Pain points in supplier management are regular occurrences, particularly without efficient and effective processes in place.
These could take many formats; one person could use a word document, whilst another might use a spreadsheet. This makes the process of collating supplier information incredibly time-consuming, and this is without factoring in the level of risk! The possibility of re-keying errors and a lack of compliance from suppliers is ever-present when using a manual system.
If you work in supplier management, then you might recognise the following pain points.
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You’re Having Difficulty Mitigating Supplier Risk
To be confident that suppliers are completing their required due diligence, organisations must be able to verify documentation.
Suppliers can provide information surrounding their activities and sourcing; however, an organisation can only have full confidence in the supplier data if they have a method verifying any provided documentation.
The act of onboarding one supplier requires copious document sharing. If verified manually, this can be an arduous task.
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You’re Regularly Chasing too Many Suppliers
Suppliers missing or neglecting to provide information is a large annoyance, that results in hours of chasing to provide the missing information.
This task in isolation seems small. After all, how hard is it to send a swift email reminder? However, when a company has hundreds, or even thousands of suppliers who aren’t sending over all the information required, this tasks quickly becomes gargantuan.
Before you know it, you are regularly losing hours to this repetitive task weekly.
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Your Data Integrity is Easily Compromised
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.
Additionally, whether you’re managing hundreds or thousands of suppliers, it’s far to easy to miss a contract renewal date, or an inaccurate data-record.
The potential consequences of missing inaccurate data are far too severe for a task that’s incredibly challenging to manage with a manual system.
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You Have No Real Oversight of Sourcing Goals
Maybe you’ve been given a savings target, but you’ve no way of demonstrating you’re on track to meet it.
Are you even on track to meet these targets? If you’re just using spreadsheets, it’s incredibly difficult to tell without constructing bar charts, or regularly completing large amounts of data entry.
Your savings goals could also be in conflict with other sourcing goals, such as prioritising suppliers who have shown a commitment to sustainability. How do you balance your goals for the year, if you can’t tell where you currently stand?
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You’re Losing Time That You Don’t Have
You’re a supplier management professional. Therefore, you are very busy and need to use your time wisely. However, sinking time into inefficient processes drains far too much capacity.
How much time do you lose weekly trying to find information, or chase suppliers?
By implementing effective systems, you can claim that time back.
Resolving Pain Points in Supplier Management
ARCUS® Supplier Management Software streamlines your supply base, reducing the costs, risks, and complexities across source-to-contract, product information management and supplier complaints.
Our solutions are developed in-house to resolve pain points in supplier management.
No More Chasing Suppliers
ARCUS® Supplier Information Management (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.
Additionally, reminders are sent automatically for suppliers to update their information where necessary, eliminating the need to follow up.
Suppliers Verified
With our ARCUS® Artificial Intelligence package, users can identify non-compliant suppliers with ease, reducing supplier risk. Our AI Assistant offers a supplier synopsis function, allowing you to gain swift insight into your supplier records.
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% accuracy.
Track Sourcing Targets
ARCUS® Strategic Sourcing Suite is a comprehensive solution designed to streamline and optimise your entire strategic sourcing process. It covers the initial planning of your sourcing projects, alongside tendering and negotiations.
Users of the system benefit from clear oversight of sourcing targets, as well as the ability to demonstrate progress to other stakeholders.
The system goes beyond traditional sourcing tools by incorporating automation, real-time collaboration, and data visualisation to enhance your sourcing capabilities.
Implement Smart Technologies for Better Data Integrity with Time Saved
Digitising your supplier management is just one way of improving; by incorporating newer technologies into your supplier management, you can streamline your processes further still.
Our smart technology add-on allows you to use technologies within ARCUS, such as:
ARCUS® AI: Our AI tech pack comes with a variety of functionality to assist with supplier management, such as our AI Assistant, which has a variety of applications, including generating insights on your supplier data, or assisting in contract creation.
Moreover, our supplier synopsis allows you to summarise supplier records, finding key information quickly, and efficiently.
ARCUS® Connect: ARCUS® Connect is our native API, which allows you to connect your ARCUS® system with official data sources.
These data sources can be pushed into your solution, with a live connection established so the information is always up to date.
This helps preserve the integrity of key supplier data.
Discover the Benefits of ARCUS®
In short, ARCUS® can significantly reduce the risks and complexities associated with supplier management, after a swift 9-week implementation period, saving the company a great deal of time, which can be better spent elsewhere.
To discover how ARCUS® can optimise your supplier management processes, see our essential guide here.