Efficient Supply Chain Holds the Key to Success

Authored by Usama Shahid

Analyzing and streamlining the supply chain is one way to help companies respond more quickly to market changes while boosting operational efficiency.

Streamlining supply chains helps businesses look beyond tactical order fulfillment and gain a better understanding of future customer needs. Analyzing and streamlining the supply chain is a learning process not just for improving product deliveries today, but also for improving customer service in the future.

Significance of Healthy Supplier Relationship

Authored by Usama Shahid

In most client-provider partnerships, procurement departments generally maintain professional working relationships with suppliers that border on being overly formal.But such formality can hamper the good communication and trust needed to bring about long-term value to both the supply chain and organization.

To create the best partnership possible, procurement leaders should look to personal relationships for guidance. Communication, responsibility and patience are tools generally valued only in terms of personal relationships, but procurement teams can apply these same tools to reinforce supplier relationships.

Procuring is an Art

Authored by Usama Shahid

Since the beginning of time people have been trading goods and services.One party sells them and the other buys them. A simple transnational procedure, that should be relatively uncomplicated, as well as being mutually beneficial for both parties.

Key Challenges Faced by CPO’s

Authored by Usama Shahid

Managing a budget is often a challenging task. For CPOs, they need to have a strong team across the end-to-end sourcing and procurement process to ensure costs are contained. Without a dedicated team to run a quality sourcing event, requirements are often not accurately captured or scrutinized and money is wasted on unnecessarily high-specification products and services. Without a dedicated team at the other end of the source-to-manage process, to manage supplier adherence to contract, scope creep becomes an issue. Finally, without the people, process or technology to measure and track current spend, there is an ‘overspend lag’, meaning that by the time anyone notices spend is going over-budget, it is too late. 

Evade Procurement Corruption

Authored by Khizar Farooq

For an ethical company procurement corruption is a nightmare. At times corruption is evident, but sometimes it is delicately complex and appears harmless such as when procurement division receives small gifts from suppliers. Even though it seems insignificant, procurement corruption can affect a company`s financial well being and its repute. However, there are ways to avert it.

Ethical culture is one the best things which can be established in a company to avoid procurement consultancy. This will eliminate people who might be susceptible to act unethically while encouraging appropriate conduct. Ethical culture must be adopted first by top level. Every employee in a company from CEO down must be seen virtuous and accountable in all facets of their day-to-day.

Bring Success to your Procurement Department

Authored by Usama Shahid

Best-in-class companies recognize strategic sourcing as a value creator and consider it to be integral to their overall strategies for growth. Here's what it takes to bring your organization up to that level.

Procurement Intelligence drives more Profitability and Sustainability to Organization

Authored by Usama Shahid

In the course of the last 20 to 30 years, the obtainment and inventory network space has significantly developed and the officials running acquirement associations have thus received much more dynamic and refined instruments and methodologies for the execution of their techniques. Additionally, with the expanded acknowledgment of acquisition's immediate effect on the main issue and at last shareholder esteem, it's nothing unexpected that administrators have needed to search for more modern approaches to diminish aggregate expenses, enhance quality and acquire worth out of each period of the procedure. 

Implementing Sourcing Techniques for Complex Investment Areas

Authored by Khizar Farooq

Implementing sourcing processes in intricate areas is quite challenging task to be highlighted in procurement industry. Generally, in most company’s procurement procedure is more complicated than simply developing specs, floating a RFQ, acquiring regular products etc.

Analysis is the most important part of Procurement

Authored by Usama Shahid

Procurement is an important part of your business so you need to undertake regular procurement analysis to ensure that you are making the best use of your hard earned money. Procurement analysis is the analysis of what goes on in your purchasing department, are they keeping to the purchasing strategy and are inventories being kept to the optimum levels.  With respect to suppliers, are the best suppliers been chosen and are they offering the best prices and terms?

Whatever the size of your company you must analyze costs and inventories.  As you become larger and your purchasing needs become more complex, you should be analyzing delivery times, maverick spending and whether you are making the best use of your suppliers.  Let us look at each of these procurement analysis needs individually.

Achieve Saving on Indirect Spend

Authored by Usama Shahid

Indirect spend often accounts to 50% or more of a company’s total purchases and are characterized by large supplier base, low volume purchases and a diverse stakeholder spread across the organization. With almost two-thirds of procurement organizations influencing less than 70% of indirect spend, gaining influence over indirect spending will be the key to achieving sustained or increased savings contributions for most procurement groups. In this blog I will be sharing some of the key measures procurement groups can adopt to tame their indirect spend.

Value of Managing Supplier Relationship and its Benefits

Authored by Usama Shahid

Mostly I have analyzed that most ignored part of any strategic sourcing is managing relationship with supplier. Many times, the sourcing endeavor goes through a tremendously detailed and laborious process of vendor selection only to disband the team or not fully cultivate the relationship on both sides of the desk. Why is this step so important??

1. To gain the significant savings from Continuous Improvement
2. Innovation of Suppliers

Reduce Supply Risk through eSourcing

Authored by Khizar Farooq

Rise of supply risk is nothing new for sourcing specialists. In late 19^th century corporations rapt off from vertical integration as common practice, lead manufacturers an service providers to crucial business risk due to external supply related issues.

Business Intelligence Alleviates Procurement Professional Performance

Authored by Usama Shahid

Business intelligence applications can help to alleviate procurement professionals’ workload burden. These professionals have a most difficult job. They must be subject-matter experts and fully versed in the procurement rules of both their own company and the marketplace. They must also be skilled negotiators. Unfortunately, they often get bogged down in handling routine yet time-consuming transactions, which distracts them from the more complex responsibilities of strategic sourcing. What if there was a system that would reduce the buyers’ workload and allow them to focus their efforts on larger or more difficult buys? It turns out that there is: The BI solution’s dashboard and the associated data, which are collected and reported through the BI solution, make automated purchasing possible.

Happy Eid ul-Fitr

Allah rewards all those who fast religiously during the holy month of Ramadan. He showers them with countless blessings. May He give us the strength and the character to remember Him at all times.Happy Eid ul-Fitr!

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eAuction is more than just a cost saving tool

Authored by Usama Shahid

eAuction is also known as a reverse/forward auction. More importantly, when used properly, a reverse auction offers more than just cost savings potential for the buyer and more than just the opportunity to win new business for the seller. Buyers get increased market transparency, decreased error rates, easy apples-to-apples bid comparisons, cycle time reductions, and a platform for supplier improvement while suppliers get increased efficiency, process transparency, more communication, a lower cost of sale, and more benefit from knowing the buyer did upfront planning, is capable of comparing bids apples-to-apples, and will be able to present the supplier with a solid reason as to why the supplier did, or did not, receive an award.

e-Auctions

Tejari Pakistan is pleased to welcome you to our Marketing Campaigns for procurement professionals in our region. The first campaign on Tejari e-Auctions is now launch and the next campaign e-Sourcing releases in August, eCatalogue Management System and Tejari P2P (Procure to Pay) in September and October.

e-Auctions are negotiations conducted via an online platform. Suppliers get the possibility of improving their proposals based on market feedback (e.g. rank in negotiation) and are considered to be the most transparent way of conducting negotiations.

Access the e-Auctions Campaign by clicking on the button below

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Ramadan Kareem

Wishing you all the blessings from Allah and praying for a blessed Ramadan

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Materials Management's Five Critical Processes

Authored by Usama Shahid

One of the decisions that companies have to make up front is whether purchasing is considered part of their materials management team function or if it is handled separately by a procurement team. However the supply chain management is organized, it is critical that there is outstanding communication flow between purchasing and the team handling inbound and internal logistics.

Choosing the right strategy and tactics for this portion of supply chain management depends largely on your resources and your industry. In a classic manufacturing environment, with fairly predictable needs established, ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and the ERP software that supports it continues to play a role.

eProcurement Enhances Organizational Performance

Web-enabled applications for business-to-business (B2B) procurement are not only expected to reduce the cost of purchasing process but also to alter the activities of purchasing, transform the purchasing process from an operational into a strategic activity and provide opportunities for improving market coordination by reducing asset specificity and by making additional partners available. The results driven through implementing Web-based e-procurement system not only enhance the performance of the buyer organization but also enhance the performance of the supplier organization and improve partner relationship management.

Transform Global Sourcing

Authored by Usama Shahid

Over the next decade, procurement officers will need to take on more expansive roles within their organization. They will need to become guardians of the corporate brand, advocates for sustainable business practices and innovators who help develop new products and services. Companies that embrace this broader perspective for their procurement teams will find themselves in a better position to tackle the 10 change dimensions—from managing and anticipating risks to embracing the need for greater transparency across the supply chain—that will transform procurement by 2025.

E-Sourcing the Golden Key for Organisational Collaboration

The organisational purchasing is the responsibility of procurement team with the business reliant on them to source the right goods and services at the best price. But different departments within an organisation will often have very specific and specialist requirements and there are significant merits in empowering selected personnel to source exactly what they need.

Kraljic Purchasing Models

Authored by Usama Shahid

The infrastructure of purchase department depends on the fundamentals of purchasing. These fundamentals may involves many strategies in different phases. These strategies varies from large and complex procurement to small procurement with in same organisation. But the question is still there what is the best way to manage procurement and what is the best strategy for purchasing and supply. The answer is very simple that there is no single best way to overcome these issues but if you know the category of product that is being purchased, there would be a best way for procurement of this specific category. Below please find The Kraljic Portfolio Purchasing Model which was created by Peter Kraljic and it first appeared in the Harvard Business Review in 1983. It is very old but still know a best useful model currently being used in many companies worldwide.

Developing Adequately Association in Procurement Procedure

Importance of effective partnership in a whole procurement process is consider very vital for the smooth operations. Developing effective partnership and transparency during procurement process apparently helps to achieve better results.

Future Visions of Contract Lifecycle Management

Authored by  Junaid Khan 

Before moving forward I have some questions from all supply chain professional, have you ever felt a sense of frustration ever the pace of progress in your organization? Have you ever take any initiative to improve operational and cost performance. If the answers are yes then you need to focus your attentions on this article where we will understand the vision of eProcurement and its benefits. 

Importance of Spend Analysis

Authored by  Junaid Khan 

Spend Analysis is process which includes information gathering categorizing, evaluating historical data with the help of different reports. This process ultimately increase cost saving of any organization through renegotiation events for different existing contacts. 

Employee Well-Being Programmes

Authored by Afaq Khan

If we talk about in the modern era workplaces employee or staff well-being is now consider as most increasingly and necessary thought. If we define in a simple way Well-being is actually refer to the feeling mentally relax, living safely and healthy, it actually defines that not allowing our daily workload to undercut our elementary need in our daily life. Well Being Thoroughly remarkable aspect of work and career growth. Higher Management in the organizations generally believes that the employee affection towards his professional responsibilities, emotional attachment towards their coworkers leads to higher work performance in the workplace but ultimately Well-being programs also play vital role in that. 

Rationalize Salary Formation

Authored by Fahad Amjad

If your company conducts Employee Surveys, the one question you are sure to get a low score on would be about satisfaction with your income. One reason for this is because employees probably feel that it may encourage you to increase their pay. Another could be that you are not very transparent about your structure and processes. An important element in the compensation space is communicating the total rewards your company offers. Too often, employees see only the monthly pay slip, forgetting about the other benefits that go into your employee value proposition. Accept that staff will compare themselves with each other and with colleagues across industries. This is what makes Internal and External Equity so important. However, if you clearly define your Comparable Pool then the comparisons should be less painful. The makeup of the pool is critical.

Selecting the Right Suppliers

Authored by  Junaid Khan 

There are many factors involves in selection of right suppliers in relevant tenders, and most of the organization count it as challenging task. But selection of suppliers can be a smooth process if you have proper supplier pre-qualification criteria as per policies of organization. 

Develop Strategic Sourcing as a Saving Stream

Authored by Usama Shahid

Sourcing models that enable organizations to go beyond basic bidding strategies, cost savings we think there’s a general lack of awareness in the market about how these sourcing models work. Best-in-class companies recognize strategic sourcing as a value creator and consider it to be integral to their overall strategies for growth. Here's what it takes to bring your organization up to that level.

2015 is Easier to Navigate with Gartner

Authored by Mickey North Rizza

As a 2015 present to businesses globally, Gartner has published their 2015 Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Application Suites. The ‘MQ’ as it is affectionately known, is perfectly timed for executives to find, short list, evaluate and select their Strategic Sourcing Application Suite Technology Provider in early 2015.

In my previous role as Supply Chain Research Director with Gartner, I came to appreciate the time, dedication and sheer hard work that goes into producing the MQ. Months of in-depth vendor interviews and product reviews coupled with endless customer references go into presenting an accurate map of industry leading vendors at that point in time. 

Strategic Procurement can Leap Over Cost savings to enhance the Valuation of Organization

Authored by Fahad Amjad

In current market and economic conditions many organizations are actually facing tough economic conditions especially with the growth of sales which is becoming very challenging gradually and becoming real headache of top management of the organizations. Strategic Procurement is done through a proper way, it can actually bring remarkable cash savings and it can become a real source in a increased revenue through refine quality of goods and services. 

Procurement and Professional Career

Authored by Junaid Shamshad

A job for life is something that many people find quite scary, especially in a modern world that is characterized by freedom of movement and job flexibility. But can a career in purchasing really be a job for life?

Tips to Improve Relationship with Vendors

Authored by  Junaid Khan 

Relationships between buyer and vendors always lead to favorable prices. World largest solution provider always engage with vendors because optimal productivity along the entire supply chain requires solid supplier-customer relationships, efficient and effective processes, sufficient supporting technology and a value-for-money focus as defined by the end customer. Following are few tips to improve relationship with vendors.

Tejari Thought Leadership Papers

Today most of the procurement organizations overlook one of the most significant sources of savings. By taking a holistic view of procurement spend and considering the total cost of ownership, further, previously untapped savings can be realized. Gaining the greatest benefits require us to control our spending and manage our teams wisely – another great feature of best-in-class procurement organisations. 

Abstraction of CPV

Authored by Fahad Amjad

CPV known as Common Procurement Vocabulary is a concept which is refer to the coding process of different Procurement divisions. CPV has different numerical codes which was developed by the European Union specifically for the Public procurement. The main idea behind the development of these codes was to help the procurement divisions to classify the contract discern constant and correctly to help the suppliers to find the notices regarding the contracts which are useful for them by using a standardized vocabulary.

Welcome to Private Sector Thought Leadership Paper (To Bid or Not to Bid? 5 Best Practices for Asking RFP Questions)

As the growth of eSourcing continues and more and more buyers are being exposed to electronic sourcing tools, we are finding that although the technology has evolved significantly, the methodology hasn't necessarily kept pace. When moving to an eSourcing solution, buyers tend to hand us a Word or Excel file and expect the RFP to be created, question for question, as an exact replica in electronic format. 

Transforming Procure to Pay Process Online Increase Efficiency and Benefits

Authored by Usama Shahid

Procure-to-pay processes involve all stages of a business transactions and are integral to overall enterprise efficiency. Organizations face a number of challenges with these Processes that can affect profitability, compliance and efficiency including profit Recovery, Process automation and process optimization.

Significance of Systematic Inventory Management

Authored by Fahad Amjad

In order to understand firstly what is actually concept of inventory management is that inventory management is the assets of any organization that are considered to use in the production of any goods and services refers to sales or any other consignment. There are different types of Inventory management i.e. Raw material goods, pending work that are considered in work in progress and the final or finished goods. The main key of successful inventory management is to maintain the  internal control over inventory which includes any kind of damage or theft , tracking of different purchase orders etc.

Let’s Introduce “e” in Business

Authored by  Junaid Khan 

Few years ago the word “e” was known as an alphabet, and now a day it is crystal clear that the so called alphabet known as “e” has played a vital role in the transformation of world’s largest companies. Many researches show that “e” has brought a revolution in the success stories of many companies. By placing “e” in any process just like, eProcurement, eCommerece, eBusiness, eMarketing, eTrade, eBilling etc, open magical doorsteps of success and saving and boost the financial values of organization in current era. But the development of eProcurement strategies are not as simple as placing a simple word e in front of old procurement strategies or function performed with in the organizations. For transformation of a conventional procurement practices into eProcurement process, a strategic strategy should be designed in an automated manner which integrate all process, technology and other resources that built an infrastructures of organizations and also strengthen to achieve the overall objective of organizations.

Re-Inventing the Role of the Procurement Professional

Authored by Usama Shahid

As we see a world becoming more global in coming year, but even more challenging, Senior executives, including those in procurement, will have to be able to operate within this fast moving and complex environment, and will need to show a range of skills, knowledge and behavior. So we believe that the successful procurement professional of the future will need to develop both strong internal and external focus, and will demonstrate analytically and inter-personal strengths. These two dimensions combine to re-invent the role of procurement professionals:

Significance of Contract Management

Authored by Fahad Amjad

Contract management is a way of managing contracts with complete documented process which enables to manage different kinds of contracts. Which includes the terms, negotiation, payment terms, clauses, complete work flow and their renewal factors. 

Role of e-Invoice in Procurement Cycle

Authored by  Junaid Khan 

Now a day’s many SME’s are becoming a part of global economy and this is the reason behind the rapid growth of ERP systems. Electronic invoicing system is one of the core functionalities of supply chain systems. Millions of invoices are exchanged between buyers and suppliers every year and many researches show that most of these invoices are in paper or in email format which maximize the work load of buyer payable department which results the sufficient increase of day sales outstanding of suppliers. On other side those supplier who submit the e-Invoice to the buyer organizations get paid faster and experience less payment issues from keying errors in the buyers account payable department.

4 Critical Areas for Business Cost Effectiveness Analysis

Authored by Usama Shahid

Cost effectiveness analysis starts by accepting that there may be room to improve your current practices. Enterprises have four core areas where a review of processes can yield substantial changes to the organizations overall cost effectiveness strategies;

Adopting an Electronic Procurement Process

Authored by  Junaid Khan 

eProcurement is B2B or B2C or B2G procurement of products or services through an automated electronic platform such as internet or any other ERP system. eProcurement allows qualified vendors to submit their online technical and commercial responses against the different requirements of buyer organization. eProcurement is a real value addition of eCommerce solutions which not only facilitate but also integrate and streamline the whole procurement process. 

English Auction

Authored by Fahad Amjad

Auction is a way or a activity of buying and selling of different goods and services through different bidding process. There are different types of auctions which are used for the buying and selling purpose of goods and services.