Today, companies want to be sure that their chain runs smoothly,
profitably, and professionally and online B2B communities can help you
ensure that happens. How? You can share information that helps you
make the right business decisions. Sharing business intelligence is a
great way to do business and results in a symbiotic relationship with
peers and competitors in your industry.
There are a lot of potential links in a supply chain and effective supply chain management requires that people involved in overseeing that supply chain make the right decisions. The wrong decisions can be costly and make business operations slow to a crawl. This exposes companies to loss both from a profit perspective and from the perspective of market share and competitiveness as well.
Today, companies want to be sure that their chain runs smoothly, profitably, and professionally and online B2B communities can help you ensure that happens. How? You can share information that helps you make the right business decisions. Sharing business intelligence is a great way to do business and results in a symbiotic relationship with peers and competitors in your industry.
Improve your supply chain
Supply chain management consists of many different areas. Wouldn't a knowledge base of information and a place to share ideas and experiences help you? There are a lot of ways that you can share information to help your business run more smoothly. Here are some ways you could benefit:
• Share information about suppliers in your industry. Imagine being able to read a supplier score card from others in your industry before taking a chance with them? This could tell you a lot about doing business with them before you make a decision.
• Find suppliers that are suited to your business model. Instead of searching aimlessly, browsing a directory by category and with peer evaluations could save you time and money as well as help you find the right supplier for your needs.
• Submit your own evaluations and share information based on your own expertise experience and expertise
By sharing market intelligence with others, the world of supply chain management improves as a whole. Companies that share information hold suppliers accountable for their actions and this increases the level of accountability out there. If suppliers know that they're being measured and discussed in public forums accessible by their clients and prospective customers, this will foster a business landscape that strives to continually improve upon itself and that will help you and your business directly.
Supply chain communities
The http://www.supplierevluations.com community is an example of a place that supply chain professionals can use as part of their selection process. As the information age progresses, sharing information instead of hoarding it is an emerging trend that's expected to continue.
Instead of choosing to just send out an RFP or RFQ and wait for suppliers to woo you with their promises, a community where peers and even competitors share information could help you narrow your list of choices down by learning about the reality of how each potential supplier is doing with their past and existing customers. People utilizing this model as part of their decision-making process can save time, money, and frustration as well as contribute to streamlining and improving their own industry.
(This article has been also placed at one of the LinkedIn related groups)
Copyrighted @ Sasha Grebenyuk, 2009
