116
What’s going on without an information management solution? According to Aberdeen Group, 43% of supply chain and finance professionals cite incom- plete information as a top pressure on corporate supplier relationships. The overwhelming majority (83%) of respondents are currently using Excel spreadsheets to create reports, which emphasises the lack of current alternatives to Excel, and procurement’s natural analytical (Excel) skill set. While functionally this may address some of the short term pres- sures, it also exposes procurement to other issues associated with document management, version control, security and workflow.
Figure 5.8. Managing and sharing information relating to key supplier relationships – buy side
Figure 5.9. Creating SRM related reports – buy side
83%
DOCUMENTS STORED ON SHARED DRIVE
61%
CREATE CUSTOM REPORTS FROM AN SRM SYSTEM UTILISE STANDARD REPORT FROM AN SRM SYSTEM OTHER CREATE CUSTOM REPORTS FROM EXISTING SYSTEMS UTILISE STANDARD REPORTS FROM EXISTING SYSTEMS MANUALLY IN EXCEL
21%
47%
SHAREPOINT
16%
22%
INTRANET
9%
17%
MAINFRAME SOFTWARE APPLICATION WEB / CLOUD BASED SOFTWARE APPLICATION SUPPLIER PORTAL
5%
10%
4%
8%
SRM is often carried out across more than one business unit or function, and in many cases across regions or widespread geographic locations. A common challenge that many programmes face, is to maintain visibility and consistency across these entities. Ardent Partners research found that only 23% of companies have visibility into supplier performance and supplier risk issues. Only 43% of our respondents can report good visibility of what is going on in their SRM activities. Both data points should cause concern, for 57% to 77% of the procurement population have very limited or no visibility – what are the implications for unseen supplier risks, unseen supplier innovation or unseen supplier costs? There is a bigger missed opportunity, as procurement is unable to see or articulate their successes.
Figure 5.10. Visibility and oversight of SRM activity – buy side
VERY GOOD 3%
VERY POOR 16%
GOOD 40%
POOR 40%
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