Procurement of Supply Chain Services

for companies looking to save money and navigate the best path forward

Is what you pay for freight, 3PL, and distribution services too high?

Are Your Supply Chain Services Competitively Priced?

Many companies know they are paying too much for supply chain services – or at least suspect they are – and are surrounded by providers who all have something to gain by holding or directing business to other providers.

SPARQ360 provides supply chain leaders with peace of mind – and a neutral evaluation of their costs through our thorough, unbiased approach.

Unlock Cost Savings and Efficient Logistics with Freight Procurement Service

❝SPARQ360 has made a major contribution to Accupac by helping us implement lean tools to reduce cycle time and improve productivity. They work with us in a thoughtful and professional manner and bring the team along to create ownership and commitment.❞

Raj Lall

Accupac

Procurement of 3PL Transportation Services

Solve your Cost, Quality, and Service Challenges

Defining Requirements and Benchmarking

Understanding how your rates and costs compare to the market is critical. Many leaders don’t have a clear view of their current benchmarks and opportunities for savings.

SPARQ360 benchmarks your costs (rates), quantifying XXXX and identifying savings opportunities. We have been on both sides of bids and RFP’s and understand the nuances of procurement.

At the end of this process, our clients receive a savings report, identifying savings, the estimated value of making the changes, the difficulty of implementation, and the likely timeline to complete. Benchmarking data, facts, costs, service levels, inventory, and productivity allows our clients to compare their current situation against industry norms and facts. We use several tools and can demonstrate how you can gain a competitive advantage and reduce waste through these benchmarking practices.

Our experienced, multidisciplinary team of experts can spot things often missed by high-priced consulting firms and inexperienced solo practitioners.

Competitive Bidding Process

Once we have evaluated and documented your requirements, we prepare a bid using existing templates that clearly communicate your needs to the bidders. We structure your bid in a manner that allows providers to “overlay” your network into their network – seeking the best fit for all parties. An important component of a successful bid is improving the asset utilization of both you and the provider.

Solve your Cost, Quality, and Service Challenges

Bid Management

SPARQ360 manages the entire bid process to ensure the best results for our clients. We broadly communicate bidding parameters, ground rules, processes, and approaches to all stakeholders and bidding parties. We follow the bid process via our Gantt chart and drive all key tasks to completion.

Our team coordinates a feedback process from bidders to answer questions and clarify scope and requirements. A scorecard records and assesses the responses for each requirement. We collaborate with our clients to reach a consensus on the scores from each provider and “down-select” to the two or three best options for further evaluation and final negotiations.

Contract Negotiations

We begin negotiations by sharing a draft master contract with basic terms as part of the initial bid screening process. We ask bidders to review and acknowledge acceptance of the legal terms and conditions and other key elements like payment terms. If the bidders cannot accept these contract terms, they are excluded from the bid at the outset.

We do the bulk of our negotiating on your behalf when the bid list is reduced to the final two or three finalists. Sometimes, we suggest an award or an initial suggestion as to what the finalist has won and then ask them to adjust their pricing or solutions based on the suggested award. This revised pricing is modeled and calculated before we ask for the “best and final” offer.

Solve your Cost, Quality, and Service Challenges

Provider Transition Management

Integration or start-up of the new provider is critical to ensuring you get the savings from the bid. We use several LEAN tools (such as a FMEA, CIR, and RACI) to help guide the transition from incumbent to new providers. We dedicate experienced team members who have been on all sides of these operations to ensure a smooth transition incorporating IT, operational, and process components.

Other Services You Might Be Interested In

Our experts have expertise in every aspect of supply chain optimization – including sourcing and procurement, interim supply chain operations support, supply chain optimization, warehouse design, ESG compliance, LEAN process implementation, and more.

Supply Chain Optimization

We analyze your specific situation by gathering your detailed requirements and doing a current state assessment.

Interim Supply Chain Operations Support

Should Fleets be used for the lanes and deliveries? What is the asset utilization of the tractors and trailers?

We understand asset utilization and where fleets are the best solution.

ESG Compliance

Are you struggling to deal with the ever-changing regulations, demands of clients, and never-ending list of acronyms? Find out how we can help you tackle these challenges – and save money.