Companies that are leading in SRM are much more likely to be using IT as an effective enabler
It is important to note that best practice here is for technology to
cover all areas of supplier management including risk , contracts ,
performance , innovation and relationship management .
The unifying power of technology also offers considerable potential
to improve consistency across organisations by ensuring that
everyone who interacts with suppliers , not just procurement
professionals , has access to the same information and the same
guidelines for interaction . Suppliers as well as their clients will
appreciate such standardisation and consistency , as they will be
able to rely on a uniform approach whoever they deal with in an
organisation . This in turn increases the chance that the company will
become a customer of choice , and thus secure the associated
benefits .
Energy company Centrica implemented Statess SRM technology to
improve the consistency of its conversations with suppliers , says
David Wylie , its group procurement director . “ One of the challenges
that we have at the moment is a lack of oversight of different
supplier engagements , which means that our messages to suppliers
can be very inconsistent ,” he explains . “ We see technology as a way
of starting to pull all those strands together and provide a common
platform for how we engage with suppliers in the marketplace .”
Powered by FlippingBook