Supplier Networks drive Supplier Enablement
I see that the Aberdeen Group has published a new report about the importance of supplier networks. The Exec Summary of the report is free and can be located by
clicking here.It is copyright so follow the link to read more.
Click here if you need information on building a supplier network.
Labels: Aberdeen Group, CPO, supplier enablement, supplier networks, supplier portal, survey
Supplier Enablement - black hole
I have just reviewed a supplier adoption programme that deals with the strategy and approach that will be taken to acquire content and connectivity for an eProcurement roll-out.
Having read the documents two things struck me:
1. a team would be appointed to drive the programme – good decision
2. the programme lacked insight and detail about communication with suppliers - why?
As a general observation, a high level of competence exists to handle the data extraction and analysis that determines the selection of suppliers for inclusion in a supplier adoption programme, this part of the project being ‘internal’ to the business, but evidence shows a lack of experience when the project goes ‘external’ to the business to suppliers. It is a black hole for many.
The tough part of any supplier adoption programme is executing the activity of contacting your suppliers and then moving them to become active participants in your
e-Procurement quickly and at a low cost to your business.
Quickly means the elapsed time is short between first contact with your supplier and your supplier being activated. This drives the benefits of eProcurement into the business and is vital to delivering ROI.
Click here for a benchmark.
Low cost because, and you might not want to know this, most eProcurement projects woefully underestimate supplier adoption as an activity and the cost of this activity will impact ROI in Years 1 & 2.
It is apparent that supplier adoption, more often referred to now as
supplier enablement, is a skill set and is
increasingly in demand.
Click here if you are a buyer and want more information about how to run supplier enablement.
Labels: buyers, electronic invoicing, eprocurement, ROI, supplier enablement, suppliers
SaaS matures but money rules OK
In July 2006 I mentioned Microsoft's announcement of Software as a Service.
Click here for a refresh of that.
More recently I have found an interesting note on
Wikipedia that talks about the
SaaS maturity model.
Well, this is quite academic at the moment aside from providing developers a reference point as customers are more concerned with the 'why' and not the 'how' are you doing it.
If you search on
SaaS in
Wikepedia you will find the maturity model or
click here to go directly there.
The real debate is about 'why' with the choices being to go with the on-premises delivery of software or use SaaS. It is a passionate debate that is riddled with the vested interests of IT departments who want to preserve control of IT resources and their vendors who want to hang on to their customary license revenues.
Does the person at the top who carries the buck care?Who is advising him/her and what will they say about the choices?
IT say - This is a strategic resource and we know our business better than any third-party service provider. We can deliver it cheaper and, importantly, we control the resource.
Finance say - our choice is upfront capital expenditure and the cost of our resources (salaries etc.) to have the system on-premises or monthly operational expenses with
SaaS that we align with use and can turn off if we don't need it in the future or for that matter change if something better comes along.
If the on-premises deployment fails to deliver then the money is lost. The financial risk with
SaaS is reduced and the time to benefit is shorter because we are using an existing service.
So new projects will not only be subject to the usual rigors of the 'business case' but also the evaluation of on-premises versus
SaaS.
Interesting times ahead.
Click here for insight into using SaaS to deliver connectivity in the supply chain.
Labels: business case, on-premises, SaaS, supplier enablement
Supplier Enablement - bring it on
I've often referred to the Aberdeen Group as a good source for research on what's going on in the world of procurement. I see that Forrester has produced an excellent piece of work that looks at the Spend Management market opportunity.
With my remit of talking about supplier enablement I'm interested in who's doing it and who is planning to do it.
Forrester's research show that among the global businesses (>20,000 employees globally) when asked the question: Will your company purchase procurement or sourcing software in 2007?
The results were for Europe:
9% don't know?
33% are not using!!!
23% are using but will not purchase or upgrade in 2007
7% will be first time purchasers
21% will perform a minor upgrade
7% will perform a major upgrade
The significant outcome is that the don't know, not using and first time purchasers represent 49%. The will not purchase or upgrade in 2007 suggest they are in an early phase of implementation, possibly a pilot in a small area of the business, so adding in that 23%, we have 72%, the majority group. This majority group will not be driving supplier enablement in the way that a business would in an aggressive roll out of an application across the enterprise.
Conclusion: supplier enablement is not yet a mainstream activity.
Any other evidence to corroborate this?
Forrester report that there are 250,000 suppliers connected to the 5 leading supplier networks. That is a tiny number of suppliers.
That's why I say it is time to bring it on.
Click here if you are a buyer and need to know about supplier enablement.
Click here if you are a supplier and want to plan forward.
Labels: europe, global business, procurement, spend management, supplier enablement
Supplier Enablement - jobs galore?
I've just been listening to a webinar hosted by an ace Internet Marketeer and one of their many jewels of advice is
"you have to get up the results list on Google." Well, 1st result on Page 1 with the only link to a related blog - it gets no better.
One other interesting observation is the increasing number of jobs showing on Google results pages for supplier enablement. It is an interesting point of maturation of an industry when jobs are notified that require specific skills connected with projects. I have said many times that the tough part of implementing eProcurement is supplier enablement and now jobs are being advertised to make it happen.
What do you make of that?
Labels: google, jobs, supplier enablement
Supplier Enablement - buyers get cuddly with suppliers
As I write and advise others about supplier enablement I find it more than comforting when I read a story about others who are getting under the covers of what supplier enablement is all about.
So if you are an oil or gas company or in their supply chain the link provided here will be of interest.
Even if you are not connected with these industries the story is still worth a read.
Click here to link to
Suppliers are People Too!
Group hug anyone?
Click here for practical solutions to supplier enablement
Labels: buyers, gas, IMPAQ, oil, supplier enablement, supply chain
Supplier Enablement rumbles on - shock for SAP and Oracle customers
I have previously reported on work by the Aberdeen Group who do some fine research and reporting on Supplier Enablement.
I found a new news item reported on PROCURE IQ a web site that looks to be a broad church for supply chain types. This news item reported on a recent piece of research by Aberdeen that quotes:
"SAP and Oracle eProcurement shops are in the dark ages when it comes to supplier enablement -- perhaps the most important metric which determines the ultimate ROI of the solution".Ouch!
They go one to remark:
ERP eProcurement is largely wasted because 95-99+% of a company's suppliers usually remain unenabled following an implementation. And their advice is:
If a company chooses to go with Oracle or SAP for eProcurement, they should look to others from an enablement perspective.Click here to read the article
Click here for more information about supplier enablement
Labels: ERP, Oracle, procurement, SAP, supplier enablement
Supplier eCommerce story – by the eCommerce fairy
This is my first anniversary as a blogger and I’ve chosen to write a good news story with a hint of prediction of the future.
I have many written many blogs that talk about contention between buyers and suppliers about the value of eProcurement but let's take the positive view that this will work out for everyone.
If I were a supplier and the eCommerce fairy visited me what would I tell?
Surprise and delight. We tell all our customers that we promote eCommerce as our preferred way to conduct our business. Some are surprised others are delighted.
Inspire others. Our customers ask us about our experience with eCommerce as they are eager to learn and as a result our customers admire us and see us as more than just a supplier, we are visionary.
Be shrewd. We promote eCommerce as our way to drive costs out of our business so that we remain highly competitive. Where we save money we share the benefit with our customers through lower prices. This is really novel for our customers and changes how they perceive us.
Be different. We know we have great products while we also understand that every trading relationship has a cost to buyer and supplier. When we tell customers how we use eCommerce to drive cost out of our transactions they see us as more just a supplier, we are a supplier that values their business.
Distance the competition. We use our eCommerce expertise to showcase our company, we are different, we are better and we know how to sell the difference. As product differentiation becomes increasingly hard particularly with the ease that you can search for products using Google then you have to deliver on “customer experience”. We want our customers to tell others that we are easy to do business with; fast, convenient, if only all our suppliers were as good.
Bank it don’t spend it. Our commitment to eCommerce means that as our business has grown we have not had to increase our back office costs and this grows our bottom line – the reason I keep reminding myself why we are in business.
eCommerce fairy needs to go to sleep now.
Click here to continue reading
Labels: buyers, customer experience, ecommerce, einvoicing, eprocurement, supplier enablement, suppliers
