Supplier management and successful eSourcing

With SourceDogg’s recent launch of a new Supplier Management feature, we thought it timely to explore how the pooling of preferred current or potential vendors can play a key role in a successful sourcing function. Here are some ways that you can improve sourcing through supplier management:

  • By ensuring a select group of suppliers are involved in your sourcing events (e.g. a request for quotation), you increase the likelihood of receiving relevant and high quality quotations.

SupplierManagementForReleaseNotes

  • A sourcing policy that ensures only preferred suppliers can be invited to a request for quotation or tender will eradicate maverick (or unsanctioned) spending.
  • Finally, as Duncan Jones of Forrester Research reveals, there is an inverse relationship also. Good supplier management requires an influence on sourcing:To have sufficient negotiation leverage to do a good job, the supplier manager must be able to credibly threaten to negatively impact the supplier’s ability to win future business.In other words, the ability to remove someone from a preferred group of suppliers is essential for negotiating better prices or service from an existing supplier.

SourceDogg’s new Supplier Management feature allows users to easily browse the SourceDogg Supplier Directory, viewing detailed profiles and searching for suppliers to meet your business needs. Suppliers of particular interest can be added to your organisation’s Supplier Pool – thereby grouping potential suppliers in one area, from which they can be easily invited to respond to requests for quotations, tenders, proposals or information.

In the article above, Duncan Jones also presents an interesting take on how to measure the attractiveness of various suppliers and avoid supplier dependency. He emphasises how important it is not to place too much emphasis on performance, or other aspects that will weigh your thinking unnaturally in favour of existing suppliers. Forward-thinking categories such as supplier innovation and knowledge will encourage a more open-minded approach that welcomes competition from new suppliers. Something to bear in mind when browsing the extensive SourceDogg Supplier Directory in the new Supplier Management feature…

Get in touch if you want to know more.

Recommended Posts