Intenda – A Trusted Platform for Public Sector Procurement

Intenda is another name you might not know, as they are a South African Enterprise whose primary global customer base centred around South Africa, the UK, and Australia, but they are a very strong provider of Source-to-Pay in the public sector with tens of thousands of users across multiple global sites that collectively serve customers in over 30 countries.

Intenda is one of the unique, odd-ball, providers in the Source-to-Pay world. Like b-Pack (now part of Determine) and iValue, it’s development was heavily influenced by its initial customer base and in addition to standard S2P functionality, it also has

  • inventory & asset management,
  • GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) and Traceability, and
  • GPO / central service centre support.

From a Source-to-Pay (S2P) perspective, the strength of the platform lies primarily in its Purchase Order (PO) and invoice management capability and secondarily in its sourcing management capability. The requisition management capability is among the most powerful and most flexible on the market. Not only can requisitions be very detailed with complete part information (if known), multiple lines, cost breakdowns, detailed headers for proper (approval) routing and budget assessment, but different requisitions, with pre-defined headers, processing, and routing information, can be created for each type of purchase, each business unit, each geography, and each special case that the organization needs to support.

The system also supports detailed RFQs/RFBs, the ability to compare them side-by-side using multiple weighting schemes, and do calculation scenarios on sub-bids using any set of filters or restrictions that are required. The platform also supports basic e-Auctions for those clients that want it, but this feature is optional. A user can create an extensively detailed requisition, flip it to a (senior) buyer who can use it as the basis for a detailed RFP, get quotes, and then run an auction and/or make an award.

But the biggest strength of the platform is the audited and government approved security. The solution supports defense clients and revenue service clients in multiple countries, and has gone through just about every security and certification test that one can think of for a SaaS based solution. The solution, which supports fine-grained role-based security, heavy encryption, and multiple levels of authentication, including LDAP integration, if required, has been verified as secure by the most demanding of organizations. Very few platforms have gone through the level of security validation that Intenda has.

If you are a public sector body, or a large multi-national private sector organization that needs an inclusive S2P platform, Intenda is another platform you need to know about. For a detailed review, check out the recent Spend Matters Pro series (membership required) by the doctor and the prophet (Part I). The insights are worth it.

How to Keep Print Costs Manageable — or Find a New Printer if Your Old One Can’t Part II


Today’s guest post is from Brian Seipel, a marking project expert at Source One focussed on helping corporations achieve both marketing and procurement objectives in their strategic sourcing projects.

In Part I, we noted that the printed materials that accompany products are an important part of any business. Yet, despite the slipping quality or rising prices, it is all too easy to stick with the same print shops year after year to fulfill this need, never pushing back, even when the cost savings can be substantial. In our last post, we addressed some ways to control costs without changing suppliers. Sometimes they are enough, but if they are not, then you go back to market.


Taking a Look at New Suppliers

For every good relationship between a printer and customer, there are plenty of bad ones as well. With a long-term relationship, it is easy to hold a supplier less and less accountable — Quality issues may arise more often, SLAs may be ignored more frequently, and pricing could easily become less competitive if you aren’t challenging your incumbent. For any of these reasons, it may be time to start looking for a new supplier.

So, what are the most important factors when searching for viable alternates? See the list below for just a few key criteria:

  • Start your search with shops that specialize in your specific type of job.
    Would a digital print shop be more viable than an offset printer? Are you looking for single pages of print or full color, bound product manuals? Do you have a need for variable-data printing for labels?
  • Evaluate shops in terms of their capacity.
    Is there facility and staff large enough to complete your jobs? Is there enough storage space to handle the capacity you are bringing to them?
  • Keep an eye on deadlines.
    Make sure all shops can describe their turnaround time and on-time delivery rate guarantees.
  • Quality control is key.
    You’ll want to be sure to learn not just about QC programs in place, but how the shop responds to drops in quality and the escalation procedures they follow to get things back on track.
  • Identify distribution centers and map them against your final destination points.
    Other logistics concerns, like multi-point shipping, inventory management, warehousing, and kitting services may also be key to your relationship.

These are all excellent points to cover when vetting potential partnerships, but it isn’t enough to take their word for it. The proof is in the pudding, and you’ll want any shops on your list to back up their claims:

    • Bake key promises into SLAs.
      When shops make promises around any of the points above, be sure to get them in writing. Codify not just the promises made, but also any related KPIs, penalties for not living up to expectations, and a clear plan for escalating and rectifying problems should they arise.
    • Schedule facility tours.
      Take a look around the shops, themselves, and consider whether the capabilities and capacity visible match the company’s claims.
    • Ask for references, and follow up.
      Tours provide a snapshot of what a shop can do for you, but you will need some history to understand if a prospective alternate is a viable long-term partner. Ask about consistency in quality and ability to hit deadlines. Find out how shops perform when something goes awry, and how they managed to fix the issue.


Push Your Suppliers to Do Better

Some printers, recognizing their role as a partner and not just a supplier, will approach clients with ideas for process or product improvements, and recommend cost savings strategies that alleviate budget pressure without reducing quality. Many other printers — don’t.

When was the last time your printer came to you with a great idea to achieve any of these goals? If it’s been too long, or never happened in the first place, now is the time to push them to prove why they’re the best shop for the job. If they can’t, it may be time to see what else the market has to offer.


Thanks, Brian.

How to Keep Print Costs Manageable — or Find a New Printer if Your Old One Can’t Part I


Today’s guest post is from Brian Seipel, a marking project expert at Source One focussed on helping corporations achieve both marketing and procurement objectives in their strategic sourcing projects.

The printed materials that accompany products are an important part of any business. Yet it is all too easy to stick with the same print shops year after year to fulfill this need, never pushing back against slipping quality or rising prices.

This is a mistake — Reexamining these relationships offers a great opportunity to identify best-in-class suppliers, learn about innovations that could better serve your needs, and ensure market competitive pricing.

Too often, however, organizations go to market with a sole focus on just that last point: price. This is a common strategy when searching for printers, and is just as much a mistake as not going to market in the first place (if not more so)… You don’t have to look far for horror stories about the bargain basement print supplier who held up a new product launch because they couldn’t keep up in terms of quality, capacity, or both.

So, how should Procurement proceed? What can we do to ensure our incumbent suppliers are pushing themselves to remain competitive and, if they aren’t, what is the best strategy for identifying a new supplier that can meet our needs?


Cost savings without changing suppliers

First and foremost, let’s discuss incumbent suppliers and what we can do to determine if any production improvements or cost savings can be found in these current relationships.

Review what your current supplier offers, and compare to what your needs are today — things might not align as well as they once did. A shop may have been brought onboard to fulfill a printing need that no longer exists in your organization; newer jobs could be getting shoehorned into presses that aren’t really suitable for your current-day needs. Ask your supplier what their forward-looking plans are for business — what is changing in the world of print, and how are they seeking to adapt? What new technologies may address quality or process problems that they have, and how can they use them to improve the relationship?

As long as you’re still happy with your incumbent, and aren’t at a point where you need to jump ship due to quality problems, a few methods can be used to achieve savings:

  • Drive savings by streamlining business processes.
    This tends to be a soft dollar savings, but can easily add up. Step back and consider how much time is spent on managing print on your end — from placing an order to handling the PO process to delivering files and finally reporting. An inefficient process can drain hours out of your week. Review each of these steps with your supplier — What steps can be automated? If a step cannot be automated, can it be streamlined by removing excess information collection? Can templating be put in place? Can the supplier provide data back in a way that is more conducive to your reporting needs?
  • Consider the impact of larger print runs.
    The cost savings impact of larger print runs is immediate. Larger run jobs are cheaper, because the setup costs are spread over a larger number of prints. However, it would be short-sighted to leave it at that. If you aren’t able to make use of a larger run quickly, storage costs come into play. Worse, a larger run of product manuals relegated to a warehouse may be made obsolete by a new job, or if the associated product is discontinued. Examining inventory levels and turnover is key to achieving savings here.
  • Cut costs by reexamining your specifications.
    A word of warning: Changing up specs won’t lead to an apples-to-apples cost savings over your current print spend, and making a move based solely on price can be a disaster in terms of quality. However, analyzing the materials used can easily cut costs dramatically. Paper weight, for example, can easily be over-specified compared to need.

Unfortunately, there could be a quality problem or a lack of effort on your supplier’s part to help you reduce costs. If this is the case, it would serve you well to look into the market for either negotiation leverage with your incumbent or to identify a suitable replacement.

Tomorrow, in Part II, we will address the issue of the best way to go to market.


Thanks, Brian!

Environmental Sustentation 20: Oil & Natural Gas

Oil and Natural Gas is an environmental damnation in more ways than one. It’s dirty fuel, that is regularly subject to price shocks, and it’s collection and transport often result in significant disasters to the environment, your bank account, and your reputation.

And even though you should move to greener power, in some cases you can’t. Biofuel is not always a viable alternative for transportation, especially for ocean freight (where it takes a lot of combustion to move those mega-carriers) or air travel. And you still need to power your current energy production systems until the new ones come online. So you are stuck with using oil & natural gas for at least some of your energy needs for the time being. (But hopefully with a plan to use less and less over time.)

And, as a result, have to live with the risks of shortages, price spikes, disasters, and the resulting financial and reputational damage that will result. So how do you survive?

Accurately predict future needs.

If your demand is going to spike because of expected sales spikes, or projected energy shortages in other areas, that is something you want to know in advance so you can be sure to contract for sufficient supply. Similarly, if demand is dropping, that is also good to know as maybe you can cut shorter contracts and buy more on the spot market without serious repercussions.

Acquire expert supply and price projections — from various sources.

Don’t just monitor supply and prices, try to understand where it is going so you can source, or re-source, at the best times. While an unexpected disaster, political decision, or pumping slowdown can change everything, the more informed you are, the better off you’ll be.

Have disaster recovery plans in place.

If there is a shortage due to a disaster, you want an alternate source. Don’t sole source if you can avoid it, and make sure you include a provision with the provider who gets the smaller award to increase business over time and that they can support a spike if you need it. If there is a transportation disaster, hopefully you don’t take possession or responsibility until it’s in your storage tank, but either way, you better have a plan to get another shipment sent through an alternate carrier, possibly from your other supplier, ASAP.

Start sourcing clean power and building your own power plants.

Most places in the world can produce a lot of power from wind, solar, or hydro-power, and not only should you be looking to buy from energy companies that produce this power, which can power your equipment, buildings, and even short-haul transportation (that run on battery packs), but if you are a large factor or office building that uses the equivalent of a small power plant of energy, you should be building your own, and only taking off the grid when you need supplemental. With so many regular failures in overtaxed and antiquated power grids, this is just good planning.

While we can’t rid our dependence on oil and natural gas just yet, we can certainly reduce our need for it and this type of planning will not only make it more affordable (if demand lessens), but also make energy consumption and transportation safer and more reliable.