Securing supply chain independence and low prices with a Sourcing Platform

Disruptions in supply chains currently happen for multiple reasons. Businesses need to stabilize their supplies and manage the cost of materials and components simultaneously.

Status Quo

E-procurement has become unavoidable within the past years, because of technology and digitalization. This combination has drastically reduced the cost of solutions used to dematerialize transactions.

E-procurement portfolio solutions, as shown on the procurement lifecycle, address the process complexity by making your Purchasing, Finance, and Accounting Department’s life easier, but they do not address the actual supply challenge.

The procurement lifecycle, source: Manutan

Supply chain challenges in crisis and scarce resources periods

In times of crisis, the biggest challenge and growing pain points for Supply Chains is the actual sourcing of products and services.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and global warming - which generated one of the warmest summers ever recorded - have had impacts on all the productions that run our industries: fossil fuel energy, food, electronic components, etc. As a result, many supply chains became unstable and generated new challenges for a great number of businesses.

The complexity of those events and the rising risks of raw material shortage have greatly impacted the supply chain, generating price fluctuations and disruptions on every level.

What is a Sourcing Platform?

A sourcing platform is just like a regular marketplace, except that it operates on a closed market: the access is limited to company employees or a set group of users on one end, and to vouched suppliers on the other.

A sourcing platform removes the need of other e-procurement tools: Punch-out from other ecommerce sites is no longer required, the suppliers integrate their catalog themselves. Supplier onboarding and product moderation can replace the selection process, and payments and invoices are managed at the same place which makes reconciliation easier.

And last but not least, the spend analysis is centralized in one data source!

All the advantages of a marketplace still apply:

• Wide catalog: many merchants (or here, suppliers) on the same platform means choice, convenience, large assortments, and product alternatives
• Your marketplace, your rules!
• Import your processes for order steps, order validation, catalog access, and threshold limits
• Automate all approval workflows
• Prioritize second-hand products, local suppliers, or even the company’s inventory from around the world
• Tender / RFP functionality: for complex needs, or to reverse roles and have merchants bid for your business, allowing the best possible deal
• The features you need: product recommendations, search, merchandising, RFP, order history, subscriptions, filters, reporting, data visualization, and customer reviews

SOURCING PLATFORM

Supplier 1

Supplier 2

Supplier 3

Supplier 4

CATALOG

Company

Employees

Group

Subsidiaries

Approved

Partners

Supplier 5

Supplier 6

Supplier 7

Supplier 8

​

Order based on internal workflow

Benefits & Values of Sourcing Platforms

Convenience

All purchases at the same place

Seamless purchase process with modern commerce digital capabilities

Simplification: Company-wide process

Management of user rights

Quicker and simpler purchasing process

Quicker delivery times with supplier competition

Improved reordering process

Unlimited potential

Drive new revenue and reduce immobilization of capita: make unused stock from other subsidiaries available to purchase

Sustainable development and CSR - Use second-hand, re-commerce, push local suppliers

Save costs - open your sourcing platform to partners for larger volumes > greater discounts

Cost Reduction

Improved negotiations

Volume with purchase centralization

Data on needs and forecasts

Competition between suppliers

Control

Process application: order, validation workflow, threshold limits

Automation of workflows

Data

Spryker Capabilities

^{© Copyright 2022 – All content, in particular texts, photographs and graphics are protected by copyright. All rights, including reproduction, publication, editing and translation, are reserved, Spryker Systems GmbH, Heidestraße 9-10, 10557 Berlin, Germany.}

^{hello@spryker.com}

^{+49 / 30 / 208 49 83 50}

^{Request a demo here}

With Spryker’s Composable Commerce architectural approach, you can use and combine the best features for your Sourcing Platform.

The Marketplace Suite includes all the features you need for a Sourcing Platform. It was developed as an integrated add-on solution to the Spryker Cloud Commerce OS.

Spryker Cloud Commerce OS

Spryker Marketplace Suite

main functionalities

Spryker Cloud Commerce OS

+

Spryker Marketplace Suite

=

Your Sourcing Platform, tailored to your processes and needs