Efficio’s suppliers relationship management (SRM) methodology is proven across sectors and tailored to your individual requirements and priorities. There are huge commercial and business advantages to adopting a collaborative approach to key strategic suppliers.
Creating a system that will maintain and develop critical supplier relationships is not straightforward. Often what passes for suppliers relationship management (SRM) is a patchwork of inconsistent initiatives, unduly dependent on individual managers.
We provide support to organizations where:
- There is no formal SRM process or several different approaches and processes across the business
- Supplier managers are confused about the process or its objectives and lack the required skills and tools
- Key suppliers appear to be underperforming, but there is no consistent way of monitoring or resolving the issues
- Strategic supplier relationships have deteriorated back into a transactional and adversarial mode
- Strategic suppliers find the relationship difficult or frustrating
How we work
Our starting point is supplier segmentation. We often find that any existing categorization of strategic suppliers is out of date and no longer reflects business realities.
The team delivers a detailed report on the strengths and weaknesses of any current supplier relationship management practices. This enables you to understand the gaps between the current situation and a best in class program. Efficio’s supplier relationship management Maturity Assessment typically includes the use of questionnaires, workshops, and one-to-one interviews.
We use this insight to create a version of our SRM methodology tailored to your situation and applicable across all areas of procurement, with comprehensive guidance for user implementation. Supporting tools including eFlow's supplier lifecycle management ease data processing and improve the availability of information.
Typically, Efficio will devise a pilot implementation in a chosen area to test and refine the solution. We work where possible in joint teams with your procurement function to enable coaching and knowledge transfer, and to obtain buy-in from procurement staff and other stakeholders.
Clients can then implement the pilot, and after any necessary revision, roll out a single, consistent, effective suppliers relationship management approach across the organization.
The benefits include:
- An effective SRM service leads to cost reduction both directly and in reducing the burden of dispute resolution
- Better and deeper relationships with key suppliers improves their performance and compliance
- The ability to profit share with suppliers creates opportunities to uncover and realize new value. For example, through more effective working practices, or early supplier involvement in product development
- More collaborative supplier relationships create more resilient supply chains and reduce the risk of failure
