An all-seeing centralised procurement system is the accepted ideal in modern business, but the reality is department, regional and project managers will always have purchasing decisions to make and budgets to oversee. According to The Power of Procurement, KPMG’s 2012 global survey of 585 procurement leaders across all sectors, procurement influences less than 60 per cent of spend across both direct and indirect categories.
The question for CPOs is therefore, how can you ensure that budget holders are adhering to a strategic procurement process that is effective and follows best practice? And how can someone with little or no procurement experience source the best quality goods and services at the best possible price?
SourceDogg e-sourcing software provides some revolutionary solutions. We have combined the proven benefits of e-sourcing (costs reduced by 15%, admin time down by 65% and 100% transparency) with a stringent focus on user-friendliness. Our online e-sourcing software enables budget holders to run effective and professional-standard tenders – with practically zero training required. Let your procurement team do what they do best, developing core strategies, as non-procurement managers oversee their sourcing effectively and efficiently.
Overcoming the challenges of successful sourcing
- Transparency
Audits are essential to the financial health of a business. Procurement always warrants tough scrutiny and the paper hunt that can ensue for tenders, submissions and notifications is a time-consuming ordeal. The SourceDogg application enables managers to keep their house in order by recording every step of their tendering processes, and providing the CPO with all the information they need at audit time. - Maverick Spending
By controlling who spends on what, managers can identify and eliminate maverick spending in their department. Many e-procurement applications unwittingly promote this damaging behaviour through an overly complex and difficult-to-use design – the tool is inevitably abandoned in favour of well-worn but ineffective methods, i.e. spread sheets and multiple phone calls. The SourceDogg application however, is enjoyable and extremely easy to use. True spend management and lasting cost reductions are impossible as long as maverick spending continues unchecked. - Indirect Spend
Indirect spend is a significant concern for businesses looking to reduce costs and achieve efficiency. However it often goes largely unmanaged, even by large organisations with dedicated procurement staff. According to the European Indirect Spend Management 2011 report, approximately €433 billion of an annual €1,300 billion of indirect procurement expenditure falls under the category of maverick spending. Using our e-sourcing application, regional and department managers can effortlessly identify the best suppliers to meet their needs, ensuring oversight of this key business activity and ultimately generating a lasting reduction in costs and a balanced budget. - Best Practice
Applying best practice to the buying on non-procurement experts might seem unachievable without considerable training. Using SourceDogg’s template system to request quotations, tenders, information or proposals however, fosters easily replicable and profitable procurement behaviour. No more will managers strive for one-off ‘great deals’, as achieving value becomes everyday practice. - Supplier Evaluation
A key skill in any procurement professional’s arsenal is the ability to evaluate tender submissions. With our intuitive scoring system (pictured above), accurate evaluation leading to the selection of the best possible suppliers is quickly achieved by managers with no procurement experience, and their purchasing decisions are easily evaluated by the CPO. - Buying Team
How can you expect individual non-procurement experts to always make the right sourcing decision? Our SourceDogg application enables managers to share the load of their sourcing tasks with those who have the skills to provide valuable input: whether that’s a member of your procurement team providing advice on tender questions, or an IT manager with an expert opinion on the new computers that are being sourced. With SourceDogg, including team members and managing their responsibilities requires just a few clicks of the mouse.