Supplier Value Added Services

Add comment April 10th, 2007 David Bush - Iasta

Yesterday, I posted on Supplier Performance best practices. Today, I wanted to establish a list of things that suppliers should be providing, in some combination, to increase the value of their relationships with the buying organization. These items should be addressed in eRFx stage to determine the value add that each supplier brings to the relationship. This list is general and not necessarily comprehensive, but gives good insight into factors that should be considered and discussed with each valued supplier.

• quality reputation
• partnership differentiation capabilities
• established contacts and cross-company knowledge
• competitiveness
• proven business development support, e.g. promotions
• product design creation and development capabilities
• collaborative product design
• product selection/variety
• consumer support/service
• category management services
• supplier conversion support
• supply chain management
• inventory balancing
• order fulfillment rates
• order-to-shipment lead times
• returns management/defect support
• delivery terms
• payment terms

Many of these I found in a very old document that was meant for consulting suppliers on reverse auction strategy (which I cannot find now and was not developed by us). Some may be industry specific but give very good placeholders for the things that both the buyer and supplier should be considering to make a lasting, mutually beneficial partnership.

Entry Filed under: General, Supplier Performance, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology, e-RFx