How NOT to be successful with eSourcing - 10 easy steps

eSourcing Manager Henrik Balslev from Scanmarket and Director Melanie Halstead from Positive Purchasing Asia participated Monday 20th April 2009 at the local CIPS (Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply) branch in Birmingham with a presentation on the topic of "How NOT to be successful with eSourcing - 10 easy steps".

The idea was to give participants an "alternative" insight into internal and external factors that affect implementation of successful eSourcing.

The 10 easy steps of "How NOT to be successful with eSourcing":

• Make sure you select the first eSourcing provider you come across because they are the cheapest and you like the look of their home page. They will all be the same anyway…..

• Make sure you do not involve top management and key stakeholders. The rationale and key objectives behind eSourcing will eventually creep through the grapevine…...

• Make sure you do not spend time and energy in training people to use the tool. They will be able to work it out for themselves in time…….

• Make sure you do not have a full overview of your spend to understand "what you know" and "what you don't know"…….

• There is no need to look for new potential suppliers as our incumbent will be sure to play ball and reduce their prices by 20%.......

• Make sure you do not have clear specifications and requirements within the RFP. You can always drip feed additional information at a later stage…..

• Make sure you have limited understanding of the category and the market situation to decide if an auction is suitable and if so just select the auction type and lotting strategy that you use every time……

• Make sure you do not train or condition or do anything to prepare the suppliers before the event day. Simply go on holiday and come back on the day of the auction. We are the customer and suppliers should just get on with it……..

• Make sure you negotiate as hard as you can with the suppliers before the auction day and then for good measure, save some of your hard ball tactics for after the auction event. That way the auction will be a roaring success……

• Once you have finalised the contract put it on top of your paperwork pile. It should be easy to put your hands on if you need it……

Around 50 local CIPS members participated in the event and the alternative spin to the area of successful implementation of eSourcing spurred a good deal of discussion and comments from the participants.