TECHNOLOGY
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERED THE MAIN BENEFIT FOR SUPPLIERMANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
SRM LEADERS SEE IT SOLUTIONS AS STRATEGIC
While SRMmay be poorly served by technology, practitioners still have a sense of where they may benefit from improved software applications. Their thinking will shape the business case for any future investment in technology, which will be closely related to pressing business priorities. Managing and improving supplier performance is the number one benefit of improved technology according to 88% of respondents. This is followed by relationship oversight, capturing value delivered and improved risk management. The only result in the section of our survey focused on technology where we see significant differences between SRM leaders, followers and others is in their attitudes to the importance of technology to future SRM strategy. We see technology investment as an integral part of the business case for SRM. It needs to be considered as an enabler to achieving its overall strategy. SRM leaders agree. Three quarters of leaders and two thirds of followers see technology as part of their SRM strategy. A little under half (47%) of others say the same. Data, and the technology to capture and analyse it, is at the heart of effective SRM.
Those who manage and act on supplier data successfully will accelerate the effectiveness of SRM, ensuring their businesses get more value for the effort they put in. It is surprising and worrying that so many procurement professionals still struggle to secure investment in SRM technology. Cloud-based applications make the roll-out of new systems easier and reduce capital costs, although there is still much work to be done in choosing the right tools for the business requirement, managing processes and cleansing data.
required features and functionality thought to be important by users, according to 63% of respondents. This figure has also increased, from 59% in 2016. Meanwhile, nearly a quarter (23%) of respondents find systems do not support access by multiple stakeholders in order to share information and collaborate. To compensate for a lack of tools to integrate, analyse and share data about SRM, practitioners are creating DIY solutions. These solutions can only ever be temporary. They are not scalable beyond a few suppliers and are unlikely to be effective across larger, more complex organisations. SHARED DRIVES AND EMAIL ARE INEFFICIENT AND RISKY Procurement professionals largely store supplier information in shared drives or locally designed SharePoint solutions. Documents are also shared as email attachments. These practices raise the risk of creating multiple copies, each of which can be changed and worked on in different ways by users, creating a confused picture of SRM. Email is also inherently insecure. Even when in-house email systems are well protected, there is a risk users can unwittingly forward data externally to the wrong parties.
Fig 36. For you, what would be themain benefits of having an effective supplier management IT system?*
Fig 37. Is an SRM technology solution part of your SRM strategy?
Compliance and regulatory
%
Leader
Follower
Other
%
53
75
Yes
66
Risk identification and management
47
66
20
Value capture and delivery
No
22
30
69
5
Relationship oversight - including customer, partner or competitor dimensions
Don’t know
12
23
Levels of satisfaction remain lowand the feedback suggests an increasing level of frustration among all respondents
69
Manage sustainability and CSR in the supply chain
36
Technology investment is an integral part of the business case for SRM. It is an enabler to achieving its overall strategy
Supplier performance management and improvement
88
Identify, capture and deliver supplier innovation
57
IN THE NEXT SECTION... As well as helping analyse and manage supplier relationships, technology can help supplier relationship managers share insight and knowledge, both with internal stakeholders and external suppliers. It boosts collaboration within and outside the business. Collaboration is a feature of SRM that can help organisations innovate and achieve strategic goals, as we examine in the next section.
SRM technology can be a catalyst for making behavioural and cultural changes to improve the management of supplier relationships – and bring strategic benefits to the business. Organisations which exploit these cloud-based SRM applications can start small and scale up quickly with little capital cost. Technology can help global organisations manage their suppliers better and more consistently. Entrepreneurial SRM requires reliable risk, performance and contracts data to quickly assess new opportunities. Technology improves the speed of decisions, enabling the organisation to move quickly as market opportunities present themselves.
*This analysis is for all respondents.
SNAPSHOT ANALYSIS Only 19%of respondents are using any kind of cloud-based software solution for SRM. This is remarkable given thematurity of the computingmodel. Cloud-based SRM applications such as Statess can become the catalyst for the behavioural and cultural changes necessary to realise the strategic benefits as well asmaking the day-to- day management of suppliers easier.
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75 TECHNOLOGY STATE OF FLUX
TECHNOLOGY STATE OF FLUX 2017 GLOBAL SRMRESEARCHREPORT
2017 GLOBAL SRMRESEARCHREPORT
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