PROACTIS - Warning: A Comprehensive Supplier Management Capability is Quickly Becoming Mandatory

PROACTIS, a global Spend Control and eProcurement solution provider, today announced growing indications that organisations in most private, not-for-profit and public sector organisations are recognising the imperative need to consistently maintain accurate, up to date information for their entire supplier base.

They are seeing that, in addition to needing supplier information to support purchasing and accounts payable activities, it is critical to maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements and effectively managing risk associated with supplier non-performance and non-compliance. Further, Proactis is seeing an increasing number of organisations adopting Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) software solutions as the most cost-effective way to enable the capabilities they need.

Supply Chain Becoming a Focus for Regulatory Compliance

One example of a growing range of regulatory compliance requirements is the "Transparency in Supply Chains” clause in the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015.

In practical terms, compliance with this act and others like it requires companies to implement a methodical approach to ensuring their entire supplier base is also in compliance with the act. With a supplier base of any significant size, that requires a robust, largely automated series of integrated capabilities to:

• Collect and maintain accurate and complete information for every supplier
• Gain a thorough qualification of each supplier’s capabilities, certifications, policies and procedures
• Monitor all of the possible changes, required actions and actual performance KPIs for each supplier

A comprehensive supplier management process has many benefits to the procurement process, of course, in that it enables the organisation to be more effective in supplier selections and appraisals, monitor changes to suppliers and screen suppliers against sanction lists for financial compliance etc. And greatly streamlines all kinds of supplier interaction and commerce. But it is increasingly becoming a necessary component of regulatory compliance as well.

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) Technology Becoming a Priority

The effect of this trend is clear – a growing number of organisations are making deployment of a Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) software solution a priority.

"Whether they refer to it as Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) or Supplier Information Management (SIM), many organisations are recognising that a methodical, comprehensive approach to supplier interaction and monitoring is becoming virtually mandatory,” said Simon Dadswell, Group Marketing Director at PROACTIS. "I would add that those organisations that have already deployed PROACTIS SRM tend to have high levels of satisfaction. It is generally seen as a tool that delivers results and supports Procurement’s goals for risk reduction, improved supplier relationships and improved supplier communication. We think formal, software-assisted SRM will become an almost universal part the Procurement landscape over the next few years.”

About PROACTIS

PROACTIS is a global Spend Control and eProcurement solution provider. Hundreds of organisations use PROACTIS software and services for procurement, purchase-to-pay and accounts payable processes to deliver greater bottom-line value.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161123005353/en/