FAQ

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:

1. Spend considerably less money on your selection process
2. Significantly reduce the waste of your selection process
3. 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.”

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.

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.”