I work for a 3rd party spend management firm that helps other companies with their strategic sourcing initiatives. I run many sourcing events through this platform every month. In a few instances, we've had to use our client's sourcing platform and all of these other competing systems fail in comparison to EC Sourcing's product; particularly with how user-friendly it is and how quickly you can learn how to use it or train others how to use it. The vendors/suppliers are very happy with the system from the proposal submission side as well. We get many compliments and rarely receive any questions on how to navigate through the site or where to find information. I think one of the main reasons why the FlexRFP system stands out above the rest is because it was created by former purchasing/procurement people instead of IT/database managers. They understand what you need and how you want to receive it because they've lived in your world. They also implement many client enhancement ideas.

- Extremely User Friendly - both from the user and vendor side. We've received many compliments from our suppliers on how easy it is for them to submit proposals. - Outstanding Customer Service - excellent response time, most requests are handled within minutes. Major issues are often solved same day. - ECSourcing Group listens to what you want the system to do and try to accommodate as many of your needs as possible. - Data is easily transferrable - all data & reports can easily be exported to excel or pdf formats. - Huge time saver - you can monitor progress of your project without having to email or call people to make sure they received your request and are working on their proposals. - Cost effective - pays for itself with the time saved and calculations, etc. the system does automatically.

- Lacks graphic/chart type reports & full optimization features.

We are a strategic sourcing consulting firm. Any software decision we make has to better enable a positive result for our clients in the most efficient manner possible. We selected EC Sourcing Group because it is extremely cost efficient and operationally effective. It is cost efficient because we do not need a team of people just to do project set ups. The software is so easy that our sourcing teams self manage all projects. This keeps our cost of delivery down and allows projects to be set up quickly - thus lowering costs and shortens time to results. It is operationally effective because the user interface and the supplier interface are clean and tight. This product also allows us to create great transparency with our clients. We consistently get feedback from suppliers that our system is the easiest to understand and navigate. We have been on the platform since 2003. We monitor the market and evaluate other options on a regular basis but we still have not found a product that is this easy to use - so we stay! They are always asking, "What can we do to improve the user experience?" And many times we see our suggestions acted on, so we know they truly listen to our needs. Customer service is outstanding. Actually we are always pleasantly surprised by the timeliness and thoroughness of their responses. They understand our business, and make sure we are in a position to provide great support to our clients. While EC Sourcing Group has added good modules, there are tools out there with more bells and whistles. However, we prefer a partner who blocks and tackles better than anyone else and that's why we stay with the EC Sourcing Group.

I like the purpose of using the tool, it would be perfect if some issues could be resolved

Hard to navigate, some of the features are not easy to understand, filtering is strange, not able to use it as a team and be able to view other team member projects

Our organization quotes an abundance of line items for new customer opportunities. As well, I would characterize our type of spend as complex and difficult to manage administratively. We are continually trying to find ways to manage the data more quickly, more accurately, and more easily. This is what led us to seek a tool that would allow for simple quoting with our supply base that would be usable by all members of our organization. The previous system was an old and non-user friendly Microsoft Access database. Not only was it cumbersome to manage and time consuming, it made it hard to train new people to use. After realizing our business strategy was changing, I knew the existing system had to be improved or replaced. I did some research and searching of companies that provide online quoting tools or services and came across EC Sourcing Group. After some demos and custom programming, we finally found a tool that our suppliers and internal stakeholders love. I will add, that EC Sourcing is constantly looking at ways to improve which is a strategy we practice ourselves. I have found that the staff is incredibly helpful and responsive from top to bottom. They provide a consistent, quality, product that I would highly recommend.

This product is very easy to use and has the ability to be customized to suit our needs. During the course of implementation, some features we required were not available, however, EC Sourcing Group made modifications to the program to incorporate our requests as well as other users. Our vendors find the FlexRFP easy to use with very few complaints. As with all web based programs, any internet issues will affect the use of FlexRFP.