Procurement is no longer just about finding the cheapest price for goods and services. Instead, it’s about finding suppliers who can provide the best value for your organization. This is where strategic sourcing comes in.
What is Strategic Sourcing?
Strategic sourcing is a systematic process of identifying and selecting suppliers based on criteria beyond just price. It involves analyzing a company’s spending patterns, identifying opportunities for cost savings, and engaging with suppliers to establish long-term partnerships that benefit both parties.
Companies are increasingly turning to strategic sourcing to improve their procurement function. Strategic sourcing involves identifying, evaluating, and selecting suppliers that can provide goods and services for the best value by taking into account factors such as quality, delivery time, and supplier capabilities—in addition to price.
One of the key benefits of strategic sourcing is that it can help companies reduce costs while achieving and maintaining quality. By identifying the best suppliers for each product or service, companies can negotiate better prices and terms, which can ultimately result in significant cost savings. Strategic sourcing also helps companies manage risks by strengthening the supply chain—diversifying their supplier base and ensuring that they have access to alternative sources of supply in case of disruptions.
However, strategic sourcing is not just about finding the right suppliers. It also involves engaging with those suppliers to build strong, long-term relationships. By working closely with suppliers, companies can ensure that they are meeting their needs and expectations and can collaborate on continuous improvement initiatives.
Supplier engagement is critical to the success of strategic sourcing. By involving suppliers in the sourcing process and treating them as partners, companies can gain valuable insights into the market and identify new opportunities for improvement. Supplier engagement can also help companies build trust and loyalty with their suppliers, which can lead to better pricing and terms in the long run.
Technology plays a crucial role in helping businesses establish and adhere to a strategic sourcing plan. Procurement software, for example, can provide a centralized platform for managing supplier information, tracking supplier performance, and automating procurement processes. Advanced analytics and reporting capabilities can also help companies gain insights into their spending patterns and identify areas for improvement. AI-powered procurement solutions can analyze vast amounts of data to identify trends and patterns and can provide recommendations for improving supplier selection and negotiation. By leveraging the power of AI, companies can gain a competitive advantage in their procurement function and achieve greater cost savings and efficiency.
Read More:- Guide to Procurement Software
Having the right technology in place, particularly one that incorporates both spend analytics and eSourcing, greatly helps with some of the key aspects of a strategic sourcing plan. Here are some key considerations, all of which are supported by procurement technology:
In-house benchmarking
Before choosing a projected course of action, it’s necessary to understand what’s being sourced and where, the pricing model, and service-level agreement standards. By benchmarking sourcing initiatives, you can identify performance improvement opportunities and support gap analysis.
Spend analysis and opportunity assessment
Spend analytics play a key role in strategic sourcing. It helps organizations identify patterns in their spending and opportunities for cost savings. Spend analysis includes both the classification and enrichment of spend data. The purpose is to understand total spend and thereby reduce procurement costs, rationalize the supplier base, and improve overall procurement performance.
Market impact assessment
Analyze supplier and marketplace dynamics, including everything from economic stability to supplier performance to labor issues. Opportunities and risks may hinder domestic and global sourcing efforts in the future. These and many other factors are essential to a good sourcing strategy.
Read More:- Guide to B2B Marketplace
Create RFX documentation
A user-friendly RFX (RFI, RFP, RFQ, etc.) is an important element of your strategic sourcing plan. This document includes product or service specifications, benchmarks, a value-based pricing strategy, and standard terms and conditions for financial services.
Selection and negotiation
Your sourcing professionals select and negotiate with suppliers after an initial bid process. Compare outcomes in terms of the total value, or implementation cost differences from both qualitative and quantitative aspects.
Strategic sourcing is a comprehensive approach that can help companies reduce costs, manage risks, and build strong relationships with their suppliers. By leveraging the latest technology, particularly AI-driven software, that incorporates both spend analytics and eSourcing capabilities, companies can establish and adhere to a strategic sourcing plan more effectively and gain a competitive advantage in their procurement function.
Schedule a demo with one of Simfoni’s procurement experts to see how our intuitive, AI-driven platform can help you build and support your strategic sourcing plan!
