Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President of Operations and CTO at SafeSourcing.

A few months ago Gartner, a leading research firm, unveiled that once again mobile technology will lead the way for companies, from an IT perspective, as their focus in 2013. With so much emphasis on this area and the fact that new smart phones continue to be released with processing power that is catching up with corporate America’s laptops, we will focus today on how your company can begin to leverage this technology for returns that will hit your bottom-line.

Expense Tracking – One of the biggest expenses a company can have is travel expenses because they hit at several different levels. There is the obvious level of the expense itself but there is also the expense that comes when there are not good controls in place and the process gets abused and there is also the expense required to manage the collection, submission and reporting of those expenses by your staff. That is why many companies have to turned to apps like Expensify which allow employees to track everything they do through electronic versions of receipts and statements or with the phone camera to take a .PDF before the employee ever gets back to the office. Companies like Runzheimer are also developing mobile apps for their customers that automatically track mileage using the GPS component of smart phones saving the employee time and improving the accuracy of what needs to be paid.

Virtual Office – There are so many times when meetings must be delayed due to a critical person not being in a place where they can use their laptop to join a webinar. These delays cost money and can lead to bigger issues down the road when milestones get missed. Cisco and other companies like them have created applications for smartphones that now allow companies to get the content of the webinar straight to their smartphone allowing them to participate wherever they are. Along the same lines, companies are using tools like Dropbox and Teamviewer to provide their employees remote access to their desktops and files from their phone allowing them to be more efficient and responsive.

Data Analysis – The first major thing most business smartphone users wanted once they had access to the rest of the internet was access to the data that is useful to them. Many companies are moving to provide their users with access to data that has been captured through their applications. Companies like Roambi are providing business intelligence overlay to data that produces reports, graphs and extra analysis for data their customers already own in a format that is easy to use from a smartphone. Having access to this data outside of the office can allow executives and other employees to make decisions quicker and react to data as it happens in real-time.

Custom Fit – The fourth area that companies will be looking at, is developing their own custom applications for their organization to be used internally and potentially by their own customers and vendors. Real-time order viewing, shipping status, and other updates are just some of the many ways companies will be looking to leverage the smartphone app explosion in 2013.

For assistance on helping you with your mobile app strategy or too learn more about the 2013 SafeSourcing mobile applications, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.

We look forward to your comments.

Today’s post is from Steve Schwerin an account manager at SafeSourcing

It can be easy to focus on only innovations directly related to your company’s main line of business.  After all, isn’t that what you have most control over?  Without a doubt, the key to staying in business is focusing on what you add to the space you occupy in the supply chain.  Have you thought about how Negotiated Sourcing Strategies can open opportunities for savings that come from innovations in other locations along your supply chain?

What does this look like?  As is the case with your company, your suppliers have core competencies on which they are focusing; as with your company, they also have input costs.  Part of becoming better and better at their business is being able to do more with less leading to lower per-unit-costs.  At the same time, changes in their input prices can lead to the same result.  Both of these are the results of your suppliers working on their own profitability and/or benefiting from trends within a sector or even broader macro economic events.  Both of these can also result in lower input prices for your company.  Will they? 

The difficulty in getting these cost reductions passed on to your company is that it is in your suppliers’ interests to keep the cost reductions quiet.  While process improvements might be invisible to you on the outside, lower costs of your suppliers’ inputs, such as a drop in commodity prices, and are things you can keep tabs on through pricing indexes.  Here is where eSourcing can be of use.  Through eRFX strategies including reverse auctions, suppliers are motivated to reveal these price savings and pass them on to you.  While a drop in the level of a commodity index might be an indication of which products or areas to target, without the internet and innovations in sourcing itself savings in other parts of the supply chain would remain invisible.  As suppliers compete for your business, your costs decrease and your bottom line increases. 

staying with your current suppliers bring these savings into your company?  Why not be proactive?  Chances are that if there is pricing leeway within an industry, your suppliers are experiencing it along with their competitors.  Has one company discovered some as yet unknown competitive advantage?  Find out by inviting a basket of suppliers to compete for your business.  While suppliers might not volunteer to hand over some of the savings they are realizing, we all win when lower prices and increased quality are passed on to the end user. 

Let us help you.  For more information on how eRFX tools can help you access savings currently being realized in different areas of your supply chain, please contact your SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.

We look forward to your comments.

Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President of Operations and CTO at SafeSourcing.

The easiest reply that can be given to internal requests and requests from customers and suppliers is “No.”  IT, marketing, sales, operations, and engineering departments all over the world hear a question that starts “Can I get….” and the reflexes kick in and force out a “No” before the question is even finished.   Today we are going to look at a few ways that having this attitude can hurt your company and some changes you can make to achieve better results.

IT requests – It departments are flooded every day with requests from their internal users for new items that they want.  So many times when the default answer is returned (“no”) the internal customer who is determined to get what they want, finds another way around the IT department.  This could be in the form of an unsanctioned, unmonitored tool like Dropbox for file storage and collaboration or it could take the form of the employee going out and buying a piece of hardware or software at a much hirer price and expensing it back to the company.  In these cases, working with the internal customer to understand their needs first and determine if there is a different existing solution in place to solve their problem can save the company from huge headaches down the road. 

Vendor/Supplier Requests – Vendor/Supplier requests can take many forms and a lot of companies feel that supplier requests stem from them just wanting to get as much out you as they can from you.  In actuality, many times the supplier request is not only valid but if taken seriously can be one that would benefit how you deal with all of your other suppliers.  This could be a software change, a process change, a pricing model change or tool to be put in place to make their interaction easier.  As a company you may not be able to implement their request right away, or ever, but listening to what the supplier is asking for may allow you to develop short, medium and long term plans to accommodate them.  Many times your supplier simply want to be heard and have you acknowledge that the pain driving their request is real and by listening instead of automatically saying “no” you can strengthen long-term partnerships.

Best of both worlds-by listening – Much like supplier requests; customer requests are driven from some pain that is occurring in the process of dealing with your company.  Unlike supplier requests, automatically saying “no” to too many of your customers can lead to them finding someone else who isn’t afraid to listen to them and say “yes.”  It is impossible to accommodate every request coming from your customers, but sometimes understanding the request can lead to something even better; a solution that requires no change.  Take the case of the customer who asks for a custom report from their vendor to show data they need for their internal processes.  The supplier could say “no” or say “yes” and provide the custom development price tag to get it done.  They could listen for 5 minutes longer and ask the customer if they have looked at the data that can be exported from screen X.  The customer looks and says “This is exactly what I need.  Thanks!”  By taking the time and understanding what the customer needed, the problem was solved, the customer was happy and all it took was a five-minute investment.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help your needs and pain that is driving the things you are requesting from your current “no” vendors, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.

We look forward to your comments.

Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President of Operations and CTO at SafeSourcing.

This week we began a series of blogs looking at the hot categories being expected to be sourced by companies in 2013 starting with a view of mobile products, managed services and marketing and social media planning and contingent labor.  Today we will wrap up the series looking Travel Related Categories.

In spite of the fact the world has completely embraced the digital movement to texts, emails, online meetings and Voice Over IP conference calls there is still a great need and use for travel related services in the corporate world.  This need, however, comes with rising costs and is a big reason why travel related categories will be a focus for procurement professionals in 2013.  Today we will look into some the areas that will be concentrated on.

Travel Management Services – Travel Management Service Providers have taken a big hit in the past few years as their customers have experimented with booking their travel related activity in-house.  What the corporate world has found, however, is that the lack of good travel tools, the rigidity of tools they do have and the lack of resources has created a shift back to travel management companies.  The big areas of focus in this category will be in the “per transaction” fees charged, the support provided and the “extras” that the management companies can bring to the table. 

Hotels & Rental Cars – Many companies look at hotel stays and rental car spends as something they need and yet do not take much time to get the most valuable deal for their organization.  The hotel and rental car companies don’t make this much easier because of how their pricing is structured and their need to have a guaranteed level of activity in pre-defined areas of use.  Many times these companies are not willing to give great agreements unless they are dealing with a large company.  2013 will see many companies begin to focus on those areas where they know their spend levels and details and negotiate the best deal for themselves.  This typically ends with a primary/secondary or preferred partner program which can be easily monitored and controlled with revised travel policies and can be enforced with a Travel Management Service.

Event Planning – While not every company has big events to plan throughout the year there are still hundreds of companies that require the planning services to pull these events off.  2013 will see many companies begin to look at where they are spending their money and attempt to leverage bigger spends against more formal agreements, letting the bigger event planning partners manage the smaller specialty services they need.  Many companies in 2013 will be looking to start with an initial survey of their current providers and expand that scope to new suppliers they may not have worked with in the past.  This will allow them to put together the combination of product and service providers that best fits their needs and budgets.

Regardless of how you plan to attack your category spends in 2013; it is clear that companies are continuing to find new and creative ways to help control their expenses.  Creating a plan for 2013 now and working with a third party procurement specialist can help you get the biggest value and return on your products and services.  For more information on how we can help you with this process, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.

We look forward to your comments.

Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President of Operations and CTO at SafeSourcing.

This week we began a series of blogs looking at the hot categories being expected to be sourced by companies in 2013 starting with a view of mobile products, managed services and marketing and social media planning.  Today we will take a look at Contingent Labor Services.

We talked a few days ago about the changes that are happening in the workforce that are causing companies to have reduced staffs whether due to their decisions or due to external factors such as baby boomers retiring or a lack of talent in certain areas of the country.  Because of these changes there have been two big shifts that will continue in 2013; one, managed services, we have covered, the second, is contingent labor providers.

These providers supply temporary personnel, which can be contractors, consultants, independent contractors or temporary labor resources but in every case they are meant to augment a company’s staff in a particular department without creating a long-term commitment to adding more employees they may have to just lay off.

There are obvious disadvantages with this approach as it does not instill long-term loyalty and in some cases the costs to train new contingent staff can be quite high.  The flip side of the coin is what we will be looking at today as this becomes an increasing trend in 2013.

Good talent in non-core areas – One of the biggest reasons companies turn to contingent labor is for resources in departments and areas of the company that are not part of their core competency.  A company that makes a million loaves of bread may have the means for high priced IT talent but not the management or infrastructure to support a permanent team.  Outsourcing the positions and having them managed by a Managed Service Provider is often an option for companies like these as they concentrate on what they do best.

Use as needed – One of the nice things about contingent labor is being able to use the resources as you need them.  For seasonal companies this is a big advantage as they are able to staff up for periods of time without the expense of laying people off when things get slow.  As more companies look to take a “project” approach to their business the need for a temporary workforce will continue to gain appeal.

Talent pool is shallow – Many times companies are moving to contingent labor and consulting firms because they have no choice.  Larger cities have pulled a lot of talent away from the more rural areas leaving businesses with little choice but to use contingent labor for their high caliber needs.  Entering 2013, many companies will be forced to pay a higher premium for a good temporary workforce rather than settle for resources that cannot deliver what they need.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help you source your contingent labor needs, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative. Please join us for the conclusion of this series as we wrap up the 2013 Hot categories with Travel Related Categories. 

We look forward to your comments.

Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President of Operations and CTO at SafeSourcing.

Yesterday we began a series of blogs looking at the hot categories being expected to be sourced by companies in 2013 starting with a view of mobile products and services.  Today we will take a look at Managed Services which have become an increasing part of corporate strategies as workforces continue to take hits in their numbers.

Baby Boomer Retirement and a Slumping Economy are two of the biggest reasons that companies have lost staff in the past ten years.  While the economy is showing some signs of life, the rapidly depleting Baby Boomer workforce will continue to deplete over the next ten years leaving many holes especially in skilled areas.  Because of this trend many companies are looking more and more to outsourcing their needs to Managed Service Companies who specialize in an area and have an experienced and skilled staff to handle it.  

Print Services – More and more companies are beginning to move towards having a third party company handle all of the maintenance and support for their printers and copiers throughout the organization.  Be employing this service companies don’t have to worry about keeping an inventory of toner on hand and a staff of employees to maintain the printer fleet.  With IT staffs being reduced so frequently this is not only a boost to the staff but also a very cost-effective move.

Managed Temporary Labor – Later this week we will discuss the areas of temporary labor that many companies will be moving towards in 2013, but today we will look at the management of those firms and temporary workforce employees.   Frequently large National companies will employee temporary workers to augment their own staffs.  They will get these employees from a variety of sources, sometimes with agreements in place and sometimes not.  By employing a contingent labor Managed Service Provider you can have a common source of billing and support as the independent company deals with the sources of labor and rates for you.

Managed IT Services – There are few areas of the company that are getting hit as hard as the IT departments.   As talented workforce exits the workplace, and increasing college costs limiting the number of new employees coming into the workforce, more companies are beginning to look to outsourcing their IT services to a third party company to take care of their needs rather than trying to increase their own staff.  This will definitely be the case in 2013 as companies whose core competency is non-IT related begin to determine the best way to optimize their expenses.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help you source these or any of products and services discussed this week, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative. Please join us for tomorrow’s post on Marketing and Social Media Planning Services. 

We look forward to your comments.

Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President of Operations and CTO at SafeSourcing. 

Each year there are new categories of products and services that rise to the top of the heap for serious consideration by companies all over the world.  These categories can be influenced by technology, the economy or any number of social changes that shape the world in which we live.

Over the course of the this week we will be looking at some of the hot categories to consider moving into 2013 to include mobile devices, managed services, contingent labor providers, marketing and social media planning and travel related services.

Mobile Devices – These are not new to the corporate world as almost every employee has at least one mobile device and terms like “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) begin to apply more and more to the business landscape.  Companies are beginning to understand that desktop PC’s and even traditional laptops are being replaced by mobile phone and tablets leveraging Wi-Fi and mobile service technology.

Tablet Devices – As tablet devices become more powerful and functional, they will begin to replace the traditional laptop PC’s.  Several companies have released versions of tablet PC’s that range in price from $500 to $3,000 depending on the desired features.  2013 will be a year where many companies begin to look at these devices for their employees to leverage the increased acceptance of the devices in the corporate and private sectors.

Consolidated Phone Plan – Another area that will be one of 2013 focus will be that of a consolidated corporate cell plan.  By moving to a corporate fleet of mobile phones your company can begin to leverage the buying power to get the best prices on a select set of phones that will be easier to support and can ensure that each employee has the functionality they need.  As companies begin to use smart phones in new ways like mileage reimbursement tracking this can be a huge benefit.

Corporate Mobile Plan – In some cases companies will allow their employees to purchase whatever phone they want on their own and will consolidate the mobile service plan that the company pays for.  With this approach you give your employees the flexibility to choose the phone that fits them while still leveraging the consolidating buying power of your company to get better rates and service.  This will be a very hot category for many companies in 2013 as cell companies continue to compete for business and many local companies entering in to the mix.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help you source these or any of products and services discussed this week, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative. Please join us for tomorrow’s post on managed services. 

We look forward to your comments.