Individual supplier work in the purchasing department's strategy

The future of purchasing and supplier management departments will depend on their ability to deliver tangible value to businesses. The ongoing industrial revolution is set to deliver greater efficiency, innovation, higher levels of customer service and the best possible match to specific customer needs, ultimately improving the company's bottom line and level of competitiveness.

The consensus view among purchasing managers and employees is that companies will need to focus on developing strategic partnerships with suppliers. One of the most effective activities in this area is individual working with suppliers. Its high effectiveness means that, according to research by Oxford Economics, up to 46 per cent of purchasing managers intend to focus on this element of their daily work.

IT system a key element of the new strategy

Paradoxically, one of the most important steps in the implementation of individual, strategic cooperation with suppliers is to implementation of an IT system in the purchasing department. In the same survey, employees responsible for supplier relationship management indicated that as much as 55 per cent of their time is spent on administrative tasks.

Shifting the burden to strategic tasks means freeing up staff time. This is only possible by implementing technological solutions that streamline repetitive daily tasks. Modern IT systems allow the overall automation of administrative tasks. They also reduce employee involvement in the area of analysis and reporting. The most advanced applications, using artificial intelligence, also make it possible to eliminate the human factor from simple decision-making processes.

In summary - IT systems do not make employees unnecessary. On the contrary - thanks to IT solutions, they can focus on tasks that bring more value to companies, such as working individually with suppliers, business negotiations or developing relationships. The company's own supply chain management system, ESSA, is such a tool. ESSA [Eveneum Strategic Sourcing Application]is a solution that creates a collaborative environment with suppliers, enabling them to identify and exploit their innovations to increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs, ultimately increasing the competitiveness of the products or services offered. ESSA is a complete environment for managing supplier relationships. Within this framework, the purchasing, logistics, quality and design departments can coherently and transparently create a strategy for working with suppliers. Would you like to find out more about ESSA and how it can improve productivity and efficiency in your purchasing department? We invite you to contact.