Fueling Strategic Growth with Supplier Management

Without collaboration at the forefront of your business strategy, you are doomed to fail. It’s no surprise that many successful businesses in today’s competitive environment are the result of investments in collaborative relationships. While many organizations concentrate on building and nurturing customer relationships, not all focus on the importance and impact of positive supplier relationships. A structured Supplier Management program can enable companies to strategically align the supplier support needed to meet business needs and optimize supplier partnerships to drive organizational growth. 

What Is Supplier Management? 

Supplier management is a crucial process within any organization. It entails identifying, selecting, and managing the right suppliers for your business and evaluating their performance to make sure they are meeting your workforce needs. The primary goal of supplier management is to maximize value while mitigating supplier risks.   

A good workforce solutions partner will handle all activities throughout the entire lifecycle of a supplier for their clients. The supplier management team will build and nurture relationships with suppliers and align each client with the right suppliers to meet their unique workforce needs. Communication is streamlined with a supplier management team spearheading it – they communicate directly with the suppliers and directly with the clients, handle all behind-the-scenes activities, and ensure expectations are aligned and goals are being achieved. This allows clients to receive the best talent to fill their roles without having to do much work, giving them more time to focus on other core business activities.  

The Benefits of Supplier Management 

You might be reading this and asking yourself if it’s worth it to outsource your supplier management activities. Here are some of the primary reasons why allowing the supplier management experts to take over the process can be beneficial for your organization. 

Cost Savings Opportunities 

We all want to save money where possible. With a formal supplier management process in place, the team is able to identify cost savings opportunities for your organization. They can minimize the number of suppliers needed, find the most efficient suppliers, and secure deals at the best value. Providing cost savings to clients is a top priority for supplier management teams as it helps build strong, trusting relationships. 

Evaluating Supplier Performance 

Evaluating supplier performance is a significant benefit of supplier management because it ensures that your suppliers are doing what they should be and meeting your workforce goals. It’s necessary to track how suppliers are performing throughout the contract because if they are not meeting your standards, you need to request new suppliers before it impacts your bottom line.  

Within evaluating supplier performances, the supplier management team will determine various Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure supplier performances, and using that framework, they can assess which suppliers are most beneficial for your organization. 

Access to Diverse Candidates 

If your organization is interested in adding diverse candidates to its workforce, then leveraging the help of suppliers who understand and support your diversity initiatives is essential. Through a thorough vetting process, a supplier management team can effectively evaluate a supplier’s recruiting and candidate engagement process to determine if they can successfully support your company’s diversity efforts. Not every supplier has the means to connect you with diverse candidates, so it’s crucial to have a supplier management team to identify strategic supplier partnerships who can drive the diversification of your workforce.

Evaluating Suppliers 

Companies often underestimate how difficult it is to properly vet suppliers. There are so many suppliers to choose from, and most of them will look good on paper. But it takes an experienced supplier management team to thoroughly evaluate them and ask the right questions to uncover if they can follow through with the activities they claim they can support.   

Mitigating Supplier Risk 

Building a solid workforce is essential to your organization’s success, so you want to avoid any risks surrounding your talent – this includes your supplier network. Managing supplier risk means identifying any areas where something could potentially go wrong or cause issues for a client, then devising a plan to actively protect clients through the management and mitigation of those risks. 

Streamlined Communication and Collaboration 

Supplier management teams are there to communicate with both the client and the suppliers serving their client. With their expertise in supplier transactions and providing workforce solutions, they seamlessly enable connectivity and collaboration between all parties, so your organization does not have to use many internal resources to ensure the right talent is entering your organization. The team will make sure everything remains in order through clear and consistent communication. 

End-to-End Visibility 

Often, when an organization manages their suppliers internally, they realize that full visibility into their supply chain does not exist across the organization. This typically leads to a surplus of suppliers working to fill roles, leading to inefficiencies and unnecessary expenses incurred.  

With a supplier management team in control, however, a centralized database of suppliers will exist which ensures increased visibility into supplier operations. This leads to streamlined processes and the minimization of suppliers because they will make sure that you are getting the most value out of the best suppliers available. 

After reading these benefits, it should be clear why leveraging the help of a supplier management team, like DZConneX, is worth the investment. A supplier management team will guarantee that your organization is receiving the best talent tailored to fulfill your unique workforce goals. While this process can be done internally, sometimes it’s better to let the experts handle what they do best so your organization can focus on what you do best.