Good e-procurement supplier data management programs should be complex!
Data models incorporated into effective e-procurement supplier data management programs should be extremely complex. This is why they are much more than a simple online directory. In fact, properly designed high quality supplier databases should be able to provide much of the data you might find in the opening pages of a detailed Request for Information or RFI.
A simple query of this data such as, “show me all companies within a 500 mile radius of the home office zip code that provide this defined set of products and that meet the following safety certifications”, should produce an accurate, verified list of supplier options that benefit the buyer and streamline the procurement process. Additional queries are typically used to summarize additional information related to defining the potential suppliers identified. Providing a list of attributes such as business description, sales volume, years in business, corporate officers, product performance ranges, etc. is the logical next step. The drill down through available information continues from here as the results provided become more refined with each query. As you can recognize, effective supplier data management involves the retrieval of valuable information from a data source that includes a substantial number of records and classifies the results according to the parameters defined.
Where does your data come from and how often do you choose a new source of supply provided by this data.
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