The role of an OEM buyer specialist is centered around sending RFQs for acquiring critical inventory. While we have long evolved beyond the need for landlines, pens, and paper to complete the process, many of the same principles still remain intact. The sales representative is tasked with not just the act of the discovery, but also with supplier vetting, price negotiations, and, of course, comparing quotes from other competing suppliers. It’s a time-consuming and stressful process, but without it, today’s supply chain wouldn’t have a prayer of maintaining consistent operations.

The Buyer’s Dilemma

In many respects, it’s never been a more exciting time to be in the electronic component market. Sales in 2018 are increasing across all regions – 8 percent growth in the U.S., 4 percent in Japan, and 12 percent in China — and the introduction of 5G networks is expected to push overall market growth well into 2020. The drawback, however, is that this will continue to add strain onto suppliers who are already struggling against unprecedented consumer demand. For buyers, this scenario creates a highly competitive environment where even commoditized components are difficult to source, and even more difficult to purchase at a cost that falls within their company’s budget.

Partstat’s Rapid RFQ System for Part Search users represents the electronic component industry’s most comprehensive solution for such issues, giving buyers back precious time without sacrificing a commitment to quality.

Hundreds of Authorized Suppliers, One Click

The days where buyers where required to make contact with dozens, even hundreds of suppliers and distributors individually are long gone. Instead of inquiring about available inventory, requesting a quote, and waiting 48 hours or longer for a response, Partstat has the ability for buyers to request quotes according to component, not seller. With a single click, Partstat will instantly send your to quote request to every authorized distributor in our network with the inventory in stock.

As of this writing, over 4,900 suppliers upload their inventory to Partstat, and each one is carefully vetted to ensure their processes reflect only the highest quality standards. We do this on behalf of our suppliers so when an authorized distributor responds to your inquiry, not only will their quote be honored, but that their on hand inventory is indeed what they claim it is, in the quantity they claim it is. Our community is built on a firm commitment to transparency and integrity, and we take every precaution to guarantee that buyers and sellers alike reflect this. Partstat contains over 50 billion data points on over 21 million unique components and semiconductors, and we wanted to create a system where buyers can seamlessly and conveniently connect to it all with same level of certainty one would receive with a face-to-face buyer/seller interaction.

A Solution for Component Price Inflation

According to most analysts, the current component shortage will continue at least well into 2019, further increasing demand and overall pricing. To survive, it’s imperative to have a process in place that not only keeps you ahead of component allocation and potential obsolescence, but allows you to react before the competition. Partstat BOM Monitoring handles the former, while Part Search handles the latter in a way that turns the marketplace back in the buyer’s favor. By using Rapid RFQ, users can take advantage of the largest possible pool of potential suppliers, which promotes increased competition on the seller side. As a result, the rising component prices resulting from high demand can be somewhat negated as sellers seek to win your business. Suppliers determine their bottom line based on their inventory turnover ratio, and often offering a slight discount to customers willing to take their inventory now more than compensates for what they would lose to inventory carrying costs.

Our Rapid RFQ system is easy to use, it benefits buyers and sellers alike as they look toward the future, and it can only be found on Partstat. To give it a try, create a free Partstat account here.