How important are your product specifications!

March 25th, 2021

Very important if your provider is actually listening to you. Real Example!

 

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

Here is an all to often typical conversation with procurement solution providers. Be careful to make sure this does not happen to you.

Customer to and e-procurement provider: I need to order some bulk shipping boxes or containers.

Uninformed e-procurement provider: No problem we have specifications on a variety of these products, I’ll get something for you to review my friend.

Customer: No problem we just need to see a sample.

Uninformed e-procurement provider: Consider it done, you are so important to us.

A week later the customer follows up to ask when the sample will be here.

Uninformed e-procurement provider: They said they are waiting for a flatbed to deliver it.

Customer: Why do they need a flatbed!

Uninformed e-procurement provider: To deliver it.

Customer: Send me a copy of the specification:

Uninformed e-procurement provider: Sure can do my friend. I’ll  actually send you a picture.

SafeSourcing Moral: It’s important that you understand what you are asking for, it’s even more important that your e-procurement provider understands what you are asking for.

If you don’t want your specifications screwed up, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Services Account Manager. Be careful out there.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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The success of E-procurement solutions requires officer level sponsorship and support!

March 24th, 2021

Given the dramatic financial impact driven by these types of advanced tools and the potential positive impact on earnings these initiatives should have the visibility and oversight of the most corporate senior executives.

 

This is more true today than it ever has been, yet does not!

Todays post is a rerun by Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

The role of e- procurement solutions continues to become more strategic each year. Driving cost out of goods and services is one of the most important above the line initiatives any company can undertake. But make sure you don’t forget the expense or indirect spend area.

In order to successfully implement an enterprise wide e-procurement initiative, executive management must provide sponsorship and visibly promote these projects within their organizations. Executive sponsorship is required by the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Procurement Officer or Chief Logistics Officer. The potential impact to earnings regardless of Industry is so significant with a properly deployed e-procurement program that officer level executives require visibility based on the potential impact to stockholders and stakeholders alike. In fact Sarbanes-Oxley section 404 requires the following of companies:

1. Demonstrate reasonable & consistent governance & compliance monitoring.
2. Assure proper use of tools that have been placed into practice.
3. Employ proper reporting & management oversight.

Implementing e-procurement solutions has the potential to offer significant earnings changes.

Once executive management has sponsored these initiatives, some form of accountability must be implemented to ensure maximum participation in order fully realize organization wide savings opportunities. Scorecards may be a good way to begin. Scorecards report on KPI’s that indicate a teams or a company’s effectiveness. Examples might be awarded savings vs. low quote savings by team and by individual. This could lead to understanding lost savings opportunities or relationship management issues that provide risk.

A company’s successful transition to e-procurement requires a transition from a cumbersome paper RFX processes to one that focuses on using the speed and efficiency of an electronic forum.  Successful change management professionals focused on sustainability realize that this shift must be a combination of the use of not only the latest software advances, but also reengineering of internal processes in order to drive sustainable results.

If you’d like to learn more about how SafeSourcing can help you improve your financial results, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services representative.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

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In One Year

March 23rd, 2021

It was this time last year that widespread lockdowns began. What did YOU do?

 

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

It was this time last year that widespread lockdowns began at the rising rate of coronavirus infections. It is hard to believe a whole year has passed. It is also hard to believe it has been only a year, because so much has happened. Instead of going into the details about the bizarre, incredible, and unbelievable things that have happened in the last twelve months, this blog will go into detail about all the things that can be done in the next twelve months.

There are lots of things that can be done in a year, so the following list is of things that people have been able to accomplish in one year. While these things are extraordinary, they can be inspiration for yourself or just ideas for potential goals.

  1. Read one book every day: This is something quite extraordinary, not just because of the time needed to accomplish, but because one could grow weary and physically tired of reading so much. This was not the case for Nina Sankovitch, who was able to do this partly in remembrance of her sister who had died of cancer. While we may not all be able to accomplish this, we can still challenge ourselves and read more. Whether you prefer memoirs, historical fiction, or mystery, there are many books out there that can take you away any day or every day.
  2. Plant a forest: This may be a tricky one because many of us probably do not have the space to plant an entire forest. However, when an entire country comes together and every person plants one tree, hundreds of millions of trees can be planted. This is exactly what happened in Ethiopia in 2019. Millions of people participated and 353 million new trees were planted in a single day! Perhaps this is inspiration for you to plant a new sapling in your garden this spring.
  3. Run the country: This doesn’t mean you could become president in such a short amount of time, but rather that you can physically run the distance of the continental United States in this amount of time. While many of us would need to train and prepare, one individual was able to accomplish this feat in far less than one year. In fact, Louis Michael Figueroa ran from New Brunswick, NJ to San Francisco in 60 days at the age of 16 as part of a promise made to a friend battling cancer. He is actually part of the inspiration for the character Forrest Gump. Perhaps this can help motivate you to go the extra distance in your life.
  4. Reduce expenses: This is probably something we all strive to do, but sometimes do not exactly know how. While cutting coupons and shopping around helps, how do you cut expenses in your business? This is where SafeSourcing can reduce the costs of your goods without reducing quality, and it can happen in far less than a year. By using a procurement partner like SafeSourcing, you can cut expenses in several categories that you are likely overspending and have a much better financial outlook this time next year.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help with your procurement needs 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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Retailers, Are You Considering Installing Self-Checkout Lanes?

March 22nd, 2021

I remember when grocery stores started adding self-checkout lanes in their stores.

 

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

I remember when grocery stores started adding self-checkout lanes in their stores.  It seemed odd that you would go through a line and have to scan and bag your own groceries when there are employees there to do that for you.  At first I thought why would I pay the same price for my groceries and do all the work myself.  But as time went on, I came to find these lanes to be very convenient especially when only purchasing a few items.  Now with the pandemic a lot more places are looking to add this same convenience to their stores as well.  For example, I was at Costco the other day and they now have kiosks set up at their food-courts so that you can order and pay for your food.  When they began testing these, their original purpose was reducing and eliminating long food court lines.  But because of the pandemic they ramped up the release of the kiosks to avoid crowding and human interaction.  This is no surprise given that recent surveys have shown that over 80 percent of shoppers prefer to shop in stores that offer touchless or self-checkout options.

If you are interested in adding self-checkout to your stores below are some advantages for adding them.

  • Improve customer experience
  • Less employee support
  • Faster and more efficient
  • Can increase store space
  • Shorter Queue’s
  • Frees up time for employees
  • Reduced HR costs

Today’s solutions are varied, If you need help finding your self-checkout solutions for your company, feel free to contact SafeSourcing, you won’t pay as much.   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, can help you,  please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

 

 

 

 

 

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Don’t Upset the Apple Cart

March 19th, 2021

The foodservice industry plays an integral part of our nourishment, our culture, and our economy.

 

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

The foodservice industry plays an integral part of our nourishment, our culture, and our economy.  This connection has been highlighted during our current battle with a pandemic. Foodservice is challenging in normal times, and when you upset the proverbial apple cart with the added challenge of supply chain interruptions caused by national and international demands and market increases due to trade restrictions, the entire industry is forced to make some critical decisions.

In order for the foodservice industry to provide the apples, they also have to include the cost of the cart, because the packaging of our food is a necessary consideration, especially since we immediately pivoted to a contactless environment. Instead of the cart, it is the paper and the plastic containers in which we receive our take-out orders, as well as our grocery supplies that has gone through the roof.  Whether the food is coming from the field or the factory, domestic or import, it has to be placed in a container in order to travel to your table.

Our three major trade partners are China, Mexico, and Canada, and imports decreased about 20 percent during the second quarter of 2020. Wisconsin is best known for being a dairy state but they are the biggest manufacturer of paper in the United States and sell more paper, employ more people, and have more paper mills than any other state. Paper mills were already struggling prior to the onset of the pandemic due to decline in print media, but most mills were not equipped or it was too expensive to retool for transition to food paper production, and have had to shut down production. Food wrapping paper is a significant chunk of business for Wisconsin paper manufacturers and converters, ranging from paper sleeves between slices of cheese or deli meat, to grease-resistant papers, baking papers and more.

From medical supplies to food packaging, plastics are essential in the effort to stop the spread of corona virus. Plastics have become more and more vital to help keep our families healthy and our food protected, both in the medical and the food industry.  Plastics materials and plastics are in high demand and some of the top sources of plastics imports, such as China and Vietnam have imposed temporary trade restrictions. This has also created a strain on demand from our domestic plastic manufacturers.

Increased demand and fewer resources have led to the climbing cost of safely doing business. In retail, margin management is key to profit retention and category management has become increasingly difficult in these times.  Let SafeSourcing assist you with lowering your cost for the apple as well as the cart.

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.

 

 

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Getting Savings Through the Learning Curve

March 18th, 2021

Your new eProcurement process should bring value even as you learn how to make it work better for you.

 

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

Learning is a topic that has no shortage of sayings and idioms, and common phrases that refer to it. To name a few…

  1. “You learn something new every day”
  2. You can “learn the hard way”
  3. You can “learn from your mistakes”
  4. And, of course, you may experience a “learning curve”

The list could go on, but the point is that learning is a fact of life. In eProcurement, you will likely find plenty of opportunity to learn, but there are a few things that you can do as you get started to make sure you learn quickly and that you’re able to enjoy the benefits of your eProcurement process even as you’re learning. Here are a few thoughts on the matter so that you can learn from the experience of others.

The first one  I’ll share is that it is absolutely possible to learn as you go with eProcurement. In fact, the best way to learn how the process works and what works best for you is to select some categories to start with and to begin sourcing. With SafeSourcing, we help our customers get off and running very easily because of our full-service SaaS model. That eliminates many of the typical barriers to entry that would prevent a new user from experiencing how eProcurement works and from getting the immediate value created when we reduce costs in those early categories.

Secondarily, I would note that you don’t need to learn anything the hard way. For customers willing to embrace eProcurement and are willing to be open minded in their learning, SafeSourcing can offer much guidance. From experience, the more closely you are willing to work with us and communicate regularly, the better your learning experience will be. We’d rather help you learn from the mistakes of other than your own and we’re going to guide you around the types of challenges and pitfalls that exist.

Like any subject, learning in eProcurement is an entirely subjective experience. From our perspective as the eProcurement provider, we can make learning a very easy process, but everyone learns their own way. No matter your learning style, just know that we’re here to make sure that you succeed.

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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Poultry Trading Enters the Digital Age

March 17th, 2021

For companies, such as Tyson Foods Inc.

 

Today’s blog is by Gayl Southard, Vice President Administration for SafeSourcing.

For companies, such as Tyson Foods Inc., moving product from farmers to vendors worldwide still requires phone calls, spreadsheets and vendor relationships with middlemen that take a cut of the profits.  The broker fees add up and getting up-to-the-minute pricing information isn’t always reliable.  Inventory and supply are not on a centralized database.

Scott Spradley, Chief Technology Officer at Tyson, the second largest processor of chicken, beef, and pork in the U.S. indicated some of their partners still rely on fax machines.  To fill a supermarket order for chicken, salespeople need to call the warehouses across the country.  Improving technology could dramatically improve company profitability.  Tyson is employing technology with robotic arms to package poultry and digital equipment for sales teams to identify consumption trends.  Spradley said a couple of years ago while he was preparing for a board meeting he was thinking about all of the components that made up his breakfast sandwich and all the stops those separate ingredients had to make before it reached the consumer.  Thousands of miles are involved in bringing ingredients together, as well as packaging, for one breakfast sandwich.  By reducing mileage using technology costs will come down.

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.

References………………………………………………….

Julia-Ambra Verlaine, WSJ, 3/9/2021

 

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How should companies determine value? Part III of III.

March 16th, 2021

Here's why our customers and associates are passionate about SafeSourcing.

 

Yesterday I asked you to check back today for Part III of this post to learn why our customers and associates are passionate about SafeSourcing

Today’s post is by Ron Southard founder and CEO of SafeSourcing.

I originally published this  three part series seven years ago. In todays environment it is as important as ever. Please Enjoy

We launched our company SafeSourcing over  12 years ago. Our goal during that time was to bring passion and commitment to the procure to pay process. I was in a meeting with a customer a few weeks back and asked if they would be adding additional staff to support the work we do together. The answer was not directly to the procurement team, but because of the work we do together; other departments will be able to benefit by maintaining headcount that might not have otherwise. This may not be job creation, but it certainly is job preservation. The customer I was speaking to has also added a number of associates both temporary and full time to support the work we do together over the last several years and we have added several associates to support this customer alone. So, we have created jobs for our customer, preserved jobs for our customer, created jobs for our company and saved our customer millions of dollars at the same time. I can’t think of a better value equation and if that’s not meaningful work I’m not sure what is.

Procurement in general may not be the profession of choice for many, however it is a place that associates can be passionate about if the trickle down is explained and reinforced properly. In today’s world, who would not be passionate about helping to create or retain jobs, improve product and food safety and support a better environmental footprint?

There may even be more than a few folks running for public office at the highest level today that could be significantly more successful with their approach if they could prove that their desire is to do the same, albeit in a much larger footprint. It’s easy to be passionate yourself; it’s much more difficult to ignite that same passion in others. When you do, then you have real value.

If you would like to work with a team that is passionate about procurement to help your team find their passion, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services representative or ask us for an executive reference. You won’t be sorry that you did.

 

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How should companies determine todays true value? Part II of III.

March 15th, 2021

Yesterday I asked you to check back to see why the following statement by a young worker totally freaked me out.

 

I heard  a young worker say the other day that new hires did meaningless work and needed to be prepared for that when the started a new job.

Today’s post is by Ron Southard founder and CEO of SafeSourcing.

I originally published this  three part series seven years ago. In todays environment it is as important as ever. Please Enjoy

This totally freaked me out as a business owner who constantly strives to point out the value of what we do, as well as the value we create relative to job growth internally and externally. Certainly one can measure value in terms of customer savings, Return on investment, capital etc. One can also create value through quality improvement of both services and products sourced beyond what is being sourced today. Value can be measured in process improvement internally and externally that might add to a company’s profit or help in retaining jobs. There is a measureable trickle down effect of doing meaningful work; it is something you can be passionate about if you truly are trying to be a better corporate and global citizen. Are there scorecards that measure this? Unfortunately, probably not all of it in one place, but having conversations with your employees/associates relative to their understanding of what your company’s mission is and why it is important is more than just a reason for another meeting that they probably don’t want to attend in the first place.

Personally, I believe that people want to be perceived as valuable by anyone and everyone that they meet whether in their personal life or their professional life. As leaders, we should be in the job of creating excitement about what we do. We may in fact have associates that started out wanting to be a doctor, lawyer, professional athlete or some other profession as many of us did. Today at our company, they work in procurement. Left to their own devices they may feel as though they have not or can not accomplish the success they dreamed about in their youth. Whose job is it to stop that thinking in its tracks and promote an environment of excitement and passion? The answer is that leadership starts at the top. If our leaders are not passionate and regularly reinforcing the work of their company, how do you expect your associates to be passionate. After all, who wants to just go to work and do meaningless stuff?

Check back for Part III of this post on Tuesday March 16th  to learn why our customers and associates are passionate about SafeSourcing.

In the meantime if you would like to work with a team that is passionate about procurement to help your team find their passion, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services representative or ask us for an executive reference. You won’t be sorry that you did.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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How should companies determine todays true value? Part I of III.

March 12th, 2021

Some might say that it depends on what you are measuring. Or is it still just the Welch Way?

 

For those of you that are not informed I am referring to Jack Welch the former CEO of G.E.

Today’s post is by Ron Southard founder and CEO of SafeSourcing.

I originally published this  three part series seven years ago. In todays environment it is as important as ever. Please Enjoy

The first question one might ask of you is; are you talking about ethics or mathematics? This is certainly a fair question even when we apply it to business. The mathematics are certainly what the CFO or finance department are looking for  in a pure value equation of I am buying this product or service from you for the following amount with a return on my investment over this period of time. That’s simple math. Most can understand it. The ethical side of the company which is or should be within the domain of the CEO’s office and where strategy should be developed also adds in the esoteric or ethical value. Most of the time this is defined in the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives or CSR in terms of value to the community or communities your company serves, value to the environment or value to safety in a variety of areas. Some companies try to measure both areas and report them in the form of Triple Bottom Line results or TPL. This area is a little more difficult to understand as the audience that understands the particular area of measurement or expertise can be much smaller.

For the purposes of this two part post, we will focus on the 2nd area of determining ones value within the framework of your job where if we are not careful, the perception of a few can become the reality of many.

I heard a young worker say the other day that new hires did meaningless work and needed to be prepared for that when they started a new job.

Check back for Part II tomorrow to learn why this totally freaked me out.

In the meantime, if you would like to work with a team that is passionate about procurement and the entire procure to pay process to help your team find their passion, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services representative or ask us for an executive reference.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

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