Suppliers Need Attention, Too…

Mike Donoghue is a member of a multinational information technology corporation where he collaborates on the communications guidelines and customer relationship strategies affecting the interactions with internal and external clients. He has analyzed, defined, designed and overseen processes for various engagements including product usability and customer satisfaction, best practice enterprise standardization, relationship/branding structures, and distribution effectiveness and direction. He has also established corporate library solutions to provide frameworks for sales, marketing, training, and support divisions.

  Communications Management   CRM   Procurement Management   Stakeholder Management   Talent Management  

We speak of the importance of relationships when it comes to having a thriving enterprise. As we branch ourselves out even further to build and reinforce our customer connections and work to make better communications channels within our organizations, we also need to extend ourselves and build similar collaborative relationships with our suppliers.

The use of supplier relationship management (SRM) can be considered symbiotic in nature, since the mutually beneficial aspects of having such a two-way dependent/supportive partnership can make each party’s success tied to the other’s. If there is value in what both sides provide for the other in the relationship, then there likewise are assumptions regarding how the affiliation is to progress--including that it will be a long one unless circumstances change radically. The ideal connection reinforces loyalty, savings and reduction of effort. Having a relationship go sour, however, can be an ever-present possibility.

Durable for the Duration
To help ensure a long and strong association, the partnership between supplier and customer needs to be established as one of investment. A customer may be invested by virtue of the purchases it makes with a supplier, but a supplier needs to exhibit that they are interested in maintaining a regular and fair-priced supply of goods and services--regardless of moments of …

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