SXM is one of procurement’s most exciting opportunities… 2022 is the year of the supplier.
Start mapping out supplier your supplier journeys.
Dr Elouise Epstein, Partner at Kearney, explains why SXM, aided by automation tools, makes a more pleasurable, efficient experience for the supplier instead of completing multiple tick box exercises and wasting time on inefficient, tedious and frustrating processes.
“In theory, a supplier portal sounds like a good idea, but it creates a logic trap in the design and a dumpster fire in the deployment.”
Epstein sees such tools from both perspectives, showing how SXM enables suppliers to share its information with multiple customers to help them get more business quicker, get paid and make the best use of time.
‘The illogicalness of a supplier portal becomes clear when you put yourself in the supplier’s shoes.
Suddenly, you’ll be confronted with the stark reality of all the effort a supplier has to put into entering and consuming information from the portal.
Now imagine that supplier replicating that onerous process for every single one of its customers.’
Why you should hate your company.
Whilst portals may benefit your company, considering the supplier’s perspective isn’t appealing, demonstrating a slog of inefficient processes. Here are some of the benefits of using SXM tools:
- Bidding
- Information Management
- Communication
- Connectivity
- Extensibility
- Insights
- Performance
- Relationship building
- Support
- Reducing administrative overhead for payments
“Providing good SXM is long overdue… A
ddressing SXM is not only a significant challenge—it’s our most exciting opportunity.”
Dr Elouise Epstein
Be the customer of choice. Ways to get started:
- Design a strategy and execution plan for correcting any deficiencies to ensure long-term viability.
- Prioritize onboarding new SXM digital solutions.
- Design a supplier communication matrix and plan.
- Experience your systems from a supplier’s point of view—as if you are a new supplier. Make note of the pain points and any areas for improvement.
- Identify and move your non-strategic suppliers to an onboarding-to-payment solution.
- Map out the types of supplier journeys throughout your systems for the entire supplier life cycle—from event participation and onboarding to sustainment and offboarding.
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