Centric offers off-the-shelf support for new product sourcing

As more manufacturers, distributors, and even retailers try sourcing new products directly from low-cost country suppliers, the unique challenges of the task are more widely apparent. For one, new product sourcing isn't well suited to the robust capabilities of design engineering-oriented product life-cycle management (PLM) tools, nor the limited functionality of procurement applications. It's a hybrid function, falling somewhere in between.

Until recently, there wasn't an off-the-shelf solution that served the function.

Centric Software changed that in June with the release of Centric Product Sourcing. It starts with an interface for finding, comparing, and selecting a similar product that provides a “like-this” profile for sharing with low-cost country providers. Next it offers the means for managing myriad steps in the process—i.e., evaluating samples, calculating costs, certifying providers' compliance with applicable regulations, testing product and delivery performance, and managing a full supplier relationship.

“The state-of-the-art up to now has been to use fragments of PLM, augmented with spreadsheets,” says James Horne, senior director of marketing and business development. “By the time you get all the necessary information together, it's outdated, difficult to access and make comparisons, or clearly unreliable. Centric Product Sourcing enables you to take it from concept to SKU with a single solution.”

" Centric sets a new bar in global sourcing from a collaborative standpoint. Everyone sees the same information." —Mickey Rizza, director, AMR Research

The Product Sourcing solution fulfills the unique requirements of a burgeoning new function called “strategic sourcing,” which enables enterprises to source private label products that generate higher margins.

“The biggest margin improvement initiatives are coming from in-house brands,” says Horne. “The mission of strategic sourcing is to improve margins by increasing the mix of directly sourced products. We provide a solution that manages all the required activities from concept to SKU. It's called strategic sourcing because its impact on the revenue stream is so significant.”

According to Mickey Rizza, a director with Boston-based AMR Research, “Centric sets a new bar in global sourcing from a collaborative standpoint. It has suppliers, agents, distributors, and merchandising folks all coming together on a single platform. It enables them to know where the product is, when it's coming in, and what the problems are. Everyone sees the same information.”