RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Rite Aid Corp. has renewed its use of SciQuest’s Advanced Sourcing Optimizer (ASO) global sourcing software.

SciQuest said Wednesday that Rite Aid, the nation’s third-largest drug chain, is a longtime customer and uses ASO to source major indirect spend categories. The solution provides the retailer with a tool for analyzing and making decisions on sourcing for a range of complex local and national services.

Frank Ho, Rite Aid

“SciQuest’s Advanced Sourcing Optimizer has helped us automate elements of the process, allowing us to save time and resources while also deepening our understanding of how each project is optimized,” according to Frank Ho, vice president of indirect procurement at Rite Aid. “ASO allows us to expertly and easily deal with the large variation between suppliers, products, prices and requirements.”

A software-as-a-service solution, ASO features built-in bidding enhancements, scenario builders and complex item consolidation. The tool supports the entire sourcing cycle and helps retailers address such challenges as fragmented/decentralized sourcing, evolving store networks, complex transportation requirements and alignment with corporate initiatives, SciQuest said.

ASO enables companies to manage large, intricate spend categories like transportation, services and commodities to get a better grasp of how and where the organization spending, as well as to combine local or regional sourcing events for similar items into one large event, reducing the time needed to manage vendors and negotiate better rates, according to SciQuest. The solution also analyze “what-if” scenarios to help balance total costs with other key decision criteria for smarter, faster decision making, the company said.