On November 7, IASTA and LexisNexis presented a timely webinar, hosted by ISM, that gave sound advice on how to effectively use and implement Supply Market Intelligence (SMI) to develop risk management strategies. The importance of SMI has grown quickly and steadily as the need to manage supplier risk becomes more and more critical. This webinar presented an option that allows for both internal and external data to be displayed as a “mashup” – not via integration. Information about the event can be found here. Kelly Barner of Buyers Meeting Point, covered the event and provided these key highlights in her recent blog post. Here they are (directly quoted):
- Many SMI programs have grown out of the need to get better risk mitigation from supplier performance management programs already in place. The highest priority risk categories include supply chain continuity, cost, and reputation – the implications of which hit both revenues and stock returns.
- In order to be able to fully leverage SMI, it is important to understand the audience as well as the intended use for the information and the questions the audience will want to be able to answer with it.
- The ideal delivery of this intelligence is flexible and accessible through a single point of entry that incorporates both internal and external data. The speakers suggested the idea of a data ‘mashup’: where relevant data is displayed side by side in order to enable contextualized conclusions rather than an exact-match data integration approach.
- Technology is an important component to SMI programs, but so is a data collection model. One example of this is the PESTLE model: Political, Economic, Societal, Technical, Legal, and Environmental.