Business Challenge Key Features Business Benefits
SupplierSoft provides a comprehensive on-Demand Supplier risk manage solution that can help companies analyze, mitigate and monitor supplier risks, providing 360 degree visibility across various functional departments. Ease-of-use, global performance and multi-lingual capabilities ensures rapid supplier adoption across all geographies. The key features of this solution include:
- Configurable risk profile: Supplier profile can be configured to identify various risk factors such as financial information, geo-political location, business criticality factors (such as direct versus indirect procurement or product lines involved), quality, on-time delivery, single versus multiple sources, supplier spend, supplier certifications, EHS, supplier risk surveys, audit findings and existing mitigation strategies. Weights can be assigned to various components of risk.
- Configurable risk surveys without supplier login: You can define a configurable risk survey to track any risk supplier risk information such as shutdowns, reduced work hours, layoffs, mergers and acquisitions. A configurable scoring mechanism enables you to score suppliers based upon their responses. You can mass e-mail a configurable risk assessment survey to suppliers with a link in an e-mail. Suppliers click on the link and provide you the information without logging into the system, reducing the need for supplier training. The system automatically tracks which suppliers have responded and provides comprehensive scoring and reporting capability on the collected data. See Survey Features for more information.
- Configurable risk metrics: Components of risk profile can be rolled-up to provide one or more configurable quantitative supplier risk metrics which can then be used to prioritize risk mitigation strategies. Financial risk metrics such as Altman Z-score and Ohlson O-score can be tracked.
- Supplier self-service with expiration driven reminders: Through
a supplier portal, suppliers maintain their own risk profile, freeing
up risk managers to focus on risk mitigation. Expiration driven
reminders ensure that that information does not become obsolete and
stays up-to-date. - Risk based triggers: Based on real-time risk metrics, system can be configured to automatically drive workflows and events. For example, if supplier risk goes above 6 (on a 1-10 scale), notify the supplier manager and trigger a mitigation workflow.
- Supplier corrective action management:
This add-on module is fully integrated and enables companies to drive
corrective and preventive actions to timely closure, resulting in
reduced supplier risk. - Certification management: Through self-service, suppliers provide certification data such as quality, insurance, environmental, diversity and occupational safety. Expiration driven updates ensures that certifications stays accurate.
- Integration with third-party sources: Supplier profile can be validated and complemented with risk data from third party sources such as D&B.
- Mitigation management: Best practice mitigation strategies and processes can be defined based on risk profile (such as strategic versus non-strategic, single source versus multiple sources). For example, the system can automatically trigger a workflow to ensure that second source is identified for strategic supplier that is single source.
- Supplier NDAs: To ensure IP protection, Supplier NDAs can be attached to supplier profile. Expiration driven updates ensures that these critical documents are kept up-to date.
- Configurable dashboards and reports: Configurable risk management dashboards and reports that can be created with a few mouse clicks, enabling business users to proactively identify supplier risk by sifting through supplier risk data – all without IT involvement
- Contact management: Accurate contact information is the foundation of risk management. Contact is validated frequently through expiration driven reminders. The system automatically identifies bounced e-mails.
- Integrated project management: Supplier facing projects that involve tens or hundreds of suppliers (such as a risk assessment initiative) can be managed. Project dashboards provide project managers with real-time visibility into project status.
- Outlook/Notes integration: Full integration with Outlook/Notes ensures that desk top is always in sync with the system. Entire communication history can be searched through, providing visibility into past interactions.
- Integrated document management and search: Documents and notes can be attached to supplier specific information. Documents common across all suppliers such as quality and EHS policies can be shared with the suppliers. Integrated searched enables quick access to information.
- Risk based supplier audits: This add-on module is fully integrated and enables definition and management of any audit such as quality, EHS or financial audits. The system supports supplier self-audits, audits by your auditors and third party audits, enabling three way collaboration.
- Ease of use: A Web 2.0 user interface eases supplier adoption.
- Global performance: The system has superb performance across all geographies for global suppliers.
- Multi-lingual: The system is enabled for translation in any language and can be easily translated into any language, improving supplier adoption.