Time to welcome the next generation ARTICLE 01/04
SRMmeans data, difficult data. It’s locked in spreadsheets and squirrelled away. Even if management can get hold of supplier data, it is often inconsistent and hard to normalise, making it difficult to compare one supplier with another, across the business and across categories.
The problem of getting meaningful, consistent data is one of the main reasons SRM can seem too tough to tackle. But rapid change in the tech world mean these barriers are becoming easier to overcome. Business people who grew up with behemoth corporate IT systems should take a look at the start-up scene to get a sense of what is possible. Emily Forbes founded crowd-sourcing video company Seenit in 2014. Two years later it boasts Unilever, Vodafone and the BBC among its clients and it analyses many terabytes of data every year. How? Seenit did not buy or build its main computer system; that would have wasted precious time and capital. Instead, it exploits cloud computing, specifically, the Google Cloud Platform. On a pay-as- you-go basis, businesses get access to the near limitless capacity of the cloud, a way of providing computing resources over the internet. Seenit helps clients analyse thousands of video clips to get the right snippets for their content by using a combination of Google's machine learning and the leading edge database technology. Both are also hosted in the cloud. The supply chain management side of businesses can take advantage of these technologies to forecast demand, measure supplier performance and understand supply chain risk. But it is not only these business benefits that will drive adoption; the younger generation of procurement and supply side management professionals will expect it. As Mars supplier performance relationship management programme lead Mark
Phillips says, businesses are now hiring graduates who are getting their first email account with the job. Sifting through an inbox is unknown to them. Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram are where they share information. They will expect business applications to work like the consumer services they grew up with, not like the spreadsheets familiar to most people in procurement. Meeting these expectations will not only get the most out of talented young people, it will help prevent them leaving for a more up-to- date company. It’s time SRM technology moved on. The good news is, these consumer- like tools and services for SRM are within reach. They use the same technologies and ways of working exploited by start-ups (see box on page 06 for more detail). But it's not just about the technology platform. Great technology solutions need to mirror and deliver best practice processes. For example, State of Flux’s Statess software builds on 12 years of SRM consulting in global organisations. Businesses are already taking advantage of these tools (see case studies on pages 30, 36, 48, 58). The question is how to apply technology to supplier relationship management. Data and the tools can help buyers and suppliers share information in real time to cut out waste, improve operations and innovate.
Management teams should ask themselves if they are ready to adopt a newmind-set and use transformative technologies to push the SRM agenda forward. Those who do not keep up are in danger of being left behind.
Businesses are now hiring graduates who are getting their first email account with the job. Sifting through an inbox is unknown to them. Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagramare where they share information. They will expect business applications to work like the consumer services they grew up with, not like the spreadsheets familiar tomost people in procurement.
Mark Phillips Mars supplier performance relationship management and programme lead
ARTICLE CONTINUED OVERLEAF
05 STATEOFFLUX
2016GLOBAL SRMRESEARCHREPORT
State-of-flux_Master_Document_Final_Print.indd 5
12/10/2016 19:29
Powered by FlippingBook