Supplier Enablement

Supplier Enablement – SME suppliers at risk?

Does the use of eProcurement by buyers put SME suppliers at risk? If you are a supplier you want the answer to be NO. The truth is probably YES.

It is not directly related to the use of eProcurement technologies rather the process that precedes the introduction of eProcurement that involves a buyer in a comprehensive review and detailed data analysis of spending.

This generally leads to a rationalization of suppliers and with that SMEs can be vulnerable. To what extent are they vulnerable? Obtaining data on this in the private sector is beyond difficult but the UK public sector is going to great lengths to understand the potential impact and minimize that for SMEs.

The London Borough of Newham has published some information on the impact to SMEs that count as their suppliers:

59% of the Council’s trade suppliers are SMEs

There has been a reduction of 9% in one year as a result of a shift to larger suppliers

The Council has a pro-active program of work to support SMEs and you can read more about that by following this link http://www.imaginist.co.uk/documents/e-ProcurementandSMEslidesforEXPO1.ppt

posted by FrankB @ Friday, April 28, 2006