The obstacles to running effective sourcing events

For a sourcing event to work, it needs to have clearly defined goals, which are transparent and followed diligently and punctually by every person who is part of the process. We find organisations are only too aware of the savings running more sourcing can bring to certain categories, but never have the opportunity to realise these savings due to flawed manually-intensive processes, with Procurement struggling to allocate the administrative manpower to cover requisite categories.

As a result, organisations will run events which are not effective, predictable or in compliance with regulatory standards. As a consequence organisations will limit the number, scope and duration of their Sourcing projects, costing themselves huge savings due to lack of resources. Worse still, the lack of a concrete process can make it impossible to verify the value of savings made from running an event, if any at all.

Gain a competitive edge by simplifying the sourcing process

We often see what is a complicated process be further complicated by an unnecessary reliance on manual process – the process needs simplification not complication. In our experience the best way to harness the experience of your procurement team is to channel that knowledge into a personalised, easy-to-assemble series of questionnaires and templates to create and manage regular sourcing events.

Switching to an automated solution has helped a variety of organisations from local charities to multi-national financial institutions reduce the manual effort required in the sourcing process. We estimate a reduction of between 80%-90% in manual effort, which leads to a saving of 40-60% across a sourcing events timeline. This gives experienced buyers the opportunity to run more events and, ultimately, deliver more savings. A robust Sourcing solution enables short, sharp and consistent sourcing events. The solution is functionally rich, comprising of automated alerts and scoring, as well as workflow which promotes collaborative project reviews. The inherent eAuctions functionality is highly flexible, supporting many formats including Reverse, Japanese and Dutch enabling organisations to achieve huge price reductions across a multitude of categories.

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