Transitioning to a new software or platform for your business can be a challenging decision. However, when it comes to an eSourcing platform, the benefits definitely outweigh the challenges. From streamlining your business, to improving internal communication, eSourcing platforms like FlexRFP (TM) can greatly benefit your business.

2. Understanding the Benefits of eSourcing
Deciding to transition your procurement processes into eSourcing is a big decision. The benefits, however, can be important for your company for your profits and your reputation. Before you decide to make the switch, it’s important to understand the process of eSourcing and the steps your company will need to take in order to make the transition seamless. What is eSourcing? eSourcing is used during an RFP event as a web-based software application. A company uses the software to define supplier selection criteria, solicit information and proposals from suppliers against those criteria, and analyze suppliers’ proposals. A reverse auction event lets you use a web-based application to enable suppliers to participate in an openly competitive bidding event in real time.
Before eSourcing, an RFP event was a longer process that began with the supplier having minimal knowledge about requirement details, evaluation criteria, bids, or buyer needs. The supplier often felt more discouraged than satisfied, and less willing to participate in future events. The potential streamlining process of a good eSourcing platform allows for clearer, quicker communication and enhances the confidence of the supplier, ensuring they return to bid again. Fear of the Unknown It’s understandable why some companies resist the shift to eSourcing. Changing the way things have always worked and eliminating the need for paper trails can feel insurmountable. Well-established companies are often afraid of the unknown and the misinformation about eSourcing only perpetuates that fear. There can be a reluctance to experiment and try a new way of managing sourcing processes, many times because companies feel a threat to their core skills, competence, and reputations they’ve developed over many years. The fear of failure is high and though the world depends on

3. technology every day, for companies who rely on strong relationships with suppliers, it can be easy to distrust new technologies. Finally, the fear that those strong relationships with suppliers will falter is a huge deterrent to eSourcing. However, as you’ll see below, eSourcing can make your company’s already stellar relationships even stronger. eSourcing Advantages The benefits of eSourcing are beneficial to every aspect of the sourcing process. A company can easily copy content and templates from project to project, and even provide category-specific templates to input information in an instant. All of this allows for reduced negotiation time and a better ability to access new customers. eSourcing eliminates the paper trail of projects and transactions, and allows for a larger repository of data for easier, faster access to information. Accuracy increases and errors minimalize almost instantly, providing management with better tools for analysis and optimization. All data transfers digitally, pushing your company into the green initiative with ease--you save paper, space, time, and money. Marketing and admin expenses drop across the board, not to mention the large reductions in sourcing cycle-times. A recent survey by Oracle showed that as the benefits of electronic procurement and reverse auctions became more apparent, more public and private sectors began adopting eSourcing tools, and it’s paying off. Aberdeen Research reports that the annual average savings from eSourcing are 16%. Improved Measurement With the use of eSourcing software, the creation of new documents and measurement of current users is easier than ever. Your company can track what percentage of users and suppliers log in each month, and compare buyer-side and supplier-side logins over 30-day periods. The ease and speed with which you can locate important information, and compare active supplier records and self-registrants provides maximum consolidation. Your company can track the number of added fields, reports, and active templates all within one software platform, benefiting and streamlining the procurement process.

4. Improved Relationships Perhaps the most valuable benefit of eSourcing is its ability to make competition more visible, increasing fairness and validating competitiveness, while keeping sales and marketing expenses low. The transparency of transactions benefits both the company and the supplier, increasing trust within those transactions and strengthening relationships. While some worry that eSourcing leads to commoditization, in actuality, the market knowledge and transparency your organization will gain helps everyone make better decisions faster, with more confidence than ever before. EC Sourcing Group’s FlexRFP™ software allows for detailed RFP requirements, numerous feedback reports, more stakeholder communication, and evaluation criteria. When more of the process is visible and accessible, everyone wins. Adapting and Transitioning to Your Business Once you decide to make the switch to eSourcing, adapting the software and procedures across departments can be simpler than you think. Focus on the templates when you deploy the eSourcing solution, and show how it makes RFP creation simple and effective for any RFP event. By providing category-specific templates and reducing the number of required fields and process steps for sourcing, you can highlight the procurement process simplification company-wide.
Here’s a little secret: look into your sourcing department and see who tends to be an early adopter of technology and change. Those employees will respond the quickest to training and will help your company evaluate the procedures as you move forward. This helps improve internal communication and assure that all departments, including finance, marketing, and IT, successfully understand the benefits of eSourcing and can effectively use the software, too. Sourcing professionals can help utilize the rest of your team to make decisions through this internal streamlining process. EC Sourcing Group’s FlexRFP™ software has a score-carding feature that allows each business area to score each supplier. This gets all departments involved in the decisions. Cohesiveness is always a good thing. Choose EC Sourcing Group Why choose EC Sourcing Group? EC Sourcing Group began providing eSourcing tools in 2001, after many years of providing top-notch tools as a Fortune 500 sourcing

5. professional. ECSG was one of the first companies to begin utilizing eSourcing as a unique strategic sourcing tool for supply management activities in the early 2000s, arising from the need to streamline processes, reduce waste, and maximize profits.
Our FlexRFP™ eSourcing software is easy to learn and implement into your daily procurement procedures--you’ll barely notice the transition. Many companies are fearful of the transition process, worried that technology will fail or cause rifts in their operations, forcing them to lose money and supplier relationships. However, our expert team of sourcing professionals specifically created FlexRFP™ with these fears and your needs in mind. We designed this and other software to integrate seamlessly into your chosen process. It’s collaborative, organized, and made so you can build your own category-specific templates, streamlining and quickening the bid and buy quotes process. There is minimal training required to learn FlexRFP™ and no supplier training necessary. We made the software to be enjoyable and to encourage collaboration and better communication between you and your suppliers.
At EC Sourcing Group, we focus on ease and immediate customer support, so your business doesn’t lose valuable time and money. We know that if the transition to eSourcing is too difficult, you’ll go back to using emails, spreadsheets, and Word documents. With that in mind, our software solutions function similarly to your already familiar programs and document management systems. Your company will therefore gain confidence and self-sufficiency in no time. Conclusion Now that you understand how easy it can be to transition your company to eSourcing, consider using EC Sourcing Group to guide you through the process. Visit our website today to begin the transition to more efficient and strategic sourcing management.