Quick wins with eSourcing

Add comment March 7th, 2008 David Bush - Iasta

Recently, Eric Strovink on Sourcing Innovation had a good write up on building momentum with an eSourcing roll out, which amounts to a quick start guide to success.

Eric explains that you can get off the ground with a very small budgeted amount of money, dedicate minimal resources (1) to effectively test, and to target spend analysis. Certainly, all quality recommendations and Michael adds that spend analysis results may provide funds to:

“pay for that new system that will greatly increase your efficiency, and savings, and allow you to go from running a few projects (that could require an almost painful amount of time and effort because - where e-RFX, e-Auction, and optimization are concerned - you get what you pay for) to running a few dozen or more! And that’s when the real savings will begin.”

I would add to this discussion, by saying that companies also need to assess what they want out of an eSourcing platform. Although you can certainly get benefits by taking a low risk approach (a scenario that was not available years ago), it is equally important to commit to the process. If you want to seriously impact how this technology will impact the bottom line, there should be a comprehensive implementation plan and execution which targets categories, training and sustainable adoption. More expensive? Absolutely. Worthwhile? Absolutely.

Entry Filed under: General, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology