SRM on upturn as buyers cope with downturn?
By Rebecca Ellinor
As we report in the latest issue of SM, corporate insolvencies are on the increase and a dramatic upswing is anticipated.
A rising number of companies are going under, and it’s crucial for buyers to try to mitigate against the risk of their suppliers folding.
It means, as we report in the news pages (“Buyers focus on risk management”), that purchasers and vendors alike are looking less at performance and more at security of supply and the financial stability of the firms they do business with. Diversification could be a word we hear more and more as supplier rationalisation is dropped for the time being.
I’d argue that supplier relationship management has never been so important as it is now with buyers and suppliers relying on one another to stay afloat. But what has been your experience? Are you putting more of a focus on this area, or less as you come under pressure from the bosses to slash costs?
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We are absolutely increasing our focus on SRM here at Essex County Council. We now have a dedicated SRM team working directly with our strategic critical suppliers to drive out in-efficiencies from our supply chain. We have formed joint teams and are currently engaged on a number of improvement projects that will support the goals and objectives that both parties have agreed upon. We have sponsorship from our Corporate Leadership Team and the Senior Management of our suppliers. Both sides are fully committed to delivering excellence to their respective customers in the most efficient manner possible.
State of Flux is doing quite a lot of work in the SRM area which re-enforces your comment regarding SRM being important. However we are noticing that one of the biggest challenges people have is getting the business case right, followed by implementation challenges. To support this we have put together a survey to try and understand how different organizations are approaching this and SRM in general
If any of the readers wish to participate in the survey the link is: http://www.stateofflux.co.uk//surveys/srm_survey.aspx
It should take 5-10mins to complete, individual responses are confidential and we will provide the results upon completion of the survey to those who complete it. In addition we are planning to run some cross organizational workshops to discuss findings further so happy to invite respondents to join those.
I’d agree with this article finishing statements but I don’t have time for the survey.