Around the world, new regulations about the collection and usage of personal data are changing workflows for major organizations. Following the passage of legislation like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), businesses are auditing privacy practices and creating much stricter guidelines when they select partners and vendors.
With tighter regulations about the way consumer data is collected and used, organizations have to increase scrutiny for every party that has access to personal data. The entire system is only as secure as the weakest part, so it’s more important than ever to vet external parties and maintain visibility into their data practices. Here are eight vital steps organizations can take to ensure that vendors aren’t jeopardizing data privacy compliance.
Step 1: Audit Your Existing Data Privacy System
Before you do anything else, examine what’s currently in place to understand the changes that need to be made to maintain compliance with new regulations. You want to avoid reinventing the wheel and make adjustments without slowing down the business or adding risks.
After that self-examination, conduct the same check on your network of vendors. It’s imperative that you have a 360-degree understanding of vendors’ business practices and overall reliability before entering or continuing business relationships.
The Relationship Manager is the first line of organizational defense, tasked with ownership of relationships and risks. The overall accountability of these risks, the performance and the cost management for the supplier through the life of the relationship are also key focus points.
I will discuss how the Relationship Manager (RM) functions as the nucleus of Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) activities for a supplier with the following points.
Provides Information for Reviews and Decides on Risk Acceptance for a Third Party
It is understood that the liability of our third parties is ultimately ours. This means that the liability of the third parties of our third parties (i.e., our subcontractors) also becomes ours. An effective framework in which risk is indicated and mitigated is essential for our suppliers and subcontractors.
In such a framework, exit strategies and termination processes are set in place for cases in which the risk cannot be mitigated or when a contract needs to be terminated. These are defined by the Relationship Manager, who provides information on the supplier and finds out if there are subcontractors involved. Responses provided will trigger due diligence risk areas for information from the supplier.
Once the relationship is fully defined and risks are highlighted, it is the responsibility of the Relationship Manager to determine whether or not to accept the risk and contract with the supplier.
This month, we continue with the monthly CPO and Executive Virtual Series, welcome a new round of students into the virtual classroom, and have exciting industry research and webinars to keep you engaged and up to date.
August CPO & Executive Virtual Series
Senior executives are invited to join SIG and Scout RFP, a Workday Company, for an interactive event on August 12 from 1 pm to 3 pm ET. The format is open mic, collaborative and topic will focus on shifting from reactive to proactive as we move into the second half of 2020. The featured speaker is Karen Coker, Head of VMO & Strategic Sourcing at University Federal Credit Union.
To join this event, RSVP on our website. There is a cap on attendance to keep the conversation flowing and to build connections with other buy-side industry executives.
An area that has seen an uptick in hiring amid record unemployment are jobs in sourcing, procurement and supply chain management, but the skill sets required for these positions are now more specialized than they were pre-COVID-19.
With more people working from home, SIG University is offering an additional semester to help sourcing, procurement, risk and supply chain professionals earn an industry certification. Certification programs are a cost-effective alternative to lengthy degree programs, especially in an economic recession.
Procurement leader Canda Rozier and senior sourcing veteran Lawrence Kane recently joined the Sourcing Industry Landscape Podcast to discuss the new age of intelligent automation, based on what they learned in SIG University’s Certified Intelligent Automation Professional (CIAP) program. They outline how intelligent automation can be a powerful tool to promote an organization’s growth and prosperity, and how – when implemented correctly – it can be targeted to improve areas holding back the enterprise.
What is a simple definition of intelligent automation?
Canda Rozier: I think intelligent automation is a fully holistic approach for business transformation that lets companies start to analyze data, provide analytics on the data and deliver digital solutions to optimize business processes and tasks. I think one of the things that has really struck me as I've learned more about and become engaged with intelligent automation is that it's as important to understand what it's not as to understand what it is.
A lot of intelligent automation projects fail or don’t provide results – why?
Lawrence Kane: It's not a panacea, and it really needs to be implemented systemically because it's a program. It shouldn't be a one-off, because you have to look at your tools and processes and how the enterprise creates value and understand where are the places that you want to go and automate. Where are the places you want to stop doing things, where are the areas that you need to change doing something, right?
Today, procurement must not just find ongoing opportunities to reduce cost, but also mitigate risk, improve supplier performance, improve cash management, unlock innovation, support CSR objectives and a long list of other goals. Those increasingly include ensuring agility in the face of Covid-19 and the next crisis. As the list of procurement’s objectives continues to expand, continuous improvement is essential. It is not just the number of goals but their broad scope that make transformation a must, and a lengthy journey. Success requires mapping the right path, continuously tracking progress and course-correcting along the way.
As renowned management guru Peter Drucker famously said, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Unfortunately, all too often, procurement leaders can’t measure everything they need to or measure it in the right way. When looking at any challenge, it often helps to investigate how the very best operate and what distinguishes them from the rest. So Ivalua partnered with Forrester to take a broad look at Effective Procurement Performance Measurement across over 400 organizations globally. The study showed a marked difference between the performance of the most advanced procurement teams and the rest (categorized as either beginners or intermediates), and similarly noticeable differences in measurement.
The Best Measure More
On average, procurement teams that are most advanced measure roughly 50% more KPIs than beginners (and around 30% more than intermediates). They don’t just measure more, their performance reviews and bonuses are tied to those KPIs.
“Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good.” – Elizabeth Edwards
When I was a kid, we never said the word resilience, but we did use the word tough. Being tough is just what we need right now; toughness is our ability to spring back, even when the world around us crumbles (think COVID-19). Our resiliency grows every time we flex – just like a muscle in our body. Developing a resilient procurement team likely means you are “starting over” – or creating a fresh start in some areas of your procurement ecosystem. If you’re feeling stuck or unsure where to start, you aren’t alone. Below are five ways that Procurement can help improve business resiliency:
SIG University Certified Sourcing Professional (CSP) program graduate Silver Chaudry discusses how category management takes sourcing initiatives out of silos to create shared objectives and continuous processes across business units that drive efficiency.
Category management is a strategic and collaborative approach to procurement involving the segmentation of related goods and services to proactively manage and consolidate spend, track savings and identify areas of improvement. Category management was first developed in the 1980s, evolving from strategic sourcing but differing as it is an end to end process where the analysis is continuously refreshed to keep up with changing market trends. (Strategic sourcing was typically reactive in nature, conducted for immediate requirements and taking place as a one-time event.) Category management also places emphasis on supplier development, where category managers work closely with suppliers to foster innovation and achieve superior outcomes.
COVID-19 has created a ripple effect of disruption through supply chains across the world, causing many companies to assess their weak spots and reevaluate their operations to ensure future resiliency and continuity.
Rebounding from the current crisis with more solid resilience is itself creating immense value. Forward-thinking companies are looking a step further, perhaps with the climate crisis clearly in view. They are leveraging sustainability and purpose – with an upside creating long-term value across a wide range of business levers, from competitive differentiation, grow sales revenue, supplier innovation to support future circular business models, talent recruitment and retention.
Procurement’s Key Role in Turning Purpose into Profit
With momentum growing toward stakeholder capitalism, businesses have made a greater commitment to sustainable purpose through reducing emissions of greenhouse gas, limiting plastic use, providing decent working conditions and more. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has brought risk mitigation and resiliency top-of-mind – and we’re seeing clear proof points that sustainable procurement is the answer.
It’s been a long year and we’re only halfway through it. Many of us have scrapped our plans, both personally and professionally, retooled our strategies and reprioritized our resources. It’s frustrating to make drastic changes with no clear forecast on the horizon, but growth comes from being uncomfortable and taking risks. Instead of dwelling on what could have been, let's take a look at what’s to come.
Summit Presentation Anthology
Following each Summit, we release our Summit Presentation Anthology that offers a snapshot of each presentation along with the presenter’s contact information. The inaugural Spring Procurement Technology Summit was supposed to be an in-person event in April, but the global pandemic upended our plans and we had to pivot our strategy to go digital.
While we missed catching up with old friends and making new connections at the Summit, we welcomed over 1,100 delegates from all over the world to our digital platform. The best part? Every single session is recorded! Not only can you get the presentation decks, but you can watch any sessions you missed or revisit sessions to dive deeper in the subject matter. The Anthology is only available to SIG members. If you’re not a member and want to join, reach out to us.
COVID-19 Resources for Procurement, Sourcing and Workforce Management
When we switched our spring Summit from in-person to virtual due to the global pandemic, many Summit presenters also changed their topic given the current events. What we are experiencing now is historical on many fronts, not the least of which is the role of procurement in a global emergency.
SIG is always asking our event attendees, current and future members, and readers about their current issues and concerns. I have been tracking and analyzing their responses for almost 10 years now. While cost savings and value-add remain consistent and strong priorities, there's no doubt many are very concerned about meeting pandemic-related needs.
We are blessed to have a community of thought leaders and generous, experienced professionals who are willing to share their experiences and describe their wins.
We offer the following resources in your quest for COVID-19 related items specific to sourcing, procurement, and workforce management. SIG members can continue to search for related articles here.
In the resources listed here, you can learn how to set up crow's nest and a war chest, hear how Sprint/T-Mobile are managing the crisis using AI for their spend analytics, specific procurement best practices for today's market, how technology enhances continuity in your workforce and what happens if and when this is "all over." Plus, so much more.
Covid-19 has transformed from a short-term hiccup to a perfect storm at an unprecedented pace. It is normal to feel disoriented and to feel like you're running in eight directions at once.
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8 Steps to Manage Vendor Data Privacy Compliance
Around the world, new regulations about the collection and usage of personal data are changing workflows for major organizations. Following the passage of legislation like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), businesses are auditing privacy practices and creating much stricter guidelines when they select partners and vendors.
With tighter regulations about the way consumer data is collected and used, organizations have to increase scrutiny for every party that has access to personal data. The entire system is only as secure as the weakest part, so it’s more important than ever to vet external parties and maintain visibility into their data practices. Here are eight vital steps organizations can take to ensure that vendors aren’t jeopardizing data privacy compliance.
Step 1: Audit Your Existing Data Privacy System
Before you do anything else, examine what’s currently in place to understand the changes that need to be made to maintain compliance with new regulations. You want to avoid reinventing the wheel and make adjustments without slowing down the business or adding risks.
After that self-examination, conduct the same check on your network of vendors. It’s imperative that you have a 360-degree understanding of vendors’ business practices and overall reliability before entering or continuing business relationships.