About Us

The Sourcing Board Difference

 

• Methodology Independence: Client capabilities in procurement have evolved in recent years and many clients have a process for procuring services. Often sourcing efforts result in a lot of time and effort to merge a sourcing methodology with the client’s standards. Sourcing Board advisors depth of knowledge and experience enables us to work with most clients processes. Most processes contain similar steps. Sourcing Board can bring the tools and templates and utilize a process that clients are comfortable with, to complete the sourcing analysis better and faster. If a client doesn’t have a committed process, Sourcing Board will work the client to choose the best fit from several commercially available tools.
• Creative Solution Process: Too often, the process gets in the way of generating the best solution. Attempts to standardize the marketplace in a process designed to compare “apples to apples” oftentimes removes much of the supplier’s creative solutions and presents a less than optimal solution. Our role at Sourcing Board is to enable suppliers and clients to communicate and develop creative meaningful solutions. It is our job to be able to review different approaches and in essence compare apples to oranges. We encourage joint work sessions during both the client’s RFP and the supplier’s response efforts – to explore options, expedite the decision process, and build the client/supplier relationship. We encourage clients to talk about needs and the suppliers to present their best solutions – not a cookie cutter approach so often required.
• Flexible Pricing Capability: Clients commonly desire to have sourcing solutions priced with a relevance to their business units. However, the perceived need to compare the existing cost to multiple bidder responses in a standardized structure both restricts creative approaches and strips out any value added capabilities. Sourcing Board has analysts who truly understand the services and underlying cost drivers. This allows multiple bids to be presented which incorporate supplier’s strengths and a client’s needs, then provide the business case analysis that reflects the impact of the offering. This enables the client and the supplier to recognize the best value.
• Relationship Enabling: Sourcing Board’s experience has shown us that many post contract disputes are the result of the clients and the suppliers not having the same expectations. Adherence to a rigid process with the desire to prevent miscommunication through the bid cycle will result in less understanding by both parties in the operations mode. Sourcing Board encourages communication and interaction between the client and the supplier teams throughout the process – with the intent on getting the two parties as familiar as possible with each other and the solution before the service commences. Moreover, Sourcing Board understands that it is not about the advisor or the process – it is about the client and the supplier – and that is where the emphasis needs to be.