Consider your supplier relationships this valentine’s day
In a world where there is an app for everything, and people can literally live all their lives online. It’s hard to comprehend the vast amount of time and effort it must take someone to manage supplier information manually.
Much like real-life relationships, supplier relationships require a little TLC, but this shouldn’t be a burden for either party. Fortunately, effective supplier relationship management software is readily available. This can ultimately protect your brand by streamlining processes, reducing administration and ensuring compliance.
Relationships work both ways
Firstly, effective SRM technology puts the responsibility on your suppliers to provide you with the information that you need.
By providing you with relevant accreditation and certificates upon registration, you can select suppliers that are fully compliant with your requirements. This proves that you have done your due diligence.
Clear and transparent online dashboards provide users with an ‘at-a-glance’ view over the entire registration process, and can allow you to score your suppliers against the risks that matter to your business. After all, there’s no shame in being selective when getting into any relationship!
By doing this, you can easily identify high scoring suppliers and build a fully compliant supply base.
It’s OK to archive your communications – romantic or not
Saving romantic messages sent by your significant other is a guilty pleasure many of us do.
Similarly, in the SRM world, keeping hold of communications, including meeting notes and results of site/product audits is really important, especially if your auditor comes a-knocking.
Having all of this information stored centrally in the cloud and at your fingertips can significantly reduce administration and make your job easier when you are required to produce documentation on demand.
Additionally, it also reduces paper trails and banishes messy filing cabinets – what’s not to love?
Never forget your anniversary – or to update your information if you’re a supplier!
Ultimately, a good SRM system will have automated reminders to improve communication and prompt activity by stakeholders.
Imagine sitting at your desk frantically contacting each of your suppliers that haven’t sent you an up to date version of their Modern Slavery Act policy. This could take weeks!
Similarly, chasing that one person in your business to approve a supplier contract can be exhausting and hold up business.
Luckily for SRM software users, they have the ability to set up automated email alerts for this, prompting each supplier to update information periodically.
Measuring up this valentine’s day
Measuring and tracking your supplier’s success enables you to easily identify risk and non-compliance, and enable you to make better purchasing decisions.
Effective SRM systems should allow you to measure the success of your suppliers against the KPIs and SLAs that matter the most to you and your business. By aligning the performance of your suppliers with corporate KPIs, you are able to have a global view of them in relation to your business strategy.
Mobile-friendly questionnaires can be sent to large volumes of suppliers and stakeholders to gather important performance information into your system. Intuitive reporting functionality allows you identify underperforming suppliers and evidence to support future purchasing decisions.
Finally, taking the above steps are just some of the benefits an effective Supplier Relationship Management system can have – and can ultimately help your relationships blossom into something really quite special.
Did you know that the ARCUS® platform consists of modules that help you address your SRM needs? Take a look at the full video here. Alternatively, you can get in touch with us direct by clicking here. We would love to hear from you!