The launch of the innovative new procurement solution Profiler, by supply chain and procurement specialist TiVA, is set to completely change supply chain management by helping to create more efficiently managed buyer-supplier relationships and reduce the adversarial relationship that often exists between the two.
Profiler joins TiVAs existing suite of supplier relationship management services that include the companys Benchmarker and Tracker applications, the latter of these has just completed a successful pilot programme.
Profiler improves effective procurement by capturing information specifically designed to increase buyer insight of a highly segmented supplier base that can span myriad sectors and services.
The solution does this by building intelligent supplier profiles to deliver real business benefits to both buyer and supplier.
Profiler allows buyers to define strengths, evaluate weaknesses and measure how closely suppliers meet corporate buyer requirements and match personalised 'ideal supplier' specifications in any given category.
Profiler is a user-friendly web based application that allows buyers to identify and select suppliers across any product category to match pre-defined criteria, says Andy Brown, Chief Executive of Yorkshire-based TiVA whose headquarters are at Otley, North of Leeds.
These can vary from ethical or environmental considerations through to compliance to certain regulatory standards or geographical location or even the issue of supplying a certain product or service to a particular price point.
In practical terms this will enable a buyer to understand how an existing supplier is suited to provide services or products to a company. It can also enable buyers to identify suppliers who match criteria. In real terms this can save time and money by allowing buyers to identify the most appropriate supplier for a particular task in the most efficient way possible.
Rather than spend vast amounts of time searching for the right direct or indirect suppliers, buyers can now focus positive energy on getting the most from them.
A large corporate organisation can have supplier bases running into tens of thousands and until now it has been impossible to gain an understanding of this number of organisations. Profiler aims to change this and in the long term help to develop an appropriate and positive relationship between buyer and supplier.
We view ourselves as the champion of the supplier and the partner of the buyer and this application has been designed to benefit both parties.
Because Profiler is web based, the application can be deployed with a short lead time and can be totally tailored to meet a buyers requirements.
It has been developed to be simple to use by both buyer and supplier and generate outputs that can be acted on both quickly and efficiently.
The solution enables procurement professionals to audit their supplier base against a set of user defined criteria. These criteria can then have an importance weighting attached to them.
The process engages suppliers through an on-line questionnaire which is fed into to the Profiler system and this generates a report that identifies those suppliers who are best matched to a buyers requirements.
As well as supplying the solution, TIVA also provides the project management expertise covering supplier communication and administration through to establishment of key criteria.
Importantly it demonstrates to suppliers that buyers are operating openly and transparently and this represents a positive message in itself to the supplier base, says Andy Brown.
As well as improving communication across the supply chain for the buyer, the solution also delivers a number of benefits to suppliers. The intelligence provided by the system is also made available to individual suppliers, providing significant insight into a buyer's requirements.
As Andy Brown points out, Suppliers can gain considerable business advantage from our engagement programme. By establishing key criteria on which all suppliers are judged gives suppliers the opportunity to evaluate how well they have performed for their customer . This in turn empowers the supplier to maximise their business relationship towards better business advantage.
Profiler also provides a mechanism to ensure supplier conformity to processes designed to minimise potential business risk. It can make major contributions to reducing and managing risk that may arise out of areas such as corporate governance, which includes issues like corporate social responsibility and regulatory compliance amongst others.
"The end result introduces new models of working that raise the competitive edge by helping to increase sales, deliver a better quality service with reduced costs and even access previously untapped sources of revenue generation.
And buyers can finally realise the true capability of their supply chain.
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