The core of procurement is sourcing. The definition of procurement itself is the act of buying goods or services, which means various fields are involved with this. However, it’s not just about finding a supplier and haggling over prices; there are many other factors to be considered to ensure that you’ve made the right investment for your company with the help of Sourcing agents Asia.
As part of the process, spending hours analyzing suppliers’ price quotes holds little value if you need to do so further down the line when selecting who will provide your service. It’s also important to remember that these suppliers will work for you, along with their subcontractors, meaning every party involved should have an opportunity to benefit from working together to remove any uncertainty about what they can deliver. As part of this, you need to find suppliers who are willing to work with your organization and demonstrate that they understand what is required from them.
A major part of how successful a supplier will be is their track record. This spans the length of time they have been available on the market, as well as any information about their clients and past projects. How long has it taken them to complete deliveries? Have previous customers been happy with their service? What type of feedback have they received about the quality or timeliness of fulfillment?
You can also consider diversity issues such as suppliers’ ownership structure, i.e. whether there is a foreign investment involved as it may give rise to doubts about control over management decisions and operations in some markets. On top of this, you need to consider the supplier’s capacity and whether they have sufficient resources to complete your project.
Competitiveness is another factor: how do their prices compare to the market average? Do any discounts offer to seem too good to be true? Is there a potential for negotiation? If so, it may be worth asking if their costs will fall once they’ve met your initial order and an established relationship has been formed with them. Lastly, don’t forget about existing suppliers who are already widespread in the industry – these could be invaluable relationships for leveraging knowledge about new products or being plugged into future business opportunities. Therefore, this is an opportunity for expanding your reach within the sector without spending time searching for new suppliers.
When talking about sourcing, you can’t forget the importance of choosing your supplier’s location. One reason for this might be to access a particular skill set that is not available domestically to reduce costs, particularly when dealing with high-value products or services. Alternatively, it may be about wanting to support local businesses to build up their capacity so they can handle larger volumes at lower unit prices over time.