Articles by "Professional Services"
Showing posts with label Professional Services. Show all posts

on Monday, June 07, 2021 0


 In the past, the sole function of an RFP was to engage with the best supplier with the best pricing.  

Today, it isn’t just about functionality and price; the pandemic raised awareness around financial stability and diversity qualifications that should be included when it comes to the down selection process.

Is your company classified as any of the following?

  • Small Business
  • Small Disadvantage Business (SDB)
  • Women Owned Small Business (WOSB)
  • Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB)
  • Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB)
  • Hub Zone Small Business (Hub Zone)

    Then there are now additional “legal” questions being presented in RFP’s

  • Is your company involved currently in litigation with any company or entity?
  • Does your company have any debarment by governments or any regulatory bodies?
  • Is your company a subsidiary of another company? If yes, what company?

 Beyond the signed NDA or MNDA prior to the RFP release, there now the trend of questions/requirements in the RFP re:

    3rd Party vendors

Proof that there is an NDA between the Potential Supplier and the 3rd party vendor which includes a clause to cover confidentiality regarding work performed for any client of the Potential Suppler. 

  • Proof of any required licenses
  • Proof of insurances

 The RFP should clearly state if 3rd party vendors are allowed or not allowed to be part of the installation and or support of the product or service.  The RFP should be clear if 3rd party vendors are acceptable that they report to, are the responsibility of and paid by the contracted Supplier… there should never be invoices received directly from the 3rd party vendor.

    RFP “Company Questions” around internal employee volunteerism:

  • Does your company promote volunteering? 
  • Does your company allow employees paid time to volunteer?  If yes, how much time each year?
  • Does your company support any non-profits and if yes, which ones?

    Then there are the political related RFP questions:

  • Does your company support any political party? 
  • How does your company provide support?
  • Does your company publicly advertise your support?

     And don’t forget the company stability questions:

  • What us your company’s employee turnover rate? 
  • What has been the employee growth or decline as it relates to revenue?
  • How many acquisitions has your company been part of in the past 5 years?
  • Is your company private or publicly traded? (If public read the stock news/releases.)
  • What is your D&B (Dun and Bradstreet) number? (check it)

    Miscellaneous items to investigate about the Potential Supplier:

  • YouTube content
  • Facebook Page
  • LinkedIn Company page
  • LinkedIn page for representative, and upper management (is there a lot of company hopping by the folks that will be connected to your account?)

Depending on the type of service, you might also want to check their on-line reviews

 I had a client years ago who didn’t do this type of due diligence, signed the engagement with the supplier to only discover during roll-out their insurance policies had lapsed AND all the vendor employees on site were actually subcontractors/3rd party providers.

 When writing an RFP, the above information which has nothing to do with the service or product being sourced is of value.  No stakeholder wants to be called to the rug for a preventable situation.

If you have questions or are interested in having an RFP Sourced please contact me, twankoff@corcentric.com.

 

 

 

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on Monday, August 31, 2020 0

    As supply chain consultants we help our customers to improve their purchasing processes and find savings opportunities within their supply chain. There are a number of ways to do so, from instituting centralized purchasing tools, guiding purchasing behavior that promotes process efficiencies, and even managing the relationships with the suppliers that our clients choose to use to support their business. One of the quickest routes to savings is the management of indirect spend through Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs.) 

    Indirect spend is any spend not directly included in the Cost of Goods Sold of a product or service. Indirect spend refers to expenses incurred for materials, services and maintenance required to operate the business. For example, if you own or operate a fleet of vehicles, any money spent on maintaining that fleet would be an indirect spend. Other examples of indirect spend would uniform rentals, industrial supplies or even janitorial services. To help your business Corcentric would holistically analyze all expenditures you’ve made in the past fiscal year. From there we categorize which spend is indirect vs. direct, and then deem which indirect spend categories may be impactable with our help. We look for supplier redundancies, large tail spends, and spend volumes overall. These are all factors that would lead us to look into further details regarding a supplier relationship and discover the room for improvement. 

    One tried and true avenue to create savings is the utilization of Group Purchasing Organizations. GPOs are a quick way to savings because we connect our clients with the suppliers Corcentric has already partnered with and identified as among the best providers in their respective industries. GPOs were a new concept to me upon joining the consulting division here at Corcentric. A GPO is an entity created to combine the purchasing power of a collective of businesses to leverage better pricing and service with desired suppliers. 

    When we think about what that means for our clients, the idea is that we pull together all of customers’ expenditures to qualify for discounts and rebates that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to achieve independently. If we continue to use our example before of being a company that owns a fleet, that fleet will need repairs, fuel and maintenance. If you are a smaller business, you may not have the purchasing power to qualify for rebates from large suppliers. If you were to need new tires, you would be stuck buying them at retail value. However, if you were to join Corcentric’s Michelin GPO, your company’s spend would be combined with all other clients of ours participating in that GPO program and thus would qualify you for better discounts and better service due to that now improved purchasing power. 

    By leveraging pre-negotiated contracts with leading suppliers to source the products your organization uses every day, you benefit from the best possible pricing and service levels. It’s the ideal solution to get everything you need to keep business running smoothly while optimizing control of your indirect spend. We have pre-negotiated GPO deals that you can get immediate access to just by signing up to be a Corcentric customer. Our consulting team knows all the questions to ask and has experience with all the elements of a successful implementation across varying product categories. Corcentric will also act as a managed service for the implementation process, managing the implementation between the customer and supplier. Our goal is to assist with your procurement needs every step of the way.
 
    See the chart below for more on what your company stands to gain by working with Corcentric GPO programs, either as a buyer or supplier. If you feel like your company could benefit from tidying up indirect spend and leveraging GPOs to reduce costs, or becoming a supplier in our network, feel free to reach out to us today to see how we can help your business grow. 

https://www.corcentric.com/group-purchasing-organizations/indirect-gpo/




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on Thursday, June 18, 2020 0
In recent years, there has been a major shift in how business leverage technology to automate and streamline procurement processes. Once regarded as a “nice to have”, technology implementations are now seen as a vital solution companies need to transform their business for the future. An unfortunate side effect of this thinking is that technology, specifically Procure to Pay technology is the silver bullet that can miraculously fix underlying gaps and inefficiencies in current business processes. This is where the role of a consultant comes into play, as the software and tools that will best support your existing P2P processes are often the most challenging to build and successfully implement. It can be normal for organizations to initially balk at the idea of bringing in a consultant to assist with new tech implementation or a digital transformation project.  There may be doubt that the consultant will fully understand their nuanced policies, or they may have had negative experiences with consultants in the past. However, a consultant with the right knowledge and skills can not only enhance your tech implementation initiative, but also save you time and money in the process. Below we will explore 6 ways consultants add value to your P2P tech implementation projects:

 Experience with the entire Source-to-Pay life-cycle
A good consultant will bring a wealth of knowledge to the table, including a holistic understanding of the entire procurement life-cycle. This knowledge gives a consultant a good understanding of how an organization’s Sourcing, Procurement and Accounts Payable teams should interface and how technology can best support that. A tenured consultant also understands industry benchmarks, best practices and how your organization measures up.

 Provide tailored solutions to nuanced business processes and challenges
An unfortunate trend we often see is companies purchasing and implementing expensive out of the box Procure to pay solutions. Many of these projects either fail or do no live up to initial expectations, as organizations often lack the experience needed to implement P2P software and adapt its functionalities around existing policy and procure. Involving a consulting team at the beginning of any implementation ensures that business policies are defined, understood, and documented. Software should then be configured around these processes allowing for tools to work in a way that business users understand and expect.

 Set expectations and help realize expected benefits   
A good consultant will help define and measure expectations and benefits before implementation of technology even begins. This is done by establishing a baseline strategy, identifying, and communicating with key stakeholders and documenting the objectives of the end users who will be using the technology daily. An aggregation of feedback from these decisions should allow consultants to communicate what benefits can be realized from implementation and how realistic achieving these benefits will be within the scope of the project.

 Establish effective change management strategies
There are three factors that must always be considered in a successful software implementation: People, Process, and Technology. As mentioned earlier, many organizations fall for the trap of solely focusing on the technology piece sometimes without considering, process or most importantly, the people who will be using the software. A fully functional software implementation is just as much of a failure if there has been no change management strategy in place to support the end user’s understanding and embracement of new technology. A part of a consultant’s role is helping to determine how change should be communicated, and who are they key people who need to understand these changes.

 Identify problem areas or gaps in processes
It is rare to not run into a business process or established policy that and out-of-box, or customized solution cannot fix. This can often lead to difficult or challenging discussions, but it is the job of a consultant to be transparent when your organization runs into such cases. Often these discussions can lead into identify gaps in processes or inefficiencies in ways of working the organizations have simply adapted to. A consultant’s knowledge of industry best practices and lessons learned from previous clients.

 Gauge maturity and assist with future growth
What we have frequently seen in implementation projects with no consultative engagement is that once these projects finish, the client is often left hanging. They have invested time, energy, resources and most importantly, money into a large technology overhaul but are left in the dark when determining next steps. How can they measure the ROI of this implementation? How can they determine the success of the project not only at its conclusion, but two, five, or even ten years down the line? A consultant can help determine your procurement and AP maturity before and post implement. A great consultant establishes a relationship with their clients and help them establish and ongoing road map for continuous improvement of the technology and the processes that drive it.

For more information about digital transportation with a consultative approach, please contact Corcentric’s Advisory team at our website.

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on Friday, April 24, 2020 0


In Part 1 of this blog posting, I discussed the topic of why you should still invest in marketing activities during a recession, along with the overall benefits that you can receive as a marketer. Today, I want to focus a little more on the nitty-gritty of it all and dive into the execution piece, which involves leveraging digital platforms. Studies show that during the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are spending significantly more time on digital devices due to quarantining/social distancing. For marketers, this means that increasing your focus in digital is an absolute priority. In my first post, we discussed investing in market research, positive brand value, loyalty tactics, and advertising. Let’s break down how you can use digital marketing in these areas during a recession. 

      1.       Digital Market Research

With the proper market research, you can properly steer your brand and interact with your target market(s) at the right touch-points. Effective market research will provide you the right information to execute, and improve your strategies. This means you can produce better content with strong calls to action (CTAs) that could increase conversion.
All things digital, including SEO, Email, Social, and paid advertising, can and should be used as primary market research. You should be tracking how well all of these campaigns perform and focus on the “Three T’s… and one R”: Test, Track, Tweak, and Repeat. In a nutshell, great SEO will allow your customers to find you easier; a great email campaign can be used in a plethora of ways from loyalty programs to brand information and benefits; social media allows for conversations with your customers along with interactions with your content (and allows you to understand more about who they are and what they value); and paid advertising allows you to reach new customers and present your brand as a market leader. With every campaign run in these categories, you learn more about your customers. Every tweak made will change the performance of your KPI’s so ensure that you pay extremely close attention to the results and always look to find ways to improve.

      2.       Loyalty Tactics within Digital

Great rewards and loyalty programs can become so automatic that a customer can actually forget that they’re part of a program. If an online system can recognize a customer by name, phone number, or payment info, the customer doesn’t need to remember details like punch-cards or codes, and the rewards program is often out of sight and out of mind. This is an area that we’ve all likely dealt with in digital automation as I know I’m not the only person who’s forgotten a password since Apple introduced touch ID.

Using email, apps, and social interaction can be a wonderful way to enhance a loyalty program. DSW launched a personalized email campaign in 2017 to remind their customers about their program by detailing snapshots of points earned and the number of points needed to earn their next $10-off certificate. Starbucks and many other companies tie their loyalty program into their app so they can collect and consolidate their customers’ information. In doing so, they have a database of knowledge, which they can use to personalize specific benefits to the customer. Using social media, Foot Locker ran an incentive for members of their loyalty program where Houston Rockets All-Star guard James Harden challenged Foot Locker “VIP’s” to a game of HORSE. In this program, customers recorded a video of themselves performing a shot and posted it to social media with specific hashtags, and Harden would try to meet or beat their submissions.

There are many ways to enhance a loyalty program using digital tactics. Consider leveraging your own market research to learn about your customers and work on a strategy that complements your brand and your customers’ interests.

      3.       Continue to invest in TV Advertising – For Positive Brand Value

In Part 1 of this blog, I mentioned how local TV stations are getting a surge in viewership during COVID-19; however, the stations aren’t making more money off of the increase since many companies are pulling back advertising. In a nutshell, this means that prices are down for TV spots in a time where you’re likely to reach larger audiences. It’s a buyer’s market out there so if you see an opportunity for local TV and the budget dollars are available, go for it! Even when everything seems to be going digital, TV still works for reach and brand awareness, and it’s also a great opportunity to speak from the heart. Since COVID-19 came to the US, Guinness produced a commercial for St. Patrick’s Day with a heart-warming message to raise each other up; and Verizon made a commercial talking about ensuring that they’re doing their part to help customers stay connected. Right now is a great time to use TV advertising as a way to show off your brand’s goodwill with a wider audience, so consider calling your local TV stations to get your brand on the air. As I mentioned in my last post, your brand is likely to be more noticed and your company could be better off for investing in advertising once normalcy returns.

Marketing during a recession can be a scary time, but solid opportunities exist for your budget investments. As a Marketing sourcing professional with agency and practitioner experience, I recognize that every brand is different and not every tactic presented in this blog series will apply to your overall marketing campaign now or ever. At the end of the day, marketers know their brand better than anyone else. If a new investment makes sense to drive consumer engagement and sales during this time, and outside support is required to execute, Corcentric can help you source a potential new partner, leveraging our market intelligence and knowledge of the dynamic agency landscape. And if you happen to be in cost mitigation mode, as many companies are, we also have the know-how to properly engage marketers and identify the right opportunities to optimize your Marketing budget.   
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