How Prioritizing Supplier Data Enrichment Can Safeguard Against Supply Chain Disruptions 1110x860
Data Foundation

How Prioritizing Supplier Data Enrichment Can Safeguard Against Supply Chain Disruptions

By Stephany Lapierre

Think back to March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic started dramatically impacting supply chains around the world. There was an almost immediate shortage of various medical supplies, personal protective equipment like disposable masks and gloves, and, in North America, toilet paper.

What were procurement teams to do? They needed supplies for their businesses, but their usual suppliers were out of stock with no idea when product would be available again or had stock. But unusually long shipping times meant massive delays between sourcing and receiving goods.

Procurement teams went to their supplier master lists to try to track down more potential suppliers.

Many hit a wall because they didn’t have a strong foundation of accurate, complete supplier data.

Build a Strong Data Foundation Using Autonomous Data Enrichment

Data enrichment is the process of enhancing your data by combining internal or existing data with quality third-party data to create a complete supplier master of current and potential suppliers. Autonomous data enrichment does this automatically without the need for intense labor from your team to source, clean, and sort the data.

Building a strong data foundation with autonomous data enrichment includes:

  • Combining internal data from all departments
  • Adding data from an authoritative third-party source
  • Expanding parameters for more complete data
  • Removing duplicates and fixing mistakes in existing data
  • Automatically updating data fields to ensure accuracy
  • Creating a single source of truth for your organization

Supplier information changes often and manually keeping track of this information is nearly impossible, which is why innovative, autonomously enriched solutions are the future of master supplier data management.

From Data Enrichment to Emergency Sourcing

When you have a complete vendor master and accurate data to reflect your relationship with each supplier, it becomes that much easier to locate similar suppliers or expand your relationship with a current supplier in the face of an emergency. While it’s doubtful that we’ll experience another supply chain disruption as widespread as we did during the COVID-19 pandemic in our lifetime, this global crisis demonstrated the importance of enriched supplier data to every business in the world. Preparing for the next disruption is on every procurement professional’s mind and putting in place a supplier data enrichment plan is a good place to start.

Data Enrichment Leads to Better Decisions

Enriching your data gives you a big picture view of your suppliers, your customers, and the wider supply chain. Having this total view means you can make informed decisions. Whether you work in procurement, finance, or IT, strategic decisions around processes, relationships, and risk reduce cost and increase profit.

When you build a strong data foundation with data enrichment, you get:

  • Better lead quality
  • Better pricing negotiations
  • Reduced supply chain risk
  • Faster pay to purchase cycles

Data enrichment doesn’t just benefit your team. It also benefits your suppliers by giving them increased exposure of the services they offer. And, when buyers make procurement decisions based on data rather than only looking at who offers the lowest price, everyone wins.

Face the Future with Enriched Supplier Data

Protect your organization against supply chain disruptions by investing in automated supplier data enrichment. Not only will you be enabled to make better decisions and achieve strategic goals with more ease, but you’ll have peace of mind that the next time a global supply disruption hits, you’ll be better prepared to pivot and move forward.

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About the Author

Stephany Lapierre is the Founder and CEO of Tealbook. A lifelong entrepreneur, Stephany is one of SCMA's 100 Influential Women in Canadian Supply Chain and has won many awards for her innovative approach to supplier intelligence. Prior to tealbook, Stephany built a successful procurement consulting firm focused on helping Fortune 500 companies improve strategic sourcing efficiencies. For more than a decade, Stephany was exposed to the costly and inefficient gap between enterprise buyers and suppliers. In 2014, she launched Tealbook to disrupt the business-to-business directory model by building the largest, most robust and trusted B2B network. Her innovative vision is for Tealbook to enable all companies to connect and find one another with more trust in order to drive their business forward.

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