Cost reduction is the top strategic priority for 78% of Chief Procurement Offices surveyed by Deloitte in 2018. But the same survey found that only 31% of CPOs are looking to increase supplier competition to deliver that value.
When a company buys PCs in large volumes, the savings can be significant. Let's look at three easy ways you can get more value from your IT budget by increasing competition for your IT tenders.
Open competition
While there are undoubtedly benefits to consolidating spend with key suppliers, you should take care to ensure that it doesn't result in spending more than you should.
It's common sense that opening your Request for Proposal (RFP) to more suppliers will increase your chances of getting a more competitive offer. With more offers to choose from, you'll also be in a stronger position to negotiate complementary added-value services such as support.
Avoid restrictive language
In many countries, public agencies have strict rules for writing vendor-neutral tenders. It may seem like unnecessary bureaucracy, but there are good reasons to avoid using language that can limit your choices.
You can increase competition for your tenders by avoiding language that expresses a brand preference or restricts suppliers to a particular solution. A vendor-neutral RFP gives suppliers the flexibility to find the most cost effective way to meet your requirements.
Specify minimum performance levels
Tenders for desktop PCs and laptop computers often provide a reference system or components to specify the minimum required performance. But even experts find it hard to accurately compare the performance of different PC systems from their specifications alone.
A better way to define PC performance is to use an industry-standard benchmarking program such as PCMark 10. A benchmarking program runs a series of tests on the PC then provides a score that represents the system's performance. In PCMark 10, the benchmark tests cover a wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace and the score represents the PC's overall performance for those tasks.
Setting a minimum benchmark score in your RFP ensures that you won't be distracted by the false economy of a cheaper PC specification that underperforms. Asking your suppliers to provide benchmark scores in their proposals makes it far easier to compare competing offers. When you see PC performance expressed as a benchmark score, you'll also be less likely to overspend on overspecified systems.
Get more for your IT budget
For the best results for your IT tenders, combine open competition with vendor-neutral language and specify the minimum required PC performance with a reference benchmark score. This powerful combination will give your suppliers the freedom to suggest innovate solutions that you may not have considered otherwise.
Please contact us if you would like more advice on using UL Solutions' benchmarks for PC procurement.
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