FAQ
Q: “Why the fuss about furniture?”
A: “If you just focus on the product - a desk, a chair - in isolation, then this is not necessary indeed.
But when you are a Real Estate Manager, you would focus on return on investment and on the operational costs of the company’s square meters. You would want to optimise the square meter usage of your buildings by looking at a workplace strategy- have furniture support the different functions people perform with your organisation in the most effective and efficient way.
When you are a Facilities Manager you would want to satisfy your customers, i.e. provide your co-workers with a fully functional working environment at the lowest cost possible, costs such as for maintenance, cleaning, moving or the process costs of purchasing and owning furniture.
When you are the Marketing Manager, you would like the interior to be an integral part of your communication strategy. It should reflect your company’s values and it should contribute to a coherent external image. This is called space-branding.
When you are in Management, you are interested in all of the above and you would add the long-term perspective with things such as continuity and sustainability.
In such an approach, the product itself becomes only a small part of a much more complex decision process, hence the fuss”.
Q: “Why should I use SourceYourInterior.com and not organise my own tender/bid/RFP for furniture?”
A: “If you only want to compare the product and its quantitative features, there is no need to use SourceYourInterior.com. This you would do when you would see furniture purely as a commodity and as a one-off purchase.
However, if you are interested in qualitative aspects of your furniture, such as what are the costs of owning it (in addition to buying it) and what risks are involved (short-term and long-term), you enter a much more complex arena for which SourceYourInterior.com is the perfect tool to:
- Spend considerably less money on your selection process
- Significantly reduce the waste of your selection process
- Arrive at a better and highly qualified decision.”
Q: “Which qualitative aspects SourceYourInterior.com compares among potential suppliers?”
A: “Aspects such as quality, guarantee, continuation of supply, distribution model, geographic delivery and service capabilities, response and delivery times (on claims on on standard deliveries), certification, Corporate Social Responsibility - a whole separate arena in itself -, payment terms, carbon footprint.”
Q: “We have our preferred suppliers already, why would we use SourceYourInterior.com?”
A: “If you would use SourceYourInterior.com, you would arrive at a selection of suppliers which would meet your requirements. This is comparable with having selected preferred suppliers.
Mostly, preferred suppliers are contracted for 2-5 years. During this period, the original requirements are usually not re-evaluated. But the environment is constantly changing; organisations change, demands and requirements change and what suppliers are able to offer changes.
SourceYourInterior.com keeps track of these changes and constantly updates its content database and the requirements you can choose from. Every time you have a project, you have the choice to again check if your preferred suppliers are still the best match with your requirements. You can also skip this step and just use the e-Auction Phase of SourceYourInterior.com with your preferred suppliers.
Q: “What is the so-called ‘SourceMine’ paradox?”
A: “More detail and more information will lead to a worse decision.
Now this sounds quite counterintuitive. But think of this: the purpose of a competitive bid is to make the best comparison among the most suppliers in the most efficient way, right?
However, the more comparable you want to make the bid responses, the more general you have to make your requests, with less detail and with unambiguously formulated questions. This will lead to less information from the responses, which will make your comparison more difficult, which will lead to a suboptimal decision.
And an after-thought: would you know of any organisation which didn’t buy furniture? So why re-invent the wheel and prepare your own individual competitive bid for furniture?”
Q: “Why would I use SourceYourInterior.com’s auction platform and not my own?”
A: ”1) To guarantee data/information integrity; 2) To save/avoid time, energy, work and mistakes - no need to re-enter all information and requirements; 3) SourceYourInterior.com serves a a third, independent party in your furnishing tender and this provides additional guarantee that what you will be promised by a supplier, you will get; 4) You make sure you get the maximum value from using SourceYourInterior.com.
SourceYourInterior.com does have the possibility to export all data from the Qualification Phase and import these in your own e-auction platform. The same pricing structure would apply and your value maximisation is guaranteed.”
Q: “How is SourceYourInterior.com different from other comparison sites?”
A: “Most of these sites only compare quantitative aspects of products to help you in your decision to buy a product.
SourceYourInterior.com compares in-depth qualitative and quantitative aspects of buying and owning a product over a longer period of time.”
Q: “How is SourceYourInterior.com different from other e-auction platforms?”
A: “In almost all of these platforms you would have to set up your competitive bid and enter the content specifically for each individual tender. These platforms are not industry or product specific.
SourceYourInterior.com has all the content in it - you would only have to select your criteria.
In addition, SourceYourInterior.com is furniture (industry) specific.”
Q: “Does SourceYourInterior.com also offer design services?”
A: “No. SourceYourInterior.com does not sit on the chair of the architect/interior designer. After your organisation has decided on your workplace strategy and what furniture would fit into that concept, SourceYourInterior.com will facilitate the purchasing process of that furniture.’