Written by: Amy Cornforth
Posted on: 29/04/22
3 Common Pain Points in Supplier Management
Pain points in supplier management are regular occurrences, particularly without efficient and effective processes in place, since it involves collecting and managing large portions of information.
These, in turn, might be sent over in different formats! One person could use a word document, whilst another might use a spreadsheet, which makes the process of collating, organising, and maintaining supplier information significantly more time-consuming. This is without factoring in the level of risk involved, including the possibility of re-keying errors and a lack of compliance from suppliers.
If you work in supplier management, do any of the following pain points seem familiar to you?
Verifying Information
Buying companies must be able to verify documentation so they know that their suppliers are ensuring due diligence in their own activities, and their values align with that of the company. Suppliers can provide information surrounding their activities and sourcing; however, a buying company can only have full confidence in the supplier data if they have a way of verifying any provided documentation. If done manually, this can be an arduous task.
Chasing Suppliers
One large problem procurement professionals can face is suppliers missing key pieces of information, resulting in them spending time chasing for these missing pieces of data. When a company has lots of suppliers who aren’t sending over all the information required – this task can build rapidly and consume large amounts of the employee’s time. Before you know it, you have lost hours to this repetitive task.
Re-keying Errors
Without an effective and robust system in place to manage supplier information, the company could risk significant damage to brand reputation. An incorrectly entered detail entered by a procurement professional earlier in the supply chain, could result in damages further down the line.
ARCUS® SIM streamlines and digitises your supplier information management, reducing the costs, risks, and complexities associated with this task. ARCUS® SIM allows you to on-board supplier information via questionnaires that are configurable to your needs. Suppliers can only send information back once they have completed the full questionnaire, meaning that employees don’t have to spend significant amounts of time chasing suppliers for missing information, and reminders are sent automatically for suppliers to update their information where necessary.
ARCUS® SIM has Artificial Intelligence as standard functionality within the module. Through this functionality, users can identify non-compliant suppliers with ease, reducing risk in the supply chain. Key supplier documents, such as insurance policies and modern slavery statements, are scanned at the point of upload to verify that the correct document has been submitted with 99.5% accuracy.
In short, ARCUS® SIM can significantly reduce the risks and complexities associated with supplier management, after a swift 12-week implementation period, saving the company a great deal of time, which can be better spent elsewhere.
To learn more about ARCUS® SIM, have a look at the case study here.