Page 43 - PEN Ebook March 2021

Market Market

to current global market conditions, but scientifi- More importantly, most of these marketplaces E-commerce marketplaces have taken all of this to an E-commerce marketplace and using the

cally predict where that market will go next. also give access to product information like data information and work, collated and compiled it market intelligence it affords, the long process
sheets, alternate information (form, fit, function) in one place and have made it available with a of writing and sending RFQs has not only been
As for the final step of production, digitalizing and import/export information. Such marketplace single click of a button. The market intelligence shortened, but also improved. RFQs can be sub-
well-known industry procedures like Request for data can be used to improve the design of a afforded through such sites is astounding. Big mitted via the one marketplace, which carries
Quote (RFQ) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) product and speed up production. data from digitalized marketplaces can show thousands of sellers and distributors on it. Instead
become an essential part of the equation. This how global inventory of certain components has of going to website after website and spending
increases efficiency and reliability in the process, Our market intelligence site can even give a quick changed over time. This helps to evaluate in- hours submitting RFQs, an E-commerce site can
so much so that it will help avert another major overview of data on a component; its part num- stock versus lead time considerations to take be utilized where the buyer can submit an MPN,
industry disruptor event like the coronavirus. ber, availability on the market, how many sellers when placing orders. In addition, price trends quantity needed, and price point requested. Once

carry that product, how many sources are avail- over the life cycle of a component are now avail- submitted, the site will contact sellers with that
All of this is to point out the major benefits in able, how many were available in the past and able, revealing demand on parts and how global MPN and negotiate on behalf of the buyer. Even
coupling the industry’s current set of digital tools even projections on future availabilities. and economic conditions are affecting the mar- better, such E-commerce sites will keep track
to digital marketplaces. You see, these tools are ket. of these RFQs for users and be one more datum
of a disparate group. They currently work inde- The possibilities for manufacturing companies are point of information. And in this industry, the
pendently from one another. What if the industry endless. By using market intelligence, manufac- This is the power of the digitalized marketplace, more information one has the better they are able
coupled these tools to powerful E-commerce turers can mitigate design risk by choosing com- and it is this power that is driving the compo- to forecast and keep production lines moving.

marketplaces and the market intelligence such ponents with wide availability, good lead times nents industry forward.
platforms carry within their code? and an active life cycle. Even when a component We may take these examples a step further and
is needed yet not available, a market intelligence note that each of them can be integrated into a
site can find alternate parts from multiple manu- THE BENEFITS OF INTEGRATING company’s existing ERP system via API. Simply
THE BENEFITS OF facturers that have the same form, fit, function as TOOLS WITH E-COMMERCE put, this means that all of this market intelli-

MARKETPLACES the original component. This lends to the ability to MARKETPLACES gence can be delivered directly to a company’s
E-commerce marketplaces like Sourcengine (a multi-source the needed component. Consider the data available on today’s E-com- own internal system. Now, a BOM tool can give
Sourceability product) give instant access to merce marketplace and think of the potential immediate inventory and pricing from global sup-
thousands of distributors and manufacturers. For Think of the possibilities here. This information afforded to procurement and design departments pliers, availabilities can be reviewed and adjust-

example, on Sourcengine you can find more than used to take days to collect; from contacting if that data is married to our industry tools. ments to quantity can be made; all on one single
3000 suppliers offering their product in one mar- FAEs to calling OCMs, to pouring through large marketplace from within one’s own system.
ketplace, and you can transact within seconds. component ledgers and rifling through spread- A BOM management platform, powered by an
sheets tracking pricing and supplier information. E-commerce marketplace, is no longer a colla- The level of efficiency this affords a procurement
A benefit to such a marketplace is that compa- And remember, this information was reflective of tion of component information. Instead, it is now specialist is unfounded. Production lines will
nies can expand their reach globally, apart from one’s own company, it did not take into account a powerful tool that not only gathers the relevant move, shortages can be averted, and new prod-
local restrictions. You can have suppliers from the data available today across the entire E-com- information on pricing, sourcing and alternates, ucts will still make it to market.

all over the world available at your fingertips in merce marketplace site. In essence, procurement but even allows transaction. Digitalizing such
minutes. It also produces the opportunity for specialists were provided a very myopic view of tools means that the extra step of contacting This can all be accomplished while keeping an
cost savings with competitive and comparative the industry. sellers one at a time, pouring over emails and eye on global events shaping market conditions.
pricing. We are no longer simply talking about a spending endless hours in back-and-forth nego-
single company’s historical data on pricing and Even in our internet age, procurement specialists tiations is gone. It has now been replaced by that
quotes. The E-commerce marketplace solution are forced to go to manufacturer and distributor single button click transaction. THE POWER OF THE
collates such data across all users and gives an websites across the never-ending web. Albeit E-COMMERCE MARKETPLACE
accurate snapshot of the industry with a single faster, it still can take hours to collect, collate Or, as another example, the well-known industry It doesn’t really matter if you are an OEM or EMS
click of the button. and process information. standard RFQ procedure. By marrying the RFQ company, if you are a distributor or a manu-

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