Today’s post is by Ron Southard, Chairman and CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

The following is an excerpt from our White Paper “The Art of Collaborative Procurement”!

In the Retail Sector Retail collective buyer organizations and consortiums have evolved primarily in order to compete with the mega retailers and category killers in support of independent retailers. These business structures have been around for a long time. Many have evolved to use innovative negotiation and procurement tools. Their retailer members are also benefiting from the use of these tools in order to reduce their net landed costs in many different ways.

These types of organizations can go by many different names, such as wholesaler, collective buyer, consortium, cooperative, share groups, and more. Even large Private Equity Companies that control exceptionally large portfolios of vastly disparate companies have adopted these methods and they all have one thing in common; they endeavor to consolidate purchasing volumes for a wide array of business structures to try and compress or contain cost in order to improve financial performance.

In the retail vertical, companies may actually belong to several different buying groups because their primary group does not offer expertise in a certain area or category. Examples can come from direct or indirect spend and can be as specialized as safety equipment and technology or a wide variety of specialized sectors like legal services.

Buying groups and consortiums are also evolving and beginning to focus on mixed markets where it makes sense. Historically, these groups tended to be vertically focused, such as a drug industry consortium with the members generally representing the drug industry only. Some consortiums are beginning to market themselves outside of their vertical to retailers or other companies who want to take advantage of learned expertise in the categories that are common across more than their own vertical and offer increased volumes. An example of this might be drug stores sourcing remarkably comparable products that health care organizations such as hospitals source. Although this may seem like a stretch for most, it is now quite common within retail for non-vertical specific players to work together.

Today’s advanced e-negotiation or e-procurement tools, such as the SafeSourceIt™ eProcurement family of products, make it much easier to accomplish collective buying and aggregating outside of a consortium’s initial area of expertise. Large and small retailers alike now have the capability of viewing a much broader universe of suppliers through the use of supplier databases, like the SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database, while also coordinating and participating in collaborative events from hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away. Suppliers now have an opportunity to earn business they did not know about and could not have competed for in the past.

All companies should ask their respective collective buyer organizations how they plan to make use of today’s advanced procurement tools, many of which are cloud based and offered in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS), which means they can be deployed almost immediately with no IT involvement and with extremely attractive ROI’s. They should also ask what the GPO has to offer in terms of introductions to other companies beyond their current group for increased collaborative aggregation volume. This is also a significant benefit that eProcurement solution providers like SafeSourcing Inc. can assist with.

If you would like to learn more about how our customers and suppliers collaborate and work together, please contact SafeSourcing.

Today’s post is by Ron Southard, Chairman and CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

The following is an excerpt from our White Paper “The Art of Collaborative Procurement”!

The fact is neither internal nor external aggregate collaboration is happening on a large scale in many companies and collective organizations. This is especially true in mid-tier or loosely organized larger national and multinational organizations. The terms collaboration, collaborative partners, collaborative supply chains, collaborative commerce, and collaborative networks are often used when discussing procurement. It rolls off the tongue like everyone knows what they are talking about. According to Wikipedia, “Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together toward an intersection of common goals,” and, “an aggregate is a collection of items that are gathered together to form a total quantity.” Since collaboration can happen with groups or organizations of any size working together toward the same goal, it can also apply to virtually any business function. When we combine it with the word “aggregate” to form the collective eProcurement term “Collaborative Aggregation,” however, we arrive at something potentially meaningful. Collective buying organizations and share groups often combine purchasing volumes of comparable products and services in order to drive better discounts. Large companies often aggregate their purchases among departments and are doing the same thing across different operating groups or companies within a larger organization in order to drive economy of scale in purchasing. The unfortunate truth is that not much out-of-the-box thinking, or art is going on in this process. They are so involved in the process (weeds) that they cannot see the forest for the trees.

Check back tomorrow and we will talk about collaboration in the Retail Industry

If you would like to learn more about how our customers and suppliers collaborate and work together, please contact SafeSourcing.

Today’s post is from our SafeSourcing Archives

What are some of the ways to actively use sourcing tools to help reduce your company’s loss?”

What ever state the world economy is in, is no longer  newsflash material for anyone.  As governments and businesses actively pursue the steps to improve results, issues within business, especially in retail, that were once concerns are now becoming major problems as they battle theft and loss both internally and externally.

In the course of dealing with “loss” head-on, many companies are looking to improvement their infrastructure, processes and coverage by researching companies that specialize in providing goods and services to help reduce loss.  Today we will be covering a few areas that sourcing departments or 3rd party sourcing partners can help you so that you know what is out there and to help make the best decision for your company to procure.

Enterprise Software – There are many companies that provide enterprise software for gathering and monitoring the data that flows through your business every day.  Hundreds of successful RFPs are run every year to gather the information necessary to compare these companies and offer you valuable insight into the solution that is best for you.  Make sure you have all of the facts to be able to compare the companies evenly.

Video Equipment – With literally hundreds of video manufacturers on the market offering DVRs, cameras and the software that goes with them, not to mention new technology that leverages IP devices and video analytics to intelligently monitor the video, it is a perfect time to review the current video condition of your company.  Begin to gather the details and competitive pricing from these vendors to upgrade or improve your company’s current video infrastructure.

Consulting Services – While enterprise loss analysis software and video capabilities are important for many companies, not all companies have the staff to monitor and deal with what is being provided out of these systems.  Due to this issue, many consulting companies have appeared with terrific loss prevention experience to help you use your tools to reduce your loss, whether that is reviewing exception based reports, video or handling the interviews of potential theft activity in your company.

Alarms & Safes – Alarms and safes are terrific categories to be looking at due to the fact that with so many companies selling them, there is a terrific common ground from which a company can evaluate the pricing from multiple companies easily.  Because the field can be so competitive on pricing it is also a good time for customers to get additional “value-add” from vendors that are offering more services in order to get the alarm or safe business.

Security Companies – Security and doo/fire alarm monitoring companies have been in existence for years and many offer similar services.  Now is a good time to look at your existing supplier and see what else they are doing that is new that you might be able to leverage.  While doing this process it is probably a good idea to take a look at some new companies and see if they are offering anything that may help your company reduce either your loss or your costs.

Whatever your Loss Prevention need is, the global environment is quickly demanding that companies begin to pay more attention to the amount of money and product they are losing and look for ways to reduce that loss and the above categories and suggested steps in examining what is right for your company are just a few of hundreds.  For assistance in sourcing these categories for your business, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.

We look forward to your comments.

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

Below is the conclusion from a white paper Titled “Construction Sourcing with eProcurement Tools” that I wrote many years ago. Surprisingly not a lot has changed, particularly in the retail space. Too much money is being left on the table and to much grey area is being left in contracts.

There are many companies that have not used eProcurement tools for construction sourcing. In fact, below the Fortune 500 level, it is possible that as many as 80% of companies do not use these tools, as they have historically been too expensive. There will be a continuing struggle to change the way companies operate and collaborate internally on procurement initiatives in more current productive ways. However, with the advent of SaaS cloud-based solutions like SafeSourceIt™, these tools are now available to any company, regardless of size, that wishes to use them. There really is no spend too small or category to complex, because there are always suppliers available that are interested in earning new business. In many cases these suppliers are also beginning to use these tools to make their sourcing easier and more cost effective. As a host you may not know who they are, but the use of these tools will help you find them, improve your processes and your company’s profitability. At the executive suite this is what companies expect and what business and free markets are all about.

Here is the thing, same store sales growth and profit can only hide underperforming contracts for so long. Many in construction related procurement need to catch up with the operations, risk, and loss prevention teams among others in order to drive down cost that re artificially high.

If you would like to understand how we can accomplish that in your current quarter, click the link and we’ll talk.

Invasion, war, and you

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

If you closely watch the global news, there seems to always be some sort of invasion, war, or conflict. While the location of these conflicts and the underlying issues behind them can vary, it is always something felt by many. Recently Russian has been in the news and their presence within Ukraine. Hopefully, things will calm between the two countries, but things can escalate, and if so, you will likely feel that in yourself.

First, whenever there is a high-profile conflict, gas prices tend to rise. People get nervous and may rush to the pumps to ensure they have enough fuel to get where they are going or perhaps they just want to make sure they fill up their own tanks before prices rise. Whatever the reason, conflict tends to bring the consumer in at a higher demand than normal and this alone can raise prices.

In addition to fear and demand driving prices up, foreign conflict can have an enormous impact on the supply chain and lower the available supply of many different items.  Conflict can hinder the logistics of supplies throughout the world and additional sanctions on a country can further delay if not altogether stop supply routes. This may drive prices even higher, making the effects of conflict even closer to home.

Finally, the surge of fleeing refugees from within a conflict zone can also affect things economically. From housing and travel to regular foods essentials, and toiletries, the increased number of people within any country can greatly affect the supply and demand globally. Having a procurement partner, like SafeSourcing, helping your organization navigate disruptions in supply and logistics can help your business stay on track.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help your organization 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 Inc.

If you have happened to walk down a hardware or lighting aisle recently, you might have noticed an abundance of lightbulbs in their retail selection. They may be split by size and shape, or even color. Not knowing ahead of time what kind of light bulb you need can cause quite the headache when trying to purchase.

So how do you know what type of light bulb you need? First thing to look at is the fixture your intent on placing the bulb. Often lamps, especially smaller or kids’ lamps, may require a particular type of bulb, like Type A or B. If this is the case, you can usually find a sticker stating which kind on the actual plug. Here, there may also be information about the maximum wattage allowed for a lamp. This is especially important too to ensure safety and electrical codes and kept.

Sometimes if you are not sure what type of bulb, checking with the manufacturer can be your best bet. You can often find the same model of fixture online or even at your home repair supply store. If you have an old light bulb you can usually get some assistance and find exactly which type you need.

Once you know the size and wattage bulb, next you can pick a color. The standard for most lights is a warm tone and most mimics the lights bulbs of 20 plus years ago. It provides enough light and is a soft glow. There is also the daylight color, which is much cooler. This provides high visibility but can mimic the light you see in hospitals or other fluorescent lights. In addition, there are a number of different festive colors you can pick from, red and green, orange or pick, those that mimic a flame, or even black light.

Whatever your lighting needs entail, having a procurement partner, like SafeSourcing, can help your efforts in getting the supplies or suppliers you need for your organization.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help your organization or on our Risk-Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.