{"id":2116,"date":"2006-03-15T02:44:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-15T02:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/2006\/03\/15\/sourcing-favorite-least-favorite-categories\/"},"modified":"2021-07-28T08:14:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T12:14:28","slug":"sourcing-favorite-least-favorite-categories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/sourcing-favorite-least-favorite-categories\/","title":{"rendered":"Sourcing – Favorite and Least Favorite Categories"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been fortunate to have sourced such a wide variety of categories of goods and services throughout my career. I\u2019ve just been reflecting on the categories I\u2019ve enjoyed and despised the most.<\/p>\n

First, for the category, I\u2019ve enjoyed the most\u2026<\/p>\n

I absolutely love sourcing enterprise software. Each vendor\u2019s offering is usually at least somewhat different.<\/p>\n

I love to see and challenge the logic of how everything works, especially when I come up with the most customized what-if scenarios.<\/p>\n

I can program in five different languages, so I like to ensure that every condition is considered by the programmers. It is also very exciting to speculate on efficiencies and productivity improvements and estimate the measurable financial results.<\/p>\n

But there are also the fundamental principles of supplier selection that someone sourcing software must apply. Making sure that the supplier is stable is equally fun, important, and challenging, particularly when you\u2019re an early adopter of new technology.<\/p>\n

Now, for the category, I\u2019ve despised the most. Drum roll, please\u2026<\/p>\n

The category I\u2019ve always hated sourcing is printing services. Ugh.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that there are oodles and oodles of vendors out there and the compressed pricing in the market has made printing services a veritable commodity, it seems like reliable printing service vendors are few and far between. Even the good ones seem to have their quirks.<\/p>\n

Vendors who are good at one type of printing seem to be poor at other types of printing. Pricing can vary by 200% or more between vendors with absolutely, positively no relationship to quality. Print brokers and distributors who are in business to use their expert knowledge to find the best deal for you seldom can beat the pricing that any old hack can find by surfing a few Web sites. And they usually have no visibility into the production status of your projects.<\/p>\n

Overall, a very, very challenging category to consolidate.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t help but think of a recent meeting I had with the Senior Manager of Corporate Purchasing from a large retailer. He brought me the navy blue business cards of his staff members.<\/p>\n

He commented that Marketing had been on his case since the shade of navy was inconsistent from order to order. He pointed out how evident that was by comparing the cards of his employees. He wasn\u2019t pleased about having to deal with a printing problem with so much else on his plate.<\/p>\n

I feel his pain. I\u2019ve been there early in my career.<\/p>\n

And, as a guy in a pretty high-powered position, he shouldn\u2019t have to worry about something as relatively trivial as business cards. But sourcing in the print services category is walking into a hornet\u2019s nest.<\/p>\n

Recommended Reading<\/b><\/p>\n