You make dozens of decisions every day based on data. You try new restaurants because you can easily find information and read reviews about them. You buy a car for your family because you can quickly access performance metrics and compare them to other options. You choose a babysitter because they are CPR-certified, and you want to ensure your children are safe in their care.
Now imagine if you made all those decisions based on poor intel or no intel at all? Unfortunately, that is a common challenge faced by many procurement and sourcing professionals. Too often, our industry is left making decisions based on insufficient supplier data that leaves them unable to be strategic when disruptions strike.
The worst part is that these teams may not even realize they are working with poor data.
In order to combat the “bad data problem”, you need to be honest with yourself about the current state of your procurement processes, examine the data you’re currently working with, and then make changes where necessary. Luckily, we’re here to help.
In this blog, we’ll:
- See where your peers feel they stand within their data landscape
- Determine if you’re falling victim to bad supplier data
- Discover how you can combat bad data and improve your procurement function
Procurement is struggling with bad data
It’s no secret that the procurement industry as a whole has a data problem. Too many teams are working with stale data feeds and lack the necessary insights into that data to make strategic decisions and achieve organizational goals.
In a survey of 200 procurement and sourcing executives at companies with $200 million or more in annual revenue, it was shocking—but not entirely surprising—to see just how few had confidence in their current supplier data.
Numbers don’t lie
When asked, 64% of procurement and sourcing professionals recognize that accurate and up-to-date supplier data allows them to quickly source materials during a crisis. You’d think that this would mean they are making significant investments to improve their access to stronger, more accurate data. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.
Only 18% felt certain that they are receiving up-to-date supplier information, leaving 82% less than completely confident that their supplier data is accurate. This has led many teams to experience the costly consequences of sourcing with bad data.
Here’s the thing: many industry professionals don’t realize they are working with poor supplier data until it’s too late.
The signs of bad supplier data
In order to work toward accessing better, more dynamic supplier data, you have to be aware of the fact that you’re working with bad data in the first place. Below are just a few of the common signs that your procurement team is in need of a data overhaul.
Look at that list and be honest with yourself: how many of those items apply to your current processes? Whether it’s just a few or the entire list, you’re not alone. A shocking 77% of sourcing and procurement leaders are very or extremely concerned their company’s supplier intelligence hasn’t improved since the start of COVID-19.
In fact, many procurement professionals have admitted they lack the strong supplier intelligence needed to quickly source suppliers and have suffered a number of consequences including:
- Delays in project timelines (56%)
- Exceeding project budgets (50%)
- Failing to meet demand (43%)
How do I get better supplier data?
With the current challenges procurement faces in meeting demands and remaining agile in the face of disruption, all signs point to the need for better supplier data and a strong data foundation—but how is the industry supposed to achieve that? You essentially have two options for cleaning up your supplier data.
Manual methods that take time
In the current methodology of data gathering and management, you can follow a rigorous manual process to ensure your supplier data stays up-to-date and accurate.
Begin by performing a health check of your data and use analytics tools to get a good idea of the scope of this undertaking. From there, you’ll need to integrate tools and solutions that enable more efficient processes around tracking users, suppliers, diversity spend, invoices, and more.
Next, take time to clean up and fill in inaccurate or missing fields within supplier records. Plan to spend a lot of employee hours doing this or shell out upwards of several hundreds of thousands of dollars to have this done by a third party. After this is complete, determine a process for how your team—or another third-party vendor—is going to continuously find, add, and update external data.
Lastly, pour yourself another large cup of coffee because you’re about to start this process all over again tomorrow because someone manually entered new information somewhere else in the system. Try not to scream out of frustration that all your effort was in vain.
You can frustrate yourself and your team using the above tactic…or you can let a supplier data foundation do the work for you.
A better way through machine learning & AI
As a solution to the supplier data problem, TealBook’s Supplier Data Platform is a supplier data foundation that optimizes your existing procurement technologies, workflows and processes, enabling you to maximize the investments you’ve made in your suppliers, people, and Source-to-Settle and ERP tools.
Using AI, our Supplier Data Platform enables organizations to evolve their supplier data and advance procurement ahead of today’s fast-paced, highly-volatile business environment.
We collect, verify, and enrich your supplier data in bulk or in real time across data lakes, existing applications, and systems (think: Source-to-settle solutions, SRM platforms, and ERPs).
Once that’s complete, any process and technology that relies on up-to-date supplier data will become inherently more efficient and effective. You would now have a single source of truth for supplier data for all relevant systems to pull from.
Setting the stage for success
The path to empowering procurement with reliable supplier data does not have to be arduous. By leveraging advanced technologies such as AI and a comprehensive Supplier Data Platform, organizations can ensure they have access to accurate, up-to-date supplier information, setting the stage for strategic decision-making and operational success. It’s time to move beyond the limitations of bad data and unlock the full potential of your procurement processes.
