The provenance of the products we buy is something that consumers are becoming increasingly aware of and motivated by when making purchasing decisions.
Once taken in by labels claiming products are ‘organic’,‘ethically-sourced’ or ‘sustainable’, consumers are now more wary of marketing tactics and they want proof.
Brand loyalty and purchasing decisions are influenced by multiple factors – ethics and responsibility now factor majorly in how people feel about your brand and your products. Palm oil, modern slavery, and human trafficking and carbon footprints – corporate social responsibility is a minefield.
To a certain extent, your business now has no choice but to delve deep into your supply chain to unearth secrets and expose blind spots, therefore increasing transparency. In addition to consumer awareness and achieving a competitive edge, there are increasing legislative considerations that all supply chain managers must take into account. Undertaking due diligence when vetting and selecting suppliers across an increasingly convoluted and globally diverse supply chain is more important and involved than ever.
Supply chain transparency is, therefore, a rapidly increasing priority amongst many procurement departments as organizations everywhere realize the advantages of understanding and publicizing information about their sources and supplier relationships with trading partners and consumers.
Building trust is key
Trust in your business is a critical component of building a loyal base of customers and partnerships. Better visibility into all aspects of your supply chain can drive improvements, and having a handle on exactly what is happening within your supplier base gives you the tools you need to react with speed and agility when problems strike.
In this blog, we outline three ways your business can achieve greater supply chain transparency.
1. First, achieve visibility
In order to share information with the public and trading partners, your business needs to achieve visibility across the entire supply chain. You cannot share data that you do not have. This means that your business needs the capability to accurately track, access and interpret data. Connectivity means data is accessible by all stakeholders at all times, and visibility is the only way to garner control.
Improving your procure-to-pay process can achieve insight and control. A P2P software solution will enable automation of the end-to-end purchasing process and enable complete visibility of your procurement activity.
2. Identify risks and act on them
Visibility isn’t enough. When it comes to transparency, it isn’t the knowledge you have that counts – it’s what you do with it. The step from visibility to transparency is acting on risks and issues unearthed in the analysis process and being open about them. Through making this information public, it naturally ensures that you are doing business in a way you are proud to publicize.
3. Manage and monitor
Performing supplier due-diligence once is not enough. Ongoing monitoring of your supplier base and management of supplier issues is a critical part of achieving supply chain transparency. Your supply chain is a fluid, constantly moving and changing entity, and your role as a procurement professional is to have real-time information. If your data isn’t current, then you can’t be taking full responsibility for the status of supplier relationships. For internal purposes, supplier performance management is critical for business success, and for supply chain transparency it is imperative you know who your suppliers are today, not who they were when their contract was being negotiated.
A shift in attitudes and priorities
Achieving supply chain transparency necessitates a shift in attitudes and recognition of the benefits to your organization in ensuring there are no skeletons hiding within your supply chain. Alongside the benefits of improving processes, stamping out inefficiencies and increasing opportunities for innovation and collaboration, supply chain transparency reduces risk and boosts reputation.
A cloud-based portfolio of software tools can enable your business to achieve full end-to-end visibility and be an essential tool for improving access to insights and corporate accountability.
With an integrated suite of procurement software, you can ensure that all your systems speak to each other in the same language and that all data is normalized and compatible, as well as accessible by all stakeholders in real time. Everyone is dealing with one ubiquitous truth and the potential for confusion or human error is reduced. Issues can be identified quickly and dealt with speedily.
Procureport’s portfolio of best-in-class procurement software can best place your organization en route to achieving the full spectrum supply chain visibility that is required on your path to supply chain transparency. To find out more and to schedule a free demo, contact our expert team.