AI STRATEGY
The pace of change is different from previous administrations. People don’ t have years to prepare – they have weeks, sometimes months.
What this means for our product is that we have to meet the moment. We’ re lucky we’ ve built a flexible system that can include metadata like HTS codes and tariffs as part of total cost of ownership analysis. A tariff is no different from logistics or surcharges – it’ s one of hundreds of possible factors for sourcing decisions.
Q. DIRECT MATERIALS ARE THE ITEMS MOST AFFECTED BUT SOMEWHAT IGNORED BY MANY VENDORS. HOW DOES LIGHTSOURCE PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR THIS MOST VITAL COMPONENT?
» Direct materials typically represent the cost of goods sold – they are in your gross profit versus indirect, which falls below the line as SG & A expense. From a financial perspective, direct materials is one of the earliest things you can improve about overall company profitability.
People focus on indirect because it can be easier and more consistent across companies. Every company buys laptops and office chairs versus not every company buying caustic soda or carbon ceramic brake callipers. Solutions have been built primarily for indirect, then marketed to direct, but they end up being glorified Excel spreadsheets.
Every category past tail spend has a unique standard way people build pricing structures. We’ ve solved this at LightSource by building a quoting
122 July 2025