Sourcing and supplier data

In today’s world of complex supply chains, the speed of business continues to increase along with the ongoing pressure of process streamlining and decision making. Sourcing and procurement professionals are forced to accelerate execution, facing an increasing supplier base complexity, that goes along with a volume increase of digestible data.

On top of the speed of business,  cost savings are demanded on a continuous basis, putting the pressure on for sourcing and procurement managers, year after year.

In order to remain competitive, sourcing and procurement professionals are constantly looking to adopt new technologies to streamline sourcing processes. In this blog, we look at which technologies are used, how Leaders leverage supplier information management to streamline Supply Chain Processes and the influence of Supplier Data on Supplier Relationships.

Strategic Supplier Data Management

In ‘The Value of Strategic Supplier Data Management‘, Aberdeens Vice President and Group Director Bryan Ball investigated how sourcing and procurement professionals used, managed and leveraged supplier data in their organizations.

Sourcing and procurement manager have a long history of dealing with data issues and inconsistent data, mostly because supplier data isn’t collected from one single ERP, but multiple systems throughout the organization.

According to the report, Supply Chain Leaders are over 30% more likely to have an efficient supplier data management process to accelerate supplier onboarding. Figure 2 shows the key functional elements that are incorporated into what the Leaders are doing to manage their business compared to the Followers.

Use the tile below here to access the report and discover the answers to the following critical business questions:

• Which capabilities and technology do Leaders have in place to drive superior supply chain performance?
• How do Leaders leverage supplier information management to streamline their supply chain processes?

Supplier data and supplier relationships

The quality of data you receive from suppliers or third-party providers is of crucial importance for effective supplier collaboration. According to the 2016 Deloitte Global CPO Study, 39% of global procurement and sourcing leaders are planning to increase their level of supplier collaboration. Because suppliers in today’s supply chain are seen as strategic partners, supplier collaboration is considered as the second most important focus area after consolidating spend.

Despite the increase in procurement technologies, most procurement organizations haven’t painted a clear ‘picture when it comes to what kind of digital strategy to take. 60% of procurement executives said they lack such a strategy, while 40% do have a plan in place to cover technology solutions, such as digital reporting or cognitive analytics. Of those without a digital strategy, 38% said procurement was “exploring options for digital enhancement.”

“The majority of procurement executives said they are now investing heavily in innovative technology solutions. Specifically, 70% said they were investing in self-service portals — up from 43% from last year’s Deloitte Global CPO Survey. Forty-five percent said they were investing in cloud-based computing (compared with 26% in 2014), 42% said they were investing in mobile technologies (23% in 2014) and 16% were investing in social media technology (up from 6% in 2014).”

Takeaways from the 2016 Deloitte Global CPO Study:

• Cost reduction is the top priority for CPOs as they look to sustain business growth in a slowing market
• Stronger relationships and understanding between procurement and the CEO and CFO
• Increased levels of supplier collaboration while continuing to focus on consolidation and relationship restructuring
• A continued issue on securing, retaining and training the right talent pool, where 62% of CPOs don’t believe their teams have the skills to deliver the functions strategy
• Increasing levels of core and transactional outsourcing with strategies shaped in some way by each organisation approach to global business services (GBS).

Access the full report by using this link.