More than a year since launching and developing its electronic component price benchmarking service, Ottawa-based Lytica Inc. has enabled millions of dollars in savings for many of the world’s leading electronics companies, says Rob Griffin, VP sales & marketing, Lytica Inc.
Billing itself as ‘the world’s largest independent database of electronic component pricing’ https://www.freebenchmarking.com continues to deliver component cost analysis unavailable from any other source in the industry, Griffin adds.
Once logged-in, clients enter in the prices and distributors of their components and are provided with a report detailing how competitive their pricing is compared to others in the industry, how much they should be paying and second sources for their parts. Freebenchmarking.com currently has between 50 to 100 clients, as well as data on nearly 5,000 suppliers and more than a million parts.
The idea came from Lytica president Ken Bradley, who served as chief procurement officer at Nortel Networks from 1996 to 2002, where he was responsible for buying around $18-billion of materials each year.
Since its launch, Griffin says the product has evolved to now include a new ‘Component Cost Estimator’ tool, which is currently in customer trials. Developed for hardware engineers, the tool will be the first commercially available cost estimator that provides real-time web based feedback on market price competitiveness and alternative sources. Griffin says customers can upload their costed BOM’s and receive instant feedback. The product will initially be available to existing Freebenchmarking subscription customers in the third-quarter of 2012, Griffin says.
“Freebenchmarking has been adopted by a wide variety of electronics manufacturers in Canada. From leading OEM’s and contract manufacturers to distributors, as well as small to mid-sized manufacturers, the product is enabling actionable cost reduction for companies of all sizes in the Canadian market,” Griffin concludes.
“We’ve created this web service to be the go-to industry reference for component price competitiveness and risk assessment. It arms our clients with the information they need to negotiate more competitive pricing and reduce supply chain risk,” Griffin enthuses. “We truly believe that we have a revolutionary product and that no one else can compete with what we are doing.”