E-Sourcing Forum » Identifying Available Suppliers

Identifying Available Suppliers

July 26th, 2007 at 06:34am David Bush - Iasta

Recently, Purchasing Magazine has been running a series on how procurement departments at a variety of companies organize their strategic-sourcing activities. Fellow blogger Michael Lamoureux, one of our semi-regular contributors, picked up on the second installment on Sourcing Strategy Selection over on the Sourcing Innovation blog.

Even though I find that some Purchasing articles can often be hit or miss on the strategy side, I think this installment on How to Identify Available Suppliers, which focussed more on the tactical, offered some great advice on supplier identification. In summary, the article recommended that you:

Talk with other buyers
Check the clock
Ask fellow employees
Never stop looking
Collaborate with contacts

Talk with other buyers.
Talk to your colleagues within your industry at every chance you get – at networking events, conferences, and informal get-togethers. Also include market researchers who specialize in benchmarking – they’ll help you identify the up-and-coming suppliers.

Check the clock.
Figure out how much time you have to evaluate and identify a new supplier before you start and follow a pre-set process. This will insure that you use your time productively and take advantage of quick-hit opportunities when they exist. The article includes the process used by Karen Chinich at Sandvik Inc, which is summarized as:

Start with the approved supplier lists used by other divisions or sister companies.
Ask internal staff, including product managers, engineers, and sales staff for recommendations.
Move on to external purchasing professionals.
Check out a potential supplier’s website.
Use procurement sites.
Reference relevant publications.
Use the databanks for current available U.S. supplier data.
Take advantage of internet indexes and search engines.
When all else fails, send out an internal e-mail to all stakeholders for suggestions.

Ask fellow employees.
Sometimes your own resources, especially those in product development and management, might have the perfect candidate.

Never stop looking.
Just because you can’t find the perfect supplier today does not mean that the perfect supplier might not come along tomorrow.

Collaborate with contacts.
Collaboration almost always pays off. Even if the collaboration does not result in a new supplier, just working together will result in a relationship that can be leveraged in the future.

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Entry Filed under: General, Suppliers, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology / SaaS

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