Author Archives: Jason Treida - Iasta
The website www.eyeforprocurement.com has just released a benchmark study (Sign up here) regarding Sourcing in Low-Cost Countries which I found to be very interesting. Nothing in the report is overly surprising but it does reaffirm a few things that we tend to hear in the market and it is nice to see studies backing up some of these claims. Everyone can have their own opinion but it is a lot more effective when you have a Benchmark Report to back … More
I find it amazing how many companies do not have a formal purchasing process in place for their entire purchasing department or if they do have a formal process that they do not follow it. Even some Fortune 500 Companies that I have had the pleasure to work with over the last year still send out, collect, and analyze bid packages in a paper based format. This is somewhat shocking and what has been more surprising is that many of … More
Despite the view of many Americans, the US economy grew at the fastest pace in 2 ½ years. CBS News recently conducted a poll from Americans revealing that even with these strong economic numbers, the US approval rate continues to drop. US Economy Approval Now — 32% 9/2005 — 35% 8/2005 — 37% With 54% of Americans that think the US economy is getting worse and only 10% say that it is getting better, I just find this to be … More
We were recently asked why the ISM was changing their well known CPM certification to a new format called the CPSM. After some digging and asking around, I should have gone directly to the ISM site that sponsors this exam as they have provided a lot of detailed information regarding the change. I think this Internet thing is here to stay… I have recapped some of the information below – The ISM website stated that they are changing the format … More
Everyone is aware of the continuous price increases for crude oil and gasoline but what I didn’t realize was that for the last 12 months natural gas has actually decreased just over 5%. I am sure a lot of this has to do with the fact that much of the US has had a very mild winter but still did not realize this trend since the spotlight has been on oil and gas. This site NGSA.org has some interesting facts … More
Below are a few tips if you are using Reverse Auctions: Allow enough time for Suppliers to quote Allow Suppliers to submit questions and possibly share that information with all bidders Create demonstrations or mock events to allow suppliers visibility into what the real event will be like Collect Preliminary Bids and review them to make sure you are satisfied with the number of bidders and the initial quotes Keep the event under 10 Lots if possible or cascade the … More
and the answer is … SUGAR! For this price index posting we will take a look at the widely traded sugar market. Tracking price trends is an important role in the purchasing department to validate possible price increases and to negotiate price reductions at the appropriate time. Overview of Sugar and Production The major cane sugar producing countries are countries with warm climates, such as: Australia, Brazil, and Thailand. The greatest quantity of sugar is produced in Latin America, the … More
This is the first of many postings that will look at a specific price index provided by propurchaser.com Why is this important? Tracking a commodity price index is an extremely valuable task to help understand and document why suppliers ask for price increases and to know when you should be able to negotiate lower pricing based on commodity cost reductions. Let’s all face it, I am sure your supplier will not come to you lowering their costs on merchandise bags … More
The E-Sourcing Forum is pleased to announce a new partnership with Propurchaser.com to provide information for purchasing processionals including; information that helps drive down costs including market trends, and to raise the status of the Purchasing profession by increasing senior-management awareness of its strategic, profit-increasing potential. Look for E-Sourcing Forum to relay valuable information on specific commodity issues which can be used for better market knowledge to our readers and customers. We will also attempt to give insight on how … More
This posting continues the top five challenges of a purchasing manager that was originally posted on October 3rd. 3) Supplier performance / taking care of service issues. This is another tough problem that nearly everyone in purchasing experiences and there are few solutions. Supplier performance tools have become very popular within the last few years and can provide some insight to the purchasing department. The only limitation with supplier performance tools are that they are after the fact and issues … More
Working for a company that provides solutions to purchasing departments, curiosity led me to find out what are the major challenges for Purchasing Managers. I sent an email to ten corporate purchasing managers that I work with, all with different companies, and requested their feedback. The top two challenges I received are as follows including my input and I will provide three more in a few days: 1) Data gathering including collecting the correct information. My suggestion would be to … More
