The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare widespread problems with supplier information on a global scale. While many procurement leaders had initially vowed to invest in supply chain resiliency, almost a year later, procurement leaders are still grappling with a cascade of issues surrounding poor supplier information. In fact, the 2021 Supplier Information Study, commissioned by supplier intelligence platform, Tealbook, revealed that 72% of procurement leaders are very concerned that their supplier intelligence has still not improved to crisis-proof supply chains.
“COVID-19 was a wake-up call to organizations around the world. Without a solid data foundation in place, the next big disruption could be even more disastrous for supply chains,” said Stephany Lapierre, CEO of #. “Access to up-to-date supplier data will afford companies the agility necessary to weather future disruptions, but also to make the most of supplier innovations in a rapidly evolving landscape.”
More information on the survey can be accessed here.
Watch Now: Why reliable supplier intelligence matter? with Stephany Lapierre (CEO of Tealbook) and Jim Bureau (CEO of JAGGAER)
The survey confirmed that agility was of utmost importance to procurement organizations, with 96% of procurement professionals saying that agility is even more important than cost savings for their companies’ bottom line. However, at a time when organizations need the ability to pivot and respond to disruptions, 57% of procurement leaders reported that they are still relying on antiquated, manual data entry; compounding the time and resources to update supplier information. Leaders also cited secondary concerns about their lack of a data foundation, including missing out on innovation (30%), falling behind the competition (25%) and not being able to determine ROI (22%). This inability to be agile is compounded by the cost of adding a single supplier record, which procurement leaders estimated to be $2431.
Perhaps most alarmingly, a third of procurement leaders (33%) admit they have no way of knowing how much a supplier record costs.
Listen: Why reliable supplier data matters?
In short, there are a staggering number of critical issues that organizations are facing as a result of inadequate supplier data. Not only did 41% of procurement leaders find their supplier data inadequate during the COVID-19 pandemic, a concerning 26% found it mostly or completely inadequate, reflecting a data foundation that’s nowhere near strong enough to stand up to current or future supply chain disruptions.
The Tealbook Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research among 250 Procurement and Sourcing Executives director-level or above at companies with $200 million or more in annual revenue.
More information on the survey can be accessed here.
