Why Buy Through Us?

A True Buyer-Focus Benefit Set

Conformance1 makes purchasing and deployment easier and less costly for those producing goods and services in quality, manufacturing, energy, environmental, construction, information security services, and related segments. We specialize in helping clients:

• Evaluate the product/service, including contacting peers using the same products/services to report on their experiences
• Obtain pricing and quote comparisons anonymously without having to sit through hours of initial demonstrations related pitches
• Negotiate the best terms, prices and conditions through approaches like forming larger buyer pool purchases influence, gaining reseller rebates offered to Conformance1 and through bidding on “excess inventory” (such as unsold training and other services, subscriptions or physical products)
• Better managed implementation and ongoing support by leveraging a larger buyer community’s interactions and experiences with vendors

Depending on the problems and needs specific to your company, Conformance1 can work with you on which potential solutions might be right for your organization, including how to compare options determining the total costs of any solution and how best to implement them. It’s a free service to  you because our fees come from part of the savings we negotiate on your behalf.

Our Price-Lowering, Service-Increasing Approaches

Our Name Your Fee program is typically applied to training class purchases, but in some cases also other products or services. As the name implies, it involves the buyer offering pricing through Conformance1 without necessarily knowing who the seller is, but always knowing what the full features/benefits would be if the bid is accepted. This helps clients obtain a price they are more willing to pay by bidding for services rather than automatically agreeing to a seller’s fixed price. This tool is aimed at purchasing “remnant” or “overstocked” services and products that the buyer wants to sell without lowering their advertised prices to preserve their margins when selling to those who are willing to pay full price. (Similar to the old “Priceline” system for bidding on unsold hotel rooms, where potential buyers could see general area, amenities and ratings, but the actual hotel wasn’t revealed until the bid was accepted.)

Conformance1’s group purchasing plans pool the buying power of multiple clients to secure discounts from sellers. We will help negotiate the purchase of products, services, and systems so that clients can utilize strategic sourcing of suppliers to achieve savings. This typically requires a buyer group (of two or more buyers) in an agreement that is built through Conformance1.com or, in some cases, among buyers who are familiar with each other already. Group purchasing organizations are a very established means of lowering fees, increasing service levels, improving supplied features/benefits or increasing buyer influences on the product/service development. 

Negotiated discounts are typically between a single buyer and seller, or group of sellers, who are known to one another (although the buyer could be anonymous if needed.) This approach typically positions sellers among each other to offer the best possible package. In this case sellers are typically given a price target to meet and may be informed of other offers to see if they can improve upon them. The value added by Conformance1 in this case is the knowledge gained from similar sales and experience in working with specific sellers. A variation of this is when a supplier initiates the discount process. In that case, when a supplier creates an incentive of some type, Conformance1 offers it to all of our subscirbers.

Buying Model Comparisons

All of the above benefits may be available via any of the purchasing programs, but we’ve indicated the most likely to be negotiated for each type. Lowest cost and Best support are self-explanatory. Time sensitive typically means the length of price and feature negotiations. Financing can be offered through the supplier or through Conformance1 with credit review. Anonymous quotes obtain pricing per desired feature set without disclosing buyer to seller, or in the case of Name Your Fees, the seller is disclosed to the buyer after the buyer’s bid is accepted. More feature influence is the ability to ask for, and receive, new features or preservation of existing ones during product/service update cycles. Usage monitoring is typically for software or data sharing products and can lessen or eliminate over purchasing. (It can be linked with negotiating pricing based upon actual usage.) Account Freezing is an option typically used when usage credits are purchased rather than recurring fees and allows user to freeze an account so no more credits are purchased, but existing credits are saved for future use. Performance monitoring can be measuring a supplier’s delivery, quality, support or other metrics. Project support is typically for onboarding or setup of a new service or new equipment.

Bottom line benefits:

• Custom Pricing Models: Ranging from offering your desired prices to increasing features for the same fee
• Great Value: Ideal for purchasing “remnant” or “overstocked” services and products at discounts
• Lower Risk: There’s safety and value in teaming with others who are buying the same products and services

Let Us Know What We Can Solve

We have helped clients in manufacturing, energy, environmental, construction, information services, and related segments, and we want to help you. Below is a short feedback form where you can tell us what problems and issues we could assist in solving through our consulting and services.