With the New Year here we tend to use the occasion to set resolutions for ourselves surrounding changes we want to make in our lives. These changes are not isolated from the workplace, in fact millions of 2022 resolutions will directly apply to people’s jobs/careers. Many procurement professionals will look at their decisions and direction and begin to plan changes in those processes as well. Unfortunately for as many people who will try to make changes, many will fail to reach their goals and in today’s blog we will look at a few reasons why that happens.

People don’t know how to get there: There are many places in this world I want to go, some of them are not that far from my home, and yet without preparing directions, or in today’s world, loading a GPS device, I would have no idea how to get there. I may be able to head in a general direction but in time I would get lost and frustrated and head right back home. New changes to your procurement processes are no different. They require a plan of action, directions on where you are going, in order to get to where you want to be. This, of course, assumes a knowing of where you want to be and how to measure whether you actually got there which is all part of the plan.

People forget to take the baby steps: So many resolutions fail because people set goals of losing 50 pounds by June or quitting smoking or managing stress better with the perception that getting there is just a matter or wanting it bad enough or having enough willpower. Willpower like anything that is exercised takes time to get in shape you wouldn’t get off the couch and run a marathon the first day and neither should expect lofty goals and resolutions to be achieved on the first day. Starting with short term achievable goals that can provide momentum is the key. Instead of focusing on a lofty reduction of costs by 20% this year, focus on how you can reduce the time from project start to actual realized savings by 3 days or on including one extra supplier in the process to help you make better choices leading to higher value for the company.

People don’t really want to change: Some resolutions fail because we subconsciously want them to fail. The truth is many of us like to eat food that is bad for us and indulge in habits that are bad for us. Many others are afraid of bettering ourselves in our career because it may someday mean stepping out of our comfort zone into a world with different responsibilities and expectations. This can be especially difficult for people with more introverted personalities. One of your goals may be to increase new projects with new departments within the organization by 15%. In many cases this is going to require selling your department’s service and expertise to those departments and this can be a scary place for some professionals who are fine taking orders. To be successful in types of goals start by knowing where your strengths and weaknesses of your team are and whether you will be able to do the things necessary to achieve the goals/resolutions you are creating.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help you 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 blog is by Margaret Stewart, Director of HR, and Administration at SafeSourcing Inc.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, people across the globe have faced some extreme situations, from hospitalizations and death to lack of workforce and supplies. While the last two years have been a challenge to say the least, there are still lasting impacts on families, society, and businesses. There have been some great advances, however. We have seen the rapid development and rollout of several vaccines, the dedication and creative problem-solving decisions by schools and employers, and the rise of community help in times of need.

While there are many struggles for many people and businesses, the obstacles the world has overcome have been huge. These struggles for the last two years have started causing some consumers to be less forgiving for covid-related excuses. The reason behind this is that some consumers view the covid-related problems as something that can be expected and should be overcome, so not being able to fulfill business promises becomes the business’s failure to meet expectations and has not upheld the needs of the consumer.

Although not all problems may be predicted, some can be. Things like rising costs and lower supplies can be challenges and obstacles, but not without hope. Teaming up with a procurement partner, like SafeSourcing, can help your business or organization overcome some of the obstacles we all currently face and can help you find the products you need and avoid having shelf space go empty.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement 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.

Today’s post is from Dave Wenig is the Senior Vice President of Sales and Services at SafeSourcing Inc

For those that follow the industry, you already know that the constraints placed on the construction industry are causing rising costs and limited availability of key construction materials. While I can certainly understand how this is a challenge for most organizations because they are being challenged on just about every procurement need they have, I also have seen how some rise to the challenge and overcome it.

For an example, let’s looks at a couple of recent RFQ event we hosted for a large real estate development company. Using recent quotes and costs from September, we were able to establish a previous baseline cost for items they needed. These ranged from appliances to doors to windows. What we learned was that the vendor community were telling us that the prices per their initial quotes had risen yet again in the last three months by somewhere between 15% and 20%.

What would you do in that situation?

Here’s what SafeSourcing’s customer did. As a result of their RFQ events, they established savings opportunity between 5.6% and 9.4% against the September prices. That’s remarkable in this market and leaves one to question what the real costs are and just how much of the price increases being passed along by vendors is necessary based on the market conditions and how much is margin.

There’s only one way to know.

The only thing to do as a buyer in the face of frequent cost increases of this size is to push back and verify. The best way to verify whether your vendors’ prices are fair is to invite open competition. The best way to host that is with a full-service eProcurement provider like SafeSourcing. To do anything less is to leave these purchases to chance and to risk becoming a high-margin account for your vendors in the name of “the market.”

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing, or keep overpaying!

Today’s post is by Dave Wenig, Senior Vice President of Sales and Services at SafeSourcing.

Here’s the bad news. Statistically, most of us who set a New Year’s resolution will fail. While there are surely many reasons for this, I wanted to give you some good news as well. It doesn’t have to be like this.

I know that most of us think about resolutions as personal. We say this year I will lose weight or this year I will practice mindfulness every day. But resolutions are really just goals and setting them in your professional life is just as important as in your personal life.

So how do you keep a resolution or meet a goal? The answer is accountability and support. SafeSourcing delivers accountability and support for your procurement goals. If one of your resolutions is to diversify your supply chain, SafeSourcing has the knowledge and the database to support you in that goal. If one of your goals is to focus on more categories in your negotiations, SafeSourcing has the ability to help you stay accountable and to work with you every step of the way to make sure this happens.

Without accountability and without a support network, we’re far less likely to reach our goals and keep our resolutions beyond January. If you want to be successful, you need to have support. Talk to us about your goals and let us assist and we guarantee you will be exponentially more successful in exceeding your goals.

Get ready for a successful New Year!

Contact SafeSourcing with your procurement needs and we can help.  If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement 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.

 Today’s post is written by Ivy Ray, Senior Procurement Specialist at SafeSourcing Inc.

We have all come to look forward to and enjoy the beautiful displays of lights which have become one of the bright traditions of the holiday season.  We have certainly come a long way from when Christmas trees were lit with actual candles. These were later replaced by lanterns and glass bulbs, which were still considered a fire hazard, so they were usually not lit until Christmas Eve.

The tradition of string lights was not a thing until long after the first string of Christmas lights were invented in 1882, by Edward H. Johnson, who was a friend and associate of Thomas Edison. The first electric tree lights were displayed in New York. This was actually displayed in order to win a bid on a contract to power all of Manhattan with electricity. President Grover Cleveland requested lights on the White House Christmas tree in 1894, but the tradition didn’t take off until President Calvin Coolidge started with the lighting of the National Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve 1923.

The first-string lights were considered pricey and too expensive for the average person to afford. A single set of lights cost $12.00 to rent for the holiday season which would run you more than $300 in today’s dollars. There have been many types of bulbs and string lights created since the original, but none really took hold until over 80 years later, when General Electric developed its new Merry Midget mini lights in 1966.  These lights were smaller, cheaper, and more outdoor-friendly, and more people began lighting their Christmas trees and houses all over the country.

In recent years, tube lights, track lighting, and LED Christmas lights have become popular for decorating both indoors and out. These lights take up less power, and really show the advancement of Christmas lights. Today an estimated 150 million light sets are sold in America each year, and they light 80 million homes and consume 6 percent of the nation’s electrical load each December.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you in exploring your procurement solutions 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 Troy Lowe; Vice President of Development at SafeSourcing.

Now that winter is here the days are shorter than ever.  It seems like it gets dark way too early, and you don’t have time to go out and enjoy the positive effects of the sun.  Around this time of the year some people start to suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD).  SAD is a type of depression that’s related to changes in seasons.  For most people that suffer from SAD it is usually triggered in the fall and continues through the winter months.  The symptoms often resolve themselves during the spring and summer months.  Some studies have shown that it is more prevalent among young adults and women.  People that are experiencing SAD may have a wide range of symptoms, but the most common ones are a sense of fatigue, oversleeping, recurring low moods and strong craving for carbohydrates.  SAD can be serious and affect your day-to-day life if the symptoms become sever enough.  It may prevent you from doing the things that you normally do like going places, engaging with friends and family and other normal activities that you would normally pursue.  Because one of the main causes is lack of sunlight, one way to help you deal with this is to seek out more exposure to natural light.  One way to do this is through light therapy.  Light therapy can be done by using a light therapy box which mimics outdoor light.  It is usually done once a day shortly after waking up.  Below are other ways to help coping with less daylight.

• Maintain sleep schedule
• Spend time outdoors during daylight
• Stay active
• Do outdoor winter activities
• Socialize more often
• Exercise more
• Enjoy a nice fire in a fireplace or fire pit

Interested in learning how SafeSourcing can help your company run more efficiently?  If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement 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.