Level up your procurement approach

It goes without saying that the past few years have been turbulent for supply chains. We’ve been grappling with frequent and rapid changes, shifting customer demands and increasing costs. For many industries, managing highly specialist operations can be complicated, resulting in siloes of data across platforms and partners, limited visibility and reduced resilience.

 

Technology is the solution to shifting your procurement from an activity to a capability that is continuous, objective and accurate. The result? You find the perfect match, every time, to meet your business goals.

 

Why are we accepting slow, manual procurement?

 

For many, procurement exercises last months, drain resources and don’t always result in impactful savings given the level of input required.

 

It’s been proven that data is both the problem and the answer. The reality is that most of us aren’t able to access the data required, or it’s highly time-consuming. Before you can even start a procurement exercise, you need to gather data for months. Once this arduous task is completed, you can still only focus on high-level analysis, perhaps reviewing the top 10 providers. We all know this is frustrating for those of us working in supply chains – we need data to optimise operations, but we’re not able to access it in the right way to make it work for the business.

 

Without the data to analyse service levels, prices and emissions, you can’t effectively make comparisons to ensure you have the best fit. And it’s not just about decision-making – data also has a significant impact on visibility. Not knowing where goods are and if they’ve been moved in the way they need to be can affect your ability to know whether your service providers are keeping to their agreements and delivering on agreed lanes and routes.

 

In fact, our data shows that many companies have more than 80 per cent of their annual spend going to lanes that were unknown to them and not covered by their contracts, agreements or rate cards. We even found one company that had 12.5 per cent of their total orders affected in this way. Without visibility over this, you run a high risk of being less efficient, less resilient and less profitable.

 

It can’t be that hard to get the right data… right?

 

Wrong. Getting access to carrier data across a company’s network, be it parcel, freight or speciality carriers, can be extremely difficult, often resulting in the need to pit carriers against each other transactionally at tender. This can be tedious and damage carrier relationships over time.

 

When approaching procurement exercises, you want as much information in front of you as possible. Without full visibility, you cannot be expected to have a clear understanding of how your supply chain can be improved and optimised.

 

With a data-driven, resilient supply chain, you can better balance performance and cost. You can identify opportunities where optimisation can be made, improving profitability and quality outcomes in the shortest possible time without risking relationships.

 

How can you achieve this?

 

The 7bridges platform enables you to make procurement a capability rather than an annual, bi-annual or even less frequent activity. We give you the tools to negotiate better and make the process more collaborative for all parties involved. Say goodbye to data gaps and guessing games, and say hello to accurate data you can use to optimise your supply chain for efficiency and spending.

 

Our platform helps you in procurement negotiations by arming you with granular demand and rate card data, which can help your service providers understand your requirements and de-risk profit and loss, providing accurate and relevant rate cards and agreements. During the negotiation phases, we also give you the ability to simulate what these new proposed rates include and how they could impact your supply chain and wider business.

 

In the 7bridges’ platform, you’ll make strategic decisions that are tailored to your business needs. Enter a world of untapped potential and new opportunities, with access to service providers you haven’t even met yet.

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Turn your supply chain into a competitive advantage in 2024. Visit the7bridges.com to find out more. 

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by Philip Ashton, CEO and Co-Founder, 7bridges