SIG University Certified Supplier Management Professional (CSMP) program graduate Andy Peksa shares what he finds as the most important aspects of a supplier relationship and how they may be able to help you in your role.
Andy Peksa, Senior Buyer-Procurement Ops, T. Rowe Price
SIG University Certified Sourcing Professional (CSP) program graduate Devendra Pathakshares how the focus on Category Management can help your organization grow with his very own with a step by step model.
Category management is one of the areas in which I should focus on my organization.
After the category management session, I understood the importance of category management. A category plan has two main aspects, category analysis, and category planning. However, before starting to work on any category plan, I would like to understand the category maturity. It will give me a real picture of the category and areas where we should be more focused. Once I study the category maturity in terms of spending and contracts, I will then work on the category plan.
Category analysis where I will study the following,
Global industry trends,
Spend analysis
Demand & supply dynamics
Porter’s five forces
Global Industry Trend- This is all about the latest trend in the category across all regions. What is the new commodity which has the highest demand globally and where we have less demand due to technological change or updates?
Spend Analysis- I can say that spend analysis is the heart of category management. It has a major role in developing a sourcing strategy. I will analyze category spending to understand the top 10 sub-categories then the top 10 suppliers and top 10 commodities where we have the highest spending in the category.
Devendra Pathak, Senior Procurement Analyst, CDK Global LLC
SIG University Certified Sourcing Professional (CSP) program graduate Shridhar Kundaram shares his perspective on a four-step sourcing process that can help take your sourcing team to the next level.
Sourcing is a process that involves finding, selecting, evaluating, and managing suppliers for day-to-day and long-term purposes for goods and services needed in the organization/company. Sourcing will succeed if it has executive leadership support, collaboration with stakeholders, robust control of spending and policies, automation, and an approach clearly defined for categories. Sourcing involves four significant steps Assess, Analyze, Execute and Evaluate.
Shridhar Kundaram, Senior Analyst, CDK Global India Pvt Ltd.
SIG University Certified Third-Party Risk Management Professional (C3PRMP) program graduate Kyle Smith discusses the benefits of a strong third-party risk management team and what it can do for your organization.
SIG University Certified Intelligent Automation Professional (CIAP) program graduate Josh Millman discusses how automation processes have helped his organization and what they can do for yours.
Josh Millman, a Jr. Salesforce Administrator, Sourcing Industry Group
SIG University Certified Third-Party Risk Management Professional (C3PRMP) program graduate Jonathan Purdon discusses the vital aspects to add to your risk management framework and the best practices for creating a risk culture.
Jonathan Purdon, Sr. Business Analyst, ATB Financial
SIG University Certified Sourcing Professional (CSP) program graduate Larry Trawick shares how excellent communication is vital in ensuring success and how important it is to incorporate effective change into your sourcing practices.
Larry Trawick, Senior Sourcing Analyst, Polaris Industries
"Without data, you're just another person with an opinion."
Edwards Deming, Statistician
Linda Tuck Chapman, instructor and course designer at SIG University, states that Third-Party Risk Management is a team sport. A team consists of lots of different people with lots of different opinions. These opinions might be based on the various roles and result in other goals they have. They all strive for the same overall target, a managed and their company acceptable risk, but might have a different focus. The risk analyst might be especially eager to analyze the risk deeply, and the buyer might want to focus on a fast decision to close a deal.
So, what can help turn their opinions into a decision? Or help, whoever has the right and the responsibility, help them make a decision? Of course, the answer is a high-quality database that turns opinions into facts. It is essential to ensure a high-quality database, especially in a worldwide program with different risk areas, teams, and global regulatory requirements. High quality, in that case, means (at least) that the data is accurate, that it contains all required data fields, that it has a clear structure, and that it is accessible to all relevant people while still restricting the possibility of editing the database itself (meaning strict controls).
Mona Josten, Senior Consultant, Deloitte Deutschland
SIG University Certified Intelligent Automation Professional (CIAP) program graduate Bob Lutz shares how implementing intelligent process automatation can be beneficial to your business
SIG University Certified Sourcing Professional (CSP) program graduate Sergio Mielnik shares an in-depth understanding of how supplier relationships should be managed and how improving supplier relations at different levels will create successful sourcing engagements.
Throughout the certification, a constant emphasis on supplier relationships and the guidance provided to use these relationships as drivers to successful sourcing engagements. Suppliers are critical drivers of your pricing, delivery, strategy, and forecast. I have engaged suppliers from sole-source, directed, competitive, non-competitive, and management sources. Each situation has been unique, but I have treated all suppliers with the same level of communication and collaboration.
As supply chains get tighter and more competitive, it is essential to keep those communication channels to create a personal approach rather than a solely monetary exchange approach. This does not mean you hand out the keys to your supplier, but if this could happen, you can trust the relationship developed to obtain solutions and drive success.
Managing suppliers at different levels, whether critical or non-critical, is another topic that I found interesting. The relationship between a “ma and pa” shop versus a top-tier conglomerate is not the same. Still, you must strive to find that personal connection with different types of companies, provide fairness in your approach, and understand each supplier’s competitive advantages. I have often found myself waiting in line with top suppliers, which affects our delivery and production schedules.
Sergio Mielnik, Lead Business Risk and Controls Advisor, USAA
What is Important For Me In a Supplier Relationship
SIG University Certified Supplier Management Professional (CSMP) program graduate Andy Peksa shares what he finds as the most important aspects of a supplier relationship and how they may be able to help you in your role.