Strategic Sourcing: Emerging Practices & Supplier Discovery and Visibility Groups Launched

Social networking has redefined how we interact and do business.

Nowhere has this been more evident than in the way associations and information sources are attempting to transform themselves into real-time, globally connected intelligence providers.

It is an important step as professionals are looking for a collaborative forum that extends beyond the mere provision of data, but instead provides context through an interactive dialogue with other professionals.

Within a matter of hours of posting an article I wrote titled The Web 2.0 Association I received more than 20 comments expressing similar opinions to the one I will share with you below:

Where it once did, the value gained from the traditional association model can no longer compete for my attention.  I need to collaborate bigger, faster, stronger – and at my convenience.

Information, Insight, Intelligence is a real-time collaborative process that has been fueled by the growth of social networks and the specialty groups that operate within their platforms.

It is no wonder that an ever increasing number of companies like Zycus have chosen to establish groups within the social networking world.  Groups which facilitate the kind of one-to-one, and one-to-many interactions that enable members to obtain, filter and ultimately gain the insight that impacts and enhances their capabilities to meet the demands of the increasingly complex world of global supply chains.

Extending their Knowledge Network that was first introduced through the Spend Intelligence Resource Group on LinkedIn, Zycus has just launched the Strategic Sourcing: Emerging Practices & Supplier Discovery and Visibility Groups.

While there is no cost to join either LinkedIn or the actual Groups, the value that will be delivered will provide members with a global perspective of the emerging practices and trends that are reshaping procurement and the supply chain world as a whole.

Below you will find a brief outline of the objectives for each group, highlighting the key areas upon which the membership will focus.

You should also note that we will be scheduling two on-air panel discussions on the PI Window on Business Show similar to the recent segment titled “Spend Analysis versus Spend Intelligence: More Than a Semantical Difference.”

These live broadcasts on Strategic Sourcing and Supplier Discovery will provide you with an opportunity to both listen and call in to our panel of international experts.

Strategic Sourcing: Emerging Practices

Traditional manual sourcing processes have been a constant challenge for strategic sourcing organizations. Typically, manual RFx (RFP, RFQ, RFI) processes have been cumbersome, time consuming and labor intensive. Every new sourcing event is characterized by its own inefficiencies; creation of RFx in excel/word documents with zero or minimal collaboration, receipt of supplier responses in multiple diverse formats, tedious consolidation of supplier responses in an user friendly format, manual scoring and ranking of the suppliers, complex excel based analysis, constraints on scenarios.

Strategic Sourcing processes are lengthy and tedious to the point that sourcing professionals often tend to invite a small, known group of suppliers to bid for business.  This leads to increased costs and diminished service levels.

The purpose of this group is to identify, understand and then resolve the obstacles to effective and efficient strategic sourcing practices.

Supplier Discovery and Visibility Groups

Supply Discovery includes an expanding set of parameters focusing on key ares including supplier financial viability, legislative and practice compliance, workforce education and competency and output capability.

In a global economy, especially during an economic downturn, this issues take on even greater importance.

Understanding how to effectively create and manage an effective Supplier Discovery Program which encompasses all of the key elements of making sound business decisions is the focus of this group.

Remember to join by simply clicking on the Group logo or name.