Even though deals without competitive bidding may look questionable, “sole-sourcing” has certain advantages for both parties, particularly when it comes to long-term projects. “One of the major benefits of sole-sourcing a project is time to completion. The faster you can get your transaction/negotiations done, the quicker you will get to the benefits,” Ephraim Schwartz explains in Sole-sourcing: The art of the no-bid contract. Some say, in fact, that sole-sourcing can be 30 percent faster and cheaper because you’re not tying up staff for, say, eight months. What’s more, it can save the vendor as much as $3 million, which may mean they’ll be more flexible on price. But it’s not for every situation, Schwartz writes. “Sole-sourcing for a long-term deal, multi-sourcing to capture the expertise of industry experts, competitive bidding for short-term projects — it sounds like a plan.” Technology Industry