Mercaterra group

Providing comprehensive client-specific procurement services.

Understanding procurement can often be difficult because of the lack of a clear, simple terminology to define it. To counter this issue, we attempt here to describe the service we offer in a more straightforward form. Imagine our procurement process as a luxury limousine. The procurement outsourcing we offer clients is an integral process in which our "vehicle," driven by our professional staff, takes you smoothly to your desired destination with plenty of additional services on board. Whether the "trip" you need to take is short or long, straightforward or complicated, our "ride," that is, the extensive scope of our experience and capabilities, will get you there with a minimum of bumps or detours. This is our "product" and our "art."

To repeat, while the myriad terms and interpretations common to the global professional procurement community can easily be confusing and bewildering, we make things simple, clear and straightforward for our clients. We take full control of and responsibility for outsourcing your procurement needs in a manner that ensures you get the end result you requested and expect.

Procurement outsourcing involves a variety of fundamental tasks, starting with the initial activities and running through the processes and actions necessary to secure the required outcomes and preserve the bottom-line impact as initially planned. Businesses and organizations often underestimate the impact of efficient procurement outsourcing. Besides the economic benefits and time savings that come from efficient, cost-effective outsourcing, this service also provides huge "headache relief" by releasing management from the pressure of handling procurement activities. These functions can range from broad-spectrum tasks such as global sourcing and total supply-chain management down to on-site services such as dealing with equipment installation and training, quality control and quality inspections, maintenance cost analyses, market intelligence, industry trend-and-flow analyses, price research, supplier evaluations, certifications and permissions, technical requirements and bidding paperwork, logistics and international or domestic regulations. 

For all our customers, we design and implement a custom "suite" of these services based on their specific situation and needs. Almost every set of services we propose comprises different phases and stages that come together as a complete procurement outsourcing product. The tasks mentioned here are the ones our clients request most often but our capabilities are by no means limited to those areas.

In offering our outsourcing product, our primary goal is to eliminate our customers procurement worries, especially those that might come from having to cope with unexpected developments. For the most part, we strive to operate "behind the scenes" with the least disturbance to our clients. At the same time, we are completely transparent about our strategy and tactics, and we fully document the results and outcomes, which makes "after-action" analyses and discussions easy and productive. 

In short, we are not your "run-of-the-mill" procurement service provider. We do not offer off-the-shelf turnkey solutions. We listen, we ask questions, we get to know you and your company. With that knowledge, we not only draw you a detailed roadmap of how to meet your procurement goals and mission, we provide the transportation "planning and execution" that will get you there worry-free. In other words, to steal a line from the US Greyhound bus line, if you "go Mercattera," you can "leave the driving to us."

Tailored Solutions for Complex Industrial Equipment

Over the years of our work in the procurement industry, we’ve dealt with an increased demand for custom-built industrial equipment for various manufacturing and production tasks. Seizing on this opportunity, Mercaterra Group developed and successfully launched an equipment engineering and production division, which now functions under our European branch and is managed and operated by Mercaterra Baltic. It provides custom and complex equipment engineering solutions for various industries. Read More...

Providing comprehensive, efficient, cost-effective supplier services.

Continuing our "vehicle" metaphor, when it comes to procurement, customers sometimes have their own set of driving routes and navigation aids and sometimes do not. In either case, we'll take full control of the ride, adding our skills and experience to those of a client or supplying the knowhow and expertise they may lack. We excel at taking the right turns when given an assignment as a supplier or service provider and at developing a customized plan from scratch to meet a customer's specific needs and then following it to a T. In both cases, we put "the pedal to the metal" to get the job done. 

One area where this approach is popular and works well is government procurement, especially regarding customers that employ competitive, open bidding procedures when acquiring goods or services. Our experience and flexibility enables us to react quickly and adapt successfully to new situations regarding a given contract or purchase order. When we sign up for a job, we commit to delivering the specified results. For each order or contract we execute, we supply the goods or services exactly as stipulated.

Even though acting as a qualified supplier is less complex than providing total procurement outsourcing, the job still entails substantial work, and numerous actions must be coordinated and completed to fulfill the order or contract. For example, it takes skill and the proper tools to design and manage an entire supply chain. The tasks involved include inspecting goods or manufacturers and/or evaluating suppliers and service providers involved in a cycle. This work requires setting a complex methodology in motion, one that mitigates practical risks and provides the best results. To succeed as a qualified supplier, as we have and continue to do, you need to be proficient in a wide variety of institutional procurement processes.

Usually when we act as a direct qualified supplier, we have inputs from the customer that are clear and specific. Most often, the market research and pricing have been done. Most often, the customer knows what is wanted and needed. In these cases, the parameters are firm and the client resists substantial changes. For example, a customer might be looking for a particular model or type of equipment or will have developed detailed specifications for the goods needed. Consequently, they may rely on only a few key criteria to pick a qualified supplier. Indeed, the choice is often based on the economic advantage gained from selecting the low bidder from the competitive offers proposed by companies that meet the sparse qualification requirements.

The lesson here is one you may know. Realizing upfront savings based on a quick cost-based decision might backfire, turning that savings into much greater spending over the long term. We work closely with our customers to help them avoid this pitfall. Even when we've already won a contract or order, we always try to offer more. We are not bounded by any dealership agreements or limitations for one or few brand names. We aspire to give clients a complete range of equivalents and alternatives based on their initial requirements, and we have succeeded in these efforts many times. By success, we mean we convinced customers to change their minds by demonstrating that other options would achieve better economic and operational results.

The process of becoming a qualified supplier can be straightforward and simple. At other times it can turn into a formidable task, especially when it comes to public bidding for opportunities generated by governments and corporate clients that require transparent procurement practices. The competition for such awards is challenging and tough, but every time we win one, as we do often, it fuels our enthusiasm and ambition to continue excelling in this role. 

We provide "just-right" information for procurement planning and development as much as you need, whenever you need it. 

Some companies and businesses understand and manage the procurement process very well on their own. If that is the case for you, we can still help. You point to it, and we will tell you all about it. You decide on a route and we will get you a detailed map for it. In short, our procurement intelligence services provide the critical information you need for your procurement "journey" in areas like price research, market and industry analysis and manufacturer, supplier and service provider evaluations. Having this knowledge in hand will give you the big picture and the granular detail you need to better manage your procurement operations. Read more...  (after being clicked the block expands and fills the screen with full text of this block - see additional text below)

Everyone knows that having accurate, comprehensive, up-to-date information has been, is, and will always be the main weapon in the arsenal for achieving business success. Ample data collection supplemented by rigorous fundamental research and insightful deep analysis are powerful tools when it comes to developing business techniques, strategies and reactive tactics. The same is true for goods and services procurement. Having the right inputs supports efficiency and effectiveness in this regard. And that's where we come in. We will provide you with the data and information you require for your procurement planning and decision-making or for any other business function that would benefit from such inputs.

One challenge for any entity that must spend resources on goods or services is dealing with the problems and questions that inevitably come up during the procurement process. Some of these problems and questions will be common ones and can be resolved more easily. Others will be ones that occur less often and are specific to a certain industry, company or organizational scale or location. Regional markets and industries have their own foibles and require specific insights to resolve, insights that sometimes become clear only after "boots on the ground" reconnaissance. The "heads-up" procurement intelligence we provide through such activities can prevent losses that might otherwise happen with less knowledge of the local government, business and cultural particulars.

Gathering such intelligence is not enough, of course. It must be processed, evaluated and interpreted to be of use. We have the experience, the tools and the connections needed to accomplish this. We can gather and assess the available data on and detailed information about minimum target price determinations and market competition, on and about prospective manufacturers, suppliers and services providers and even on and about geopolitics and important industry insights. The result is the complete set of inputs you need to best develop and/or adapt your procurement activities. 

Developing, implementing and supervising procurement programs.

You own it, you drive it. In this situation, you own the vehicle, but we study the map, set up the route and, when needed, give you useful navigational advice. You might think of this service as your "adaptive cruise control," which means we help you make adjustments whenever necessary to keep you on course to realizing the best outcomes. Let's face it, when it comes to improving the efficiency of an entire procurement system, forging ahead blindly without stopping to ask for directions when you lose your way is not a good strategy. The uncertainty and delays this can create have negative consequences. That's where our professionals come in. Think of us as the people behind that blue OnStar button below your rearview mirror. We're there to help whenever you call on us. Read more (after being clicked the block expands and fills the screen with full text of this block - see additional text below)

When it comes to procurement consulting, another way to view us is as the auditor who looks over your financials and reminds you of the fine balance between reining in spending and achieving your goals, an auditor who fortunately knows things about power equipment and industrial robots, fighting jets and mining machines, satellites and broadcast equipment. In other words, we have a robust procurement consulting background gained from fulfilling a long list of challenging orders and contracts. With this background, we feel comfortable and confident about our ability to provide useful consulting on procurement in almost all industries, yours included. 

Our client consulting on procurement includes, among many other issues, consulting on pivotal operations like global sourcing and supply-chain management. Regarding the latter, being able to source strategically is very important, and this is one of our strengths. Our services cover examining and evaluating purchasing limits, negotiating with manufacturers or suppliers and monitoring the industry landscape for the goods or services in your current procurement scope. The global sourcing we do just expands the landscape of these activities across geopolitical boundaries, which gives you more choices and greater opportunities for cost savings.

Another important focus of our consulting on supply-chain management is helping customers design efficient, manageable procurement funding processes. Supply management decisions can have serious impacts on every aspect of a company or organization and, in turn, on their ability to  reach their main goals and stay "on mission," so getting the funding component of procurement right is critical to success in this area.

That said, procurement consulting goes beyond detailed auditing of purchase spending, goes beyond gathering market intelligence to providing assistance that promotes efficient spending and realizes resource savings. This assistance can help with getting better-quality products and services for less, decreasing maintenance costs and more. We know how to optimize procurement systems to achieve manageable, balanced results. We do this via a complex set of activities like cost-benefit analyses, price analyses, industry reports, supply-chain analyses, low-cost global sourcing, tax optimization, logistical route optimization, economic forecasts and estimates of the advantages gained from using alternative suppliers or service providers or from purchasing equivalents from different manufacturers. 

Finally, our procurement consulting services are not just about mapping the most advantageous procurement route for you. They are also about providing total supervision, if needed, recognizing the need for adaptation when it arises and guiding you forward in a way that helps you preserve strategic plans, achieve projected spending results, increase total revenue and meet long-term goals.