Next Generation Best Practices in Managing Suppliers - Part Two

Next Generation Best Practices in Managing Suppliers – Part Two

Author: Bill McBeath

Published on: January 12, 2006

Abstract

This is Part Two of a four-part series of reports on the findings from ChainLink research into the next generation of best practices for managing supplier relationships. The research examined hundreds of companies. Among those, ChainLink interviewed the 30 companies achieving the best sourcing results. This series synthesizes the collective next generation of best practices from those top 30 firms.

Report

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ChainLink Research originally coined the term SmallSmartFast to describe the next generation of tiny but powerful hardware and software devices and agents (RFID, GPS, hand-held computers, monitoring devices, software agents, etc.). We soon realized that this same thinking can be applied to organizations and processes.

In this report, we examine how some companies have implemented SmallSmartFast sourcing processes—streamlining, and making smarter, faster decisions throughout the sourcing cycle.

In particular, this report identifies those stages of the sourcing cycle in which companies have recently achieved significant performance improvements:

Contract Management – Negotiation, authoring, and compliance management
E-Sourcing Innovations – Comprehensive reverse auctions, e-procurement catalogs
Supplier Performance Management – Supplier scorecards, rating and auditing, corrective action

After reading this report, every firm should be able to identify the stages of their own sourcing cycle where there are opportunities for significant improvements in performance.

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