What is Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) and why is SRM Important

Supply Chain Management

Supplier relationship management (SRM) is the systematic approach to evaluating vendors that supply goods, materials and services to an organization, determining each supplier’s contribution to success and developing strategies to improve their performance. What is known as the “SRM discipline” helps to determine the value each supplier provides – and which ones are most critical to business continuity and performance – while also enabling management teams to cultivate better relationships with suppliers based on each supplier’s importance.

Gainfront Fun Fact: SRM is often used by supply chain professionals who deal with suppliers on a regular, ongoing basis in areas such as operations, project management and procurement – things we here at Gainfront know a lot about.

So why is SRM important?

A long-term relationship between an organization and its suppliers allows for the free flow of feedback and ideas. Over the course of time, this will yield an effective, more streamlined supply chain that will have a positive impact on costs and customer service.   Historic data can also be used to measure all areas of SRM and track trends.  The bottom line is that SRM can help businesses assist their suppliers with regard to efficiency enhancement if there are any performance gaps – indeed, it is important to understand that in today’s world, a supplier’s performance plays a vital role when it comes to the success of a company.

Let’s now take a look at the various working aspects of SRM, and how Gainfront responds to them.

  • 1 -Performance Management Supplier relationship and performance management aims to build a healthy supplier ecosystem able to answer the immediate needs of a company; in turn, a good supplier ecosystem will be able to support the company’s future business strategies by offering aligned innovative services or proposing proactive innovation or optimization opportunities to the organization.
  • 2 – Sustainability Management Sustainable SRM has become crucial in modern companies’ sustainability efforts; a firm’s corporate image, in terms of economical, environmental and social behavior, heavily depends on its supply chain and the sustainability performance of each and every chain link – including suppliers and sub-suppliers.
  • 3 – Compliance Management This describes the ongoing process of monitoring and assessing systems to ensure they comply with industry and security standards, in addition to corporate and regulatory policies and requirements.
  • 4 – RFx Management RFx is a common acronym used in the procurement landscape, and it captures all references to “Request for Proposal (RFP),” “Request for Information (RFI),” “Request for Quote (RFQ)” and “Request for Bid (RFB).” Understanding the nuances that distinguish these different types of requests helps management teams get what they need a little faster and more easily.

The Gainfront Approach

Procurement and sourcing teams need a robust SRM process, and that’s where we come in. Gainfront helps companies achieve their goals while enhancing their process through our SRM platform, allowing teams to effectively manage cost reductions and cost impacted by economics, improve contribution margin, automate approval processes for supplier on-boarding/registration and more.

To learn more, visit our website at www.gainfront.com.

Introduction
So why is SRM important?
Let’s now take a look at the various working aspects of SRM, and how Gainfront responds to them.
The Gainfront Approach

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