Can Consultants give you a competitive advantage?

So you think your company has no competition. Highly unlikely - competition is everywhere. Maybe there isn't a "direct" competitor who provides EXACTLY what your company offers, but there are undoubtedly elements of your products that buyers can get from other sources, potentially at a cheaper price. Plus, any company that is perceived by buyers to be in your space should also be considered a competitor.

So how can you ensure your company maintains a competitive advantage? According to a report published by the Aberdeen Group in March 2001, a good place to start is strategic e-sourcing. The report states there are many ways in which you and your company can "e-source" all your purchases, and in turn, earn greater market share.

Aberdeen describes strategic e-sourcing as "the process of using web-based technologies to support the identification, evaluation, negotiation, and configuration of optimal groupings of trading partners into a supply chain network, that can efficiently respond to changing market demands." What does that mean? Essentially, using online resources to purchase goods and services will make your job easier, give your company a competitive edge, position you to respond more quickly to your customer's changing needs, and in turn secure market share.

Aberdeen notes the trouble with traditional sourcing practices is that they are riddled with complex and labor-intensive process. When companies cross over to an e-sourcing approach all these processes can be streamlined, improving the sourcing cycle and negotiations, while providing enhanced access to supplier intelligence. Simply put, using an e-sourcing tool provides:

Easy access to a greater variety of vendors
A baseline for the "going rate" for products and services
An apples-to-apples comparison of vendor offerings and capabilities
A decision-support tool for more informed purchases
As you probably know, to achieve profitability and remain competitive, companies are faced with increased pressure to perform at optimal efficiency. E-sourcing creates that significant advantage needed, especially for companies who have consistent, challenging competitive threats. Aberdeen states that in hyper-competitive markets such as high tech, companies will find themselves with reduced opportunity to compete, and will have less pricing flexibility if they come to market too late. It is imperative that companies "align themselves with products and supply partners who will make them more successful in bringing new products to market more quickly and at a lower price than ever before." And this would be a difficult task if it weren't for the advent of the online sourcing solutions.
Can one supplier really make a difference in a company's success? Probably not. But a series of bad suppliers can. With the size and multi-division, most companies don't even know if they use bad suppliers more than once. Just imagine, if you use those same suppliers quarter after quarter or year after year, the results can be devastating. Many successful companies have already taken advantage of these web-based tools. According to Aberdeen, organizations using web-based sourcing technologies have been able to do the following:


Identify and negotiate with a broad range of qualified suppliers
Reduce process costs for sourcing engagements
Shorten sourcing cycles by 25% to 30%
Reduce time-to-market cycles by 10% to 15%
Negotiate an average of 5% to 20% unit price reductions
Extend strategic sourcing to a wider range of products and services
Enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing
This article is brought to you by eWork Markets, an excellent online sourcing solution for companies and individuals to procure consulting services. Take advantage of what many other companies already know about strategic e-sourcing - go to www.eworkmarkets.com and post your consulting project today.