Supply management lifecycle tools

February 2nd, 2007 at 02:41am David Bush - Iasta

I am some times asked about the components that make up supply management strategy (from a software solution standpoint). As a point of reference, I would like to put some structure to the eco-system which is derived from mostly the analyst’s POV:

1. Spend Analysis: This is a process for gaining insight about the behavior of buyers and suppliers, and then applying that insight to drive quality procurement decisions. Visibility into spend is a critical first step into identifying and applying principles in strategic sourcing.
2. Supplier Assessment: This can be thought of as the management of supplier data with robust profiles and administration features allowing for the determination of who is being used or who should be used for sourcing contracts.
3. Supplier Identification: In this area, users have the ability to review potential vendors and their respective capabilities. This can be in open networks/marketplaces or strictly internal data based on custom collected information.
4. Strategic Sourcing: Sourcing technology refers to the facilitation of bids and negotiation in the form of e-RFx and bid collection to determine the best supplier and price combinations. Some tools also provide advanced analysis capability of the bids received.
5. Contract Management: Varying degrees of features are available in contract management which range from tracking and storing contract data to lifecycle management with contract writing, clause libraries and extensive workflow for collaboration between many departments.
6. Procurement: More transactional in nature, e-Procurement provides cataloging and order facilitation which helps reduce buying off contract (maverick spend) and enforcing procurement policies.
7. Order Fulfillment: Back-end fulfillment solutions provide integration of suppliers and fulfillment solutions to establish better supplier connections and efficiency.
8. Invoice Reconciliation and Payment: With invoice management solutions, companies receive services for invoice reconciliation, managing invoices electronically and accelerating supplier payment to capture early payment discount opportunities.

Iasta’s solutions stop at the stage 6 (eProcurement) and we have plenty to still do within stages 1-5 to keep busy for awhile. Hopefully, this overview is helpful for people wanting to understand the starting and ending points of different phases within supply management software.

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Entry Filed under: General, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology / SaaS, e-Sourcing Marketplace