Supplier Relationship Management Portal . . . A Knowledge-based Community for Buyers and Their Suppliers

Supplier Relationship Management is a critical part of an organization’s overall sound supply chain strategy. This portal provides the community through which expertise and insights in the area of supplier management can be shared.

We live in a socially interactive word of knowledge-based communities in which virtual connections are the means by which we engage each other whether in business or in our private lives.

Ironically, the sense of community to which today’s social network’s aspire to create has it’s roots in a 1916 statement by L.J. Hanifan relating to his definition of social capital.  In fact, if you did not know that the year was 1916, many of the core principles or values to which Hanifan referred could easily be taken in the context of our present day interactive realities.

In 1916, L.J. Hanifan defined the concept of Social Capital as being, “. . . that in life which tends to make these tangible substances count for most in the daily lives of people: namely good will, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse among the individuals and families who make up a social unit… The individual is helpless socially, if left to himself… If he comes into contact with his neighbor, and they with other neighbors, there will be accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community. The community as a whole will benefit by the cooperation of all its parts, while the individual will find in his associations the advantages of the help, the sympathy, and the fellowship of his neighbors.”

I can think of no better premise upon which to build a community.  Nor can I think of a better way to launch the exciting new Supplier Relationship Management Portal.

Focusing on building a shared community that encourages the exchange of ideas and information towards a collective best interest is at the heart of this interactive social network that is dedicated to both understanding and addressing the complexity of the relationship between buyers and their suppliers in an increasingly globalized marketplace.

In fact, the very complexities to which I am referring can be found in a recent Procurement Insights post titled There is no excuse for a buyer to be bushwhacked by a supplier . . . is there?, in which I relate the story of a transaction gone seriously awry.

The basic issue centers on one buyer’s experience dealing with a supplier from another country about which she asks the following question;  What can you do if you pay on advance and receive 20% of the material you purchased? The seller refuses to refund the money or send the pending material without a new bigger order!!.

This is an example of the kinds of situations the SRM Portal has been created to address.  Specifically it is to enable buyers such as the one referenced above to connect within a community of mutual interest and experiences to find answers to the very real everyday challenges we all face on an ongoing basis.

What is particularly exciting about the SRM Portal is that it features some of the most advanced social media interactive tools available anywhere, which means that your member experience will be both productive and quite frankly enjoyable.

To join the Supplier Relationship Management Portal, simply click on the image icon at the top of this post or, the image icon in the upper right hand corner of the main page of the Contracting Intelligence Blog.  Membership is free, while the benefits are invaluable.

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