Daily Archives: February 7, 2019

Supplier Management Is Not Enough. But Neither is Enablement. So What Is?

Very good question.

As per our post two years back on how it’s time to go beyond supplier management (which has been a thing every since Aravo burst onto the scene way back in 2003), supplier management is a lot more than just information tracking, performance metrics, and simple compliance requirements.

As per our last post, it’s also:

  • Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
  • Supplier Information Management (SIM)
  • Sustainability Initiatives
  • Supplier Development
  • Risk Management
  • Compliance

and

  • (Supplier) Contract Management
  • New Product Introduction
  • Maintenance, Repair and Operation (MRO)
  • Services and Service Management
  • (Supplier) Spend Analytics

but it doesn’t stop there. There’s also:

  • Supplier Discovery
  • Supplier Financing
  • Supplier Marketplaces
  • Supplier Networks
  • etc.

And then there’s the fact that the organization needs strategic and high performing suppliers, and most won’t make the cut until they are enabled. But just enabling a supplier to do better (one time) is not enough — you have to be able to take advantage of that enablement. Which means you have to be able to monitor, plan for, track, utilize, and respond to the changes made by the supplier. That requires a fairly advanced system.

And, as per our previous article, you need visibility (into the supplier and its supply chain); value-driven design (that produces a product a consumer wants); and verocity (for real time spend insight). But that’s not everything. You also need vetting (so that you can insure regulatory and compliance requirements are met); variability (as different suppliers require different levels of management and insight); and vindication (objective measurements over time that you made the right choice). And so on.

We still don’t have the answer, but we do know that the platform must be more than just information management, checkbox tracking, and messaging with audit trails. It must be collaborative, open, flexible, and evolving. Then, maybe in a few years, we’ll have a better idea of what the right answer is really is.