The market
The procurement process goes through the following stages: discovery of suppliers, invitation to bid (RFP), award, and delivery of the good or service.
Currently, there are two groups of companies:
The Problem
Group 1 companies do not expand their supplier lists because it is simply too tedious. They simply stick with their regular suppliers without an easy-to-use platform or reliable, affordable external services and avoid generating savings by not having qualified incumbents:
On the other hand, Group 2 companies expand their lists because they understand that the permanent expansion of their supplier base encourages competition, which translates into savings and improved commercial conditions, including delivery lead times. In addition, the current situation of supply chain crisis is forcing many companies to run for new suppliers.
Group 2 companies basically google for months to get to suppliers. But it would take a human to scroll through Google results for months to create a decent list of suppliers, and they only get a partial view of the market. Other companies hire expensive consulting firms or use services like Tealbook or Scoutbee. The following diagram shows both groups:
The Supplier Discovery process from a mountaineering perspective
Basecamp (Longlist)
Generating the first list of suppliers (long list) is only part of the problem. A purchasing process aims to get qualified competitive suppliers to participate in a firm process. These lists are based on "the category" rather than the product itself.
In mountaineering terms, the first list would be the equivalent of setting up the equipment at base camp. Companies do this by googling for months, hiring consultants, or paying for expensive services like Tealbook and Scoutbee.
Camp I (Medium list)
Once the universe of suppliers is known, it is time to find out which of them could offer the product the buyer requires. Buyers, with or without the help of end-users, go through the profile of each supplier to analyze which of them could deliver the required product. It is a tedious process for humans, as they have to go through each supplier's website or catalog.
Camp II (Data Collection)
Now the buyer knows who the potential suppliers are. Early data collection allows knowing in advance if the supplier qualifies and if it is worth inviting him to a firm RFP process in the e-procurement.
In this phase, the buyer asks potential suppliers to provide information. This process is usually carried out via email, generating chaos and stress for the buyer as he interacts with dozens of suppliers, telling their stories and providing credentials.
Camp III (Evaluation)
We have now entered the critical phase (death zone). The objective of the evaluation is to know which ones can:
When the buyer has this information, they can only invite qualified and competitive suppliers to a firm process.
Knowing the reference price in advance in some categories with mandatory homologation becomes essential. It is a game-changer that allows them to save months and money. Many companies invest months in homologating suppliers that turn out to be uncompetitive.
This step is possibly the biggest bottleneck in the process, as the buyer and end-user must analyze dozens of files containing technical and commercial proposals.
Summit (Short List)
Once qualified and competitive suppliers are known, they are invited to register with their e-procurement to participate in the RFP process.
This process is everything that happens before e-procurement. Companies that regularly expand their lists have significant benefits in saving money and time, besides becoming an indispensable tool in these times of supply chain crisis.
How Babelus helps companies
Large corporations use Babelus as the first filter before e-procurement.
Babelus entirely digitizes this process by providing buyers with qualified lists, eliminating endless research on the internet.
The platform has a super-easy interface enabling easy interaction with prospective suppliers and allowing for the automated tailored information gathering, reducing the chaos of email interaction with hundreds of companies.
In addition, our AI allows automated analysis of profiles and technical/commercial documents to create short lists, and save the manual work of analyzing dozens of specifications and reliance on the end user.
Our Database is powered by our AI scraper, which allows us to offer the most complete and up-to-date supplier information in the market, which is complemented by vendors.
If you want to get detailed information about how Babelus helps you to reach the summit smoothly, please write to support@babelus.com, and we can share use cases documents so you can learn how our customers are improving the supplier base and saving money and time.
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