly in a way that takes fewer resources to conduct.

At SafeSourcing we are constantly working with organizations to assist them with their sourcing needs in a strategic way.  Part of a successful process begins with understanding and planning for the risks that may occur well in advance.  Tomorrow we will conclude this series with three additional steps you can take to manage risk.  For more information on how we can help with your projects 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.

Have you ever wondered if you could substitute your iPad for your bulky laptop?  I’ve researched this a few times over last four years and never found the solutions for all of the tasks that I wanted to accomplish.  I use Microsoft Office for editing and creating.  It wasn’t available for the iPad.  I looked for other alternatives but never found any that I liked.  Now, with the recent release of Microsoft Office for the iPad and a few other new devices, this can be done.  Below are a few things that I have found that can help you to get started.

•  Keyboard Case
•  Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, Power Point apps
•  USB Camera Adapter – Import Photos, videos from USB Camera
•  5 in 1 Card Reader – Import Photos, videos via SD(HC),MS DUO,MMC,M2,T-FLASH cards, USB cable or USB flash drives
•  Credit Card Reader/Service
•  AirPrint Printer – Print wirelessly from iPad
•  Portable charger – Extend battery life when on the go

These items, along with the millions of apps available in the App Store, make for a great user experience.  If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help you get started with your technology purchases, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

We look forward to your comments.