The tagline for the new Socializing Your Supply Chain Group that was just launched on the Supplier Relationship Management Portal is “Investigating how social networks can help you to better connect buyers with their suppliers.”
It is an interesting premise in that social networking and social media are rapidly becoming the mediums of choice in terms of helping buyers in their efforts to engage and manage the critical relationships they have with their suppliers in an increasingly globalized market.
In fact, the importance of this emerging collaborative venue was demonstrated in a June 26th, 2011 Procurement Insights post titled There is no excuse for a buyer to be bushwhacked by a supplier . . . is there?, in which a buyer lamented the fact that a new vendor from the other side of the world had taken an advanced deposit but had ultimately failed to deliver the promised goods. The formerly intrepid buyer used her membership in a social network group to reach out to other buyers for advice on what her next course of action should be.
To me this demonstrates the true power of social networking that extends well beyond the on-line certification sites, which while being extremely valuable, are understandably oriented toward a self-paced individual or on-your-own study regiment where multi-party interaction is limited to subject-related study groups. Again, the new curriculum that are offered through organizations such as ADR International and Next Level Purchasing are without a doubt major breakthroughs in equipping purchasing professionals with the much needed tools to enhance their value to their organizations. But it is the community interaction (especially with trading partners) on an everyday practical and operational basis in which the new estates will begin to shine overall.
The Socializing Your Supply Chain Group has been expressly created to help to facilitate this interaction and what’s great about it is that membership is free, as is joining the portal itself.
Click here to join!
About the Group:
Social networking has redefined how we interact and do business.
Nowhere has this been more evident than in the way associations and information sources are attempting to transform themselves into real-time, globally connected intelligence providers.
It is an important step as professionals are looking for a collaborative forum that extends beyond the mere provision of data, but instead provides context through an interactive dialogue with other professionals and their trading partners.
The primary focus of this group is to investigate and better understand the role that social networking can play in terms of building and enhancing the critical relationship between buyers and their suppliers.
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Relationships
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Relationships First