Friday 26th October, 2012

According to Intesource’s new report by The Sourcing Confidence Bubble, companies in retail, grocery and restaurant sectors without e-sourcing capabilities are operating under a misconception that’s hurting their companies’ bottom line.

The survey of select supply chain executives in the chain industries found that buyers who are not using e-sourcing, (75%) are confident that they’re getting the best possible value from their suppliers, despite market studies and industry data showing the contrary.  The Aberdeen reports
that companies using advanced e-sourcing techniques save an average of 16% yearly and Intesource’s own data shows on average 18% per event.

Len Kaplan, VP of Sales at Intesource said: “Too many buying organisations are blinded by strategic supplier relationships and traditional sourcing techniques.”

He added: “Failing to challenge incumbents is a critical mistake that will negatively impact an organisation’s financial performance. Our own data shows that when challenged, incumbents lower their prices 55% of the time.”

The pulse survey also uncovered several critical resource issues plaguing buyers that use e-sourcing. About 46% of sourcing executives said the number one challenge affecting their sourcing strategy was a lack of internal resources, and more than 65 percent reported that they fail to run as many events as they’d like.  This is mainly due to limited staff resources, set-up time and sourcing new categories.

“Time is literally money in the supply chain world,” said Kaplan. “Most retail, grocery and restaurant sourcing departments are small and resource constrained, which limits the amount of events they can run – and money they can save.”