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FOREWORD
Without giving too much away, it’s fair to say that some very strong themes are emerging that become more evident every year we conduct this research. › › SRM continues to make progress within what has been a very challenging business environment. › › Business drivers or reasons for doing SRM remain largely focused on cost, risk and performance; this year risk has emerged as the most important. › › A wider range of business drivers such as customer of choice are emerging. › › Financial benefits are still reported at levels that make the business case for SRM very compelling. However, to deliver the business case it is evident that current SRM practices for the majority of respondents need to be further developed. › › The gap between leaders and followers continues the trend of previous years, in that it is increasingly defined by the level of benefits being achieved. › › Despite reported progress it is evident that a lot more work is required to engage a broader group of stakeholders. › › Good progress has been made with governance and processes, with more clarity starting to emerge around operating models. › › Investment in the end to end people and organisa- tion development process is still a major concern. › › Another area requiring urgent attention is informa- tion and technology, where levels of dissatisfaction are increasing. › › Important relationship attributes are increasingly understood and being developed, but truly innova- tive relationships are still more of an aspiration than reality. You will find a wealth of data, analysis and opinion on these and other topics in the report, alongside revealing cases studies from some of the world’s leading companies. I really hope you enjoy reading the report and find it a source of valuable insight and information.
Welcome to our global 2013 supplier relationship management (SRM) research report. This is the fifth consecutive year State of Flux has conducted a global survey of SRM practices. We would like to express our gratitude to the 522 individuals across 425 organisa- tions that completed the survey. I would also like to thank all those who gave up their valuable time to attend our cross organisation workshops to add more rich content to this report and to the companies that agreed to be featured as case studies. We strive each year to improve our survey and increase the value it provides to the thousands who request copies of the report. This year we have sought to retain its core purpose which is to analyse, report and comment on SRM practice from a wide range of companies, industry sectors and geogra- phies. Last year we made two significant changes that were received very positively. Firstly, we included the supplier perspective for the first time and secondly, we developed the leader and follower model to be based on an assessment of capability rather than self assessment. We have retained and further enhanced these features with more supplier side questions and a more demanding standard to be classified as a leader. An additional feature for this year is the State of Flux SRM index. This assigns a numeric value to SRM maturity, based on an assessment of capability across the six pillars of SRM. Early feedback suggests companies value this additional granularity in conjunction with the graphical representation provided by our maturity model. We trust these changes demonstrate our commitment to contin- uous improvement and providing more value from the report. The report is designed to give you data and analysis, opinion and challenge, case studies, best practice examples and guidance. We aim to challenge the status quo so that SRM in your organisations has a greater chance of adding value.
ALAN DAY CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER STATE OF FLUX
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