Author Archives: Lindsay Bernacchi

About Lindsay Bernacchi

Lindsay joined Intesource in 2005. She worked as a Client Services Representative eventually becoming Manager of Client Services. In 2010 she moved to the Account Services Department. Prior to Intesource Lindsay worked with the Phoenix Coyotes as an Account Manager. Lindsay has her Bachelors Degree from The University of Arizona in Business, Public Administration, and Communications. Outside of work she can be found working out, traveling, and watching sports, especially the Green Bay Packers.

A Portrait of an Auctioneer: Spartan Stores’ Craig Green

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Spartan Stores has been an Intesource Partner since November 2010. In that time period they have enjoyed a gross savings of $6.2 Million based off of over 177 awarded events. Much of their success can be attributed to the acceptance of the e-sourcing process across the entire Company. Over 13 departments have utilized the Intesource tool! These events have been as diverse as Vision Insurance to Private Brand Popcorn. Below you will find just one of their department’s experience.

In His Own Words
Craig Green, Procurement Manager, Meat/Seafood Division

When I was first approached about running a reverse auction I was a bit hesitant about it. When Bryan [Bryan Porritt, Project Manager, Strategic Sourcing, Spartan Stores] came out to help me set everything up for the first time it took nearly 2 hours. I remember telling him, ‘I don’t see how this will work if it is going to take this long to set up an event.’ He assured me it wouldn’t. So we ran our first event and it was a complete dud. I must admit I was a bit discouraged.

A few weeks went by, and I wanted to try it again. This time it only took about 10 minutes to set up and we saved nearly $11,000. As the weeks progressed, I continued to try different events ranging from ground beef to lobster tails. On the ground beef events we have saved anywhere from 10K to 43K. The best part about it is being able to get a better cost of goods from our incumbents from what they had previously quoted us. And it still amazes me to see the leader of an event continue to bid the price down to try to hit our reserve.

Also because of this program we were able to run shrimp and at very aggressive retail at the holiday time. We have also been able to find replacement products at a much better cost of goods that which we are now selling better than anticipated.

Though not every event is successful, it has changed the way we look at spot buys and I know we will continue to save on cost of goods, as well as time, through this program.

Department Snapshot
Events Run: 23
Total Volume: $6MM
Savings To Date: $382,000

And Survey Says …

Posted on by Lindsay Bernacchi
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Surveying. It’s a simple concept that can assist you in running your business more efficiently. Now Intesource has a tool that can help.

Intesource partner, Spartan Stores regularly surveyed all of their stores on the condition of their floors. To do this, they drove to each location or contacted each store individually. Realizing there was a more efficient way to gather this information, they worked with Intesource to develop a survey tool. Using the standard Request for Information (RFI) method as a jumping off point, Intesource partners can now ask questions with the addition of scoring the answers. The scoring scale is always created for each particular case. For example, the question could be “on a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being the best) how shiny are the floors?” the creator specifies what an acceptable response is and also what they deem as a passing score. They could choose 5 – 10 or 8-10 as acceptable, whatever makes sense for their purposes. Once the individual completes and submits their survey the system will assign a score based off the criteria loaded and reveal whether or not that particular response passed or failed.

Intesource e-Sourcing Survey Tool

Intesource Survey Score Results

Reports are available to show each responder’s score or just the surveys that passed or failed. If your survey requires more text type responses the survey can also accommodate that. Once the questions are completed you can determine whether that response has met or hasn’t met your criteria. The system will then present a score based off of how many responses were “met.”

By using the survey tool for this project Spartan Stores has seen benefits in addition to just saving time. While saving time is the biggest objective for this particular project they have also set a clearly defined standard on the condition of the floors. Store Managers better understand what the floors should look like as well as what vendor service level is expected from corporate. It also assisted in opening the line of communication between stores and their floor care vendors. The fact that they now only need to travel to stores that gave their floors a low overall score is an added bonus!

Whether you are looking to survey internally or a group of vendors outside of your company, the survey tool is a great way to gather and analyze data.