“Strategic sourcing” is all about finding suppliers that can provide extra value by establishing a collaborative, ongoing relationship with the organization. This approach to supplier management is ideal for large or high-risk purchases where an organization may need the supplier to provide a white-glove experience.

Choosing a vendor after a rigorous strategic sourcing process provides both short- and long-term benefits. Short-term, the supplier provides a product or solution that effectively solves a problem for the organization. Long-term, an organization can develop a collaborative relationship with the supplier, often working together to improve the supplier’s product and solve new problems for the organization.

Sourcing is an important part of the procurement process that involves researching, evaluating, and selecting a supplier to provide a good or service. Zip’s strategic sourcing software helps with each part of the sourcing process with features like AI-assisted RFx generation, automatic compliance documentation, vendor scoring, and more.

An RFx – a “request for anything” – is a catch-all term. It refers to the communication that happens when an organization begins contacting potential vendors about goods or services they want to purchase. Historically, this has been a slow, manual process involving lots of documents and emails. Zip’s RFx solution drastically cuts down the amount of work involved by helping with RFx generation, facilitating stakeholder collaboration, and surfacing the right information for decision-making.

The right strategic sourcing software is one that meets the needs of your organization. Zip’s sourcing solution:

• Leverages AI automation to streamline the RFx process
• Visualizes spend analysis, cycle times, and cost savings in user-friendly dashboards
• Provides full visibility for stakeholders
• Helps create and maintain compliant documentation
• Tracks and moves renewals through appropriate workflows

Strategic sourcing tends to focus on supplier relationships, strategic planning, negotiation and contract management, supply chain stability, and a variety of other factors. Operational sourcing – sometimes simply called “procurement” – tends to focus on more tactical, day-to-day transactions.

Zip is a powerful solution that can help you streamline your sourcing process by coordinating, automating, and optimizing key workstreams.

Zip provides a “single front door” for everyone involved in the sourcing and procurement process. With Zip, every requester and every approver knows where to go, what to do, and what the next step is. Purchases happen faster, the organization saves money, and the risk of working with new suppliers is significantly reduced.