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Maximising system engagement with suppliers
Tired of wasting time and resources on systems that suppliers aren't using? Our six-step process helps you engage suppliers and realise the full return on investment for your system.
Simple supplier engagement in six easy steps
Whether it is a product specification system, master data management system, or a system to collect data from suppliers, it is really important that your suppliers frequently sign in and maintain accurate and up-to-date information.
Our Six-Step Process provides a brilliant framework to make this a reality for you, your brand, and most importantly, your suppliers.
Here’s how it works:
Focus on what’s important
We start your journey by helping you to clearly articulate the value of the system to you, your brand and your suppliers. For example, your system may help to:
- Launch products quicker
- Increased product transparency
- Collaborate with suppliers to create a competitive advantage
Making this connection will enable you to articulate to your suppliers why this system implementation or adoption is of material importance to your business (and therefore to your suppliers). It is crucial that you help suppliers to understand not just the system itself but why you are implementing it.
Set realistic and achievable goals
A SMART goal focused on maximising supplier engagement and system adoption will always take supplier readiness into account. A supplier readiness survey is like a learning needs analysis for your employees, designed to make sure you develop the right support and training.
We always accompany our supplier readiness surveys with a robust supplier contact accuracy campaign to make sure that your system is populated with the right contact information.
Understand your benchmark
Supplier participation and data accuracy are the key benchmarks for a successful system implementation. Our reporting can augment what is already available within your system to provide greater visibility to your leadership team about the usage and effectiveness of your system.
Close the performance gap
Landing your system implementation initiative can be difficult with hundreds of suppliers and thousands products spanning multiple categories.
This is why a key point of focus should be to get suppliers to sign up the system by running supplier engagement campaigns. These campaigns should include emails, knowledgebase articles and online training.
- whether they have signed up to the system or not
- last login date - send reminder emails to ask them to login and update their information
- level of understanding of the system - if suppliers have used the system elsewhere, a comprehensive 2-week training course might be overkill and maybe a short webinar about the nuances of your system compared to others would suffice.
Active and engaged suppliers will improve the effectiveness of your system and its implementation.
Grow accountability and transparency
To boost the effectiveness of your system, you must set clear expectations with suppliers.
From your benchmark reporting, you will be able to monitor system performance around:
From your benchmark reporting, you will be able to monitor system performance around:
- the number of suppliers signed up to the system
- frequency of use
- accuracy and completion of data entered into the system
These metrics can then be shared within the context of their wider KPI within their supplier scorecard.
Transform suppliers into your greatest brand asset
By having as many suppliers as possible signed up and actively using your system, you can ensure that you achieve the originally stated return on investment for your system. This means you can spend less time chasing suppliers to update information and more time collaborating with suppliers to drive innovation.
Supplier Engagement at pace and scale
The Supply Pilot Platform has been built for fast moving businesses who need to engage and collaborate with hundreds of suppliers to achieve their compliance, sustainability and brand goals.
Any systems implementation which involves suppliers requires a comprehensive supplier engagement strategy. This relies upon accurate supplier contacts who understand the system they need to use and how to operate within your ways of working.
Target & deploy brand-critical comms
Align and activate suppliers by creating targeted, engaging communications based on current supplier system knowledge.
Supplier engagement
Automate supplier contact accuracy management and proactively review email bounces, opens and acknowledgements.Align and activate suppliers by creating targeted, engaging communications based on current supplier system knowledge.
- Run supplier training webinars
- Create knowledge-based content and host online training about how to do certain things within the system
- Centralise supplier queries to identify trends and drive improvement in your supplier knowledgebase.
Turn dozens of data silos into a single view
Supply chain data collection
Collect data from suppliers in a way that prioritises supplier experience. Quick and simple forms for suppliers will maximise response rates and reduce the need for chasing.
- Collect data from large volumes of suppliers to establish a benchmark of your suppliers' understanding of the system
- Automate supplier chasing
- Validate and upload data into your own system to ensure you only are transferring clean data across
- Supplement core system information with ad-hoc data collections
Identify champions & build success
Supplier scorecards
Securely share up-to-date performance data and insights with suppliers 24/7 to promote proactivity within your system and harness more supplier expertise and experience.
Automatically calculated scorecards enable you to:
- Accurately monitor supplier adoption of system
- Visualise key metrics like product specification accuracy or on time new product development (NPD)
- Scale performance management capabilities
So much more than a platform
Expert hands-on demand
Supply Pilot's Campaign Team can create supplier engagement and system launch campaigns to complete this project on your behalf and get all your suppliers to sign up to your system.
- Overcome resource constraints to meet deadlines: supplier engagement experts take full ownership of delivering on time and above expectation
- Tame the complexity to progress: clear facts that give you focus, clarity, and the time you need to meet your goals
- Sustain an engaged supply base who are equally invested in your goals
We've maximised engagement with some of the largest PLM systems
Get results in weeks, not years.
Here’s how we get your supplier engagement and system adoption project up and running.
In your 30-minute discovery call, one of our team will help you unpick which issue would make a compelling pilot project. We’re happy to share pricing and timelines at this stage to help you decide whether we’re a good fit for your business.
We’ll take you through a full demo of the Supply Pilot Platform for your specific need. We’ll show you how we use the Platform for each part of the project, and how we’ll help make sure it’s a success. Invite your internal stakeholders to the demo to help bring your pilot project to life. The demo takes 1-2 hours, depending on how many people attend.
We’re by your side when it’s time to put your business case forward. If your boss is the visual type, we’ll put together a video. Is your board more interested in the numbers? We’ll arm you with the ROI.
Now you’re on board, there’s plenty to do. So why waste time? Expect your kick-off meeting within days of sign-off and your branded platform will be live within a couple of weeks.
Is your system ready for take-off?
The Six-Step Process was created because we believe in the power of great supplier relationships. Book your discovery call today and start your Supply Pilot journey.