Supply Excellence — Live from LIVE: Suppliers are not the enemy

Live from LIVE: Suppliers are not the enemy

May 13th, 2008 · by Justin Fogarty · No Comments · AribaLIVE, best practices, events, sourcing, supply management

One theme that I’ve seen several presenters stress is the importance of building and maintaining good relationships with suppliers. In the words of IACCM President Tim Cummins, you “must be [your suppliers'] trading partner of choice.”

MetLife’s VP of Global Procurement, Roy Anderson, said having that type of cooperation with their supply base is key to his team innovating in their procurement and sourcing projects. Working with suppliers, they are able to overdeliver to his internal stakeholders, often times anticipating their needs BEFORE they even realized that need exists. (With that kind of performance, it’s no wonder Roy received a Spend Management Excellence Award earlier today).

Chevron’s approach to the issue relies on easy access for their 8,000 suppliers, who like their employees, have a single sign on to their system from anywhere in the world. Oftentimes it’s those little things - like 24/7 access from anywhere on earth - that make or break adoption…and therefore savings associated with a process.

Justin Fogarty is Managing Editor of Supply Excellence and will be covering Ariba LIVE 2008 from Las Vegas this week. You can reach Justin at jfogarty[at]ariba[dot]com if you have any questions or feedback about the event or blog.

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