Introduction to Bid Management
One of the most crucial aspects of manufacturing is having a vendor network to reliably produce goods for your customers. Ensuring vendors will provide the most cost-effective product allows your business to grow and maintain healthy margins across the board. To ensure that vendors provide the most competitive pricing, businesses rely on costing exercises of varying complexity. While many businesses are still reliant on a single supplier model, many businesses are learning the importance of executing a bid management process to receive multiple quotes and determine the best supplier based on cost and other factors.
Often, it’s difficult to solicit and keep track of multiple bids. The vast majority of companies are analyzing vendor costing leverage excel spreadsheets and disparate email strings. Having the right software in place is critical in effectively executing bid management. What’s more is that ROI and value can so easily be calculated by employing bid management. A 1% COGS improvement is extremely achievable and can save businesses millions of bottom line dollars.
Here are some benefits of switching from a manual bid management approach to a software which can digitally manage this process.
Cloud Based
It’s never been more important to have access to your data, no matter where your team is located. Cloud based software allows for access at any time of the day, or night, from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection. This allows for remote work across time zones, allowing for international teams to collaborate in real-time. Being “cloud based” not only enables your internal teams to evaluate cost metrics at their convenience, but also enables your suppliers to easily provide you with data responses from their mobile devices.
Data Storage
Systems with bid management capabilities can also house relevant data, ensuring that teams have access to the most relevant information quickly and easily. The convenience of data being stored in one place allows for a quicker and more effective way to manage the bid process. This ultimately reduces the time it takes to create new bid submissions.
The longer customers leverage a digital costing platform, the smarter your system and data insights are. For example, when considering a cohort of products, the GRID enables customers to compare historic costs across numerous vendors to ensure future pricing is competitive.
Bid Management Ease of Use
Software platforms such as the GRID utilize an intuitive dashboard, allowing for full visibility across any open bids, including status and deadlines. Users can track bids through the entire lifecycle with this functionality. The easy and intuitive nature of this system reduces time to train staff on new software systems. This means that ROI begins more quickly and ultimately saves money in the near term.
Ease of use is important not just for internal teams, but also for suppliers and entities entering in costing information. After all, if the tools are not easy to navigate, suppliers will simply not reply to your costing solicitations. The GRID navigates this situation by providing several options for costing submissions. Vendors can log into a secure cloud portal and key in information directly. Vendors also have the option to leverage email integrations and CSV pushes to get data into the GRID in bulk.
Improved Communication
One benefit of a collaborative cloud-based software solution is that team members across an organization can use the system simultaneously. Tasks and questions can be assigned so there is a reduced risk of error and duplicating efforts. This type of software reduces the need for internal emails, and catalogues this communication for reference in the future.
In Conclusion
Software solutions such as the GRID can provide businesses with the tools that they need to successfully manage all aspects of their supply chain, including the bid management process. By utilizing a digital approach, organizations can better mitigate against risk, improve cashflow, and grow their business in an intelligent way. To learn more, check out the GRID’s Costing & PO Management or contact hello@suuchi.com for a demo.
