TECHNOLOGY
Progress in supporting SRM with technology Supplier management technology adoption (all companies 2016 to 2019)
Contract management Risk management Innovation management
Supplier information management
Performance management
No technology
Relationship management
Supplier compliance to required sustainability standards
80%
Contract management
60%
Supplier information management
40%
Performance management
Risk management
No technology
Supplier compliance to required sustainability standards Relationship management
20%
Innovation management
0%
2016
2017
2018
2019
efficient management of suppliers. The chart above indicates the proportion of companies in our survey that have adopted the different facets of technology to manage their supplier management lifecycle. Contract management remains the most adopted technology, with an average of 65% of companies opting to invest. Supplier information management (including on-boarding and master data management) has seen an increase in the period rising from 42% in 2016 to 61% in 2019. The number of companies using technology to help with the management of supplier performance has remained low with an average of just 38% of companies choosing to adopt it. The situation is similar with risk management: only 29% of organisations adopt it. Elsewhere our research shows low levels of effective performance and risk management of critical and strategic suppliers. There is an opportunity for investment in technology to help reverse this trend. While the adoption of technology to support SRM has increased over
Snapshot analysis
While adoption of supplier management technology has been slower than expected, there is strong evidence of increasing demand. State of Flux has conducted more than twice as many technology demonstrations this year compared to last, with notable interest in Europe and the US. We are also seeing an increase of organisations leading their SRM programme implementations with technology, using it as the ‘change agent’ to help give stakeholders focus and structure. More organisations are starting to challenge their IT strategy and ask why the vital tasks of managing high-value complex supplier relationships do not receive the same IT investment as the sales teams which often use state-of-the-art CRM systems.
1 Mimecast 27th June 2019 Wired: How Hackers Turn Microsoft Excel’s Own Features Against It https://www.wired.com/story/ microsoft-excel-hacking-power- query-macros/ 2 Poor quality data weakens an organisation’s competitive standing and undermines critical business objectives https://www.gartner. com/smarterwithgartner/how-to- stop-data-quality-undermining- your-business/
2019 GLOBAL SRM RESEARCH REPORT
73
Powered by FlippingBook