October 10, 2023
Supply chain management software can be a powerful tool, but it is certainly an investment.
So, you need to ask yourself: is it worth it?
There are many advantages to supply chain software, particularly in selecting and managing your service providers.
However, sometimes it can be difficult to get senior leaders on board and make a convincing case for investment.
In this article, we’ll explore what the key challenges are when investing in supply chain software, as well as how you can convince senior leaders that it’s a worthy investment. We will also cover:
- What is supply chain management?
- What problems does supply chain management software solve?
- What are the key challenges when investing in supply chain software?
- How can you convince senior leaders to invest in supply chain software?
- What is the return on investment of supply chain software?
- What are the key benefits of supply chain management software?
- What makes Prosure360 worthy of investment?
What is supply chain management?
Supply chain management software is a tool which allows businesses to better manage their supply chain. This technology is becoming increasingly popular, particularly in the property management sector. This is because it enables you to:
- Efficiently manage relationships with service providers.
- Store your supply chain documentation in one place.
- Keep track of and report on goals relating to supply chain management.
Essentially, this type of software makes managing your supply chain simple and easy.
What problems does supply chain management software solve?
Supply chain software can solve a range of different problems for your business:
Quality control
Ensuring the quality of your service providers can be tricky without the support of technology, especially for larger companies. There are so many checks you need to conduct to make sure your service providers meet your specific standards. This means checking their financial health, verifying their certifications, ensuring they meet ESG requirements, and more. This can be particularly difficult to do without supply chain software.
Although you can use spreadsheets to keep track of your service providers’ information, they don’t show real-time data. Spreadsheets can also be time consuming as they require you to update and input data manually.
Supply chain software simplifies this process, giving you a simple way to quality check your service providers. Using supply chain management software allows you to implement an active quality process which can also help to identify savings and improvements in ways of working. Ultimately, it’s all about reducing risk and giving you peace of mind that your suppliers meet your quality standards.
Visibility of suppliers
Having full visibility of your suppliers is difficult to achieve without real time data. If you’re spending hours trawling through outdated spreadsheets, you are never going to have an up-to-date view of all your service providers.
The status of your service providers can change at any minute, which means you need a system that gives you accurate, real-time data. Supply chain software gives you total visibility, allowing you to see exactly which of your suppliers are up to scratch.
Accessible data
Sharing data is an important part of effective supply chain management. You need to be able to give your stakeholders and investors a comprehensive overview of your service providers at any given time.
But you also need to be able to share this data in a safe and secure way. By doing this manually, you risk sending key stakeholders the wrong, out of date, information meaning they can’t trust you to keep them informed about your supply chain processes.
Supply chain management software allows you to share the necessary data with the relevant parties in a streamlined and organised fashion.
What are the key challenges when investing in supply chain software?
Since supply chain software seems to solve so many common problems, why isn’t everyone investing?
Although this software simplifies supply chain management, there are a few reasons why businesses may be hesitant to invest:
Knowing where to start
For some businesses, the idea of investing in a new software may seem a little daunting.
Understanding the technology and figuring out which supply chain platform is right for your business can be overwhelming. There are so many factors to get your head round that you may not even know where to start.
If you’re feeling lost, the best place to start is usually figuring out what you want to achieve with supply chain management software and going from there.
Once you know what your business goals are, you can start to research the different supply chain platforms to decipher which would be best suited to your business.
Past experiences
Sometimes, senior leaders may not want to invest in supply chain software if they’ve had a bad experience with a previous provider.
That’s why it’s important to research a range of different supply chain management platforms before you make the final decision to invest. If you didn’t have a good relationship with your last provider, consider the reasons why and ensure that your future provider meets all your business requirements.
With Prosure360, we tailor our platform to your specific needs, offering pre-qualified assessments and bespoke questions to help you get the most out of the software.
Understanding the benefits
One of the key challenges when trying to get executive decision makers on board with supply chain software is explaining the benefits.
Many senior leaders still follow the philosophy of: ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’. If you’re used to using an old spreadsheet system, you might be reluctant to change it.
That’s why it’s important to point out the problems with the current system and showcase how they can be resolved by a supply chain software system.
Cost
With supply chain software, as with any technological investment, there is always some cost involved. Sometimes, this can deter senior leaders from investing because they don’t want to use such a large chunk of the budget.
That’s why it’s important you do a cost-benefit analysis to weigh up the long-term ROI vs the initial software investment. With most supply chain management systems, you’ll find the long-term benefits greatly outweigh the short-term cost.
Generally, there is also a requirement for the service providers to pay for an assessment on supply chain management platforms; this doesn’t always sit well with senior decision-makers as they worry it will impact supplier relationships.
With Prosure360, there are benchmarked fees for the platform and the assessments, ensuring that fees are not prohibitive for service providers or clients. Also, our assessments aren’t onerous—they are designed to support, not hinder, supplier relationships.
Lack of resources
Another reason preventing senior leaders from investing in this type of software is simply a lack of resources.
Normally, new software requires an investment of time and money. As well as the initial investment, you also need to train your staff on how to use the platform. This can sometimes put executive leaders off as they don’t think their business has the capacity to invest in training and effectively manage the platform.
There is also a common concern among senior leaders that this software is difficult to use, and the mobilisation stage is complex.
However, Prosure360 is an intuitive platform that is simple and easy to use, meaning you won’t require excessive training to get to grips with the software. Prosure360 also does all the heavy lifting in relation to mobilisation, management reporting, and service provider onboarding.
Getting senior leadership buy-in
One of the main reasons for not investing in supply chain management software is struggling to get senior leadership buy-in.
Without getting approval from senior leaders, you won’t be able to buy and implement supply chain software.
For all the reasons listed above, it can be difficult to put together a solid case for investment to the key decision makers in your business.
That’s why you need to effectively present the financial benefits of supply chain software to make a compelling case to those in charge.
How can you convince senior leaders to invest in supply chain software?
To get senior leaders on board with an investment idea, you need to focus to what they care about.
At the end of the day, it comes down to worth—is the initial investment worth the reward?
When deciding whether to invest in a new software, the executive leaders want to know the risks, the return on investment, and the goals of investing.
For example, if a CEO knows that the money they invest in supply chain software will reward them tenfold, it’s a no-brainer.
To make a convincing case for investment, you need to explain to the senior leaders why the software is needed, what problems it solves, and what the key benefits are.
Once you satisfy all these questions and concerns, as well as showcasing the ROI, senior leaders will be more inclined to invest.
What is the return on investment of supply chain software?
Managing your supply chain in-house, without the support of tech, can be extremely costly. By using spreadsheets and inputting data manually, there likely to be more errors and less accuracy in selecting the right service providers.
Paying an annual fee for supply chain management software is more cost effective then employing a dedicated member of staff to manage large quantities of data relating to your service providers.
It all comes down to risk and reputation; if your manual approach to supply chain management is resulting in crucial mistakes, this could cause disruptions in your supply chain. These disruptions would not only damage your business’ reputation but could also result in losing long-term clients and investors.
Using supply chain software ensures that your service providers are compliant, meaning non-compliant suppliers won’t be deployed—this will cut costs as you can trust that jobs will be completed to a high standard.
By investing in a supply chain management platform, you reduce these risks and protect your business’ reputation and brand which will save you money in the long run.
Supply chain management software also improves business efficiency, meaning you can make better use of your time and save money.
What are the key benefits of supply chain management software?
Although we’ve already touched on a few of the advantages of supply chain management software, here are some more key benefits of investing in this tech:
- Reduced risk: you can identify risks across your service providers which allows you to be aware of potential issues and reduce the chance of supply chain disruption.
- Ability to achieve ISO45001: supply chain software supports you in complying with ISO standards and achieving ISO certifications.
- Enhanced visibility of supply chain: supply chain management platforms use real-time data show you what is happening with your service providers at any given time.
- Increased compliance: this software allows you to check whether your service providers are compliant and meet the latest regulations.
- Accessibility of data: it allows you to easily share data with key stakeholders and monitor performance of your service providers.
- Reduced costs: quality control leads to less problems occurring and reduced risk of a disrupted supply chain which would have resulted in a financial loss.
- Increased productivity: this software means you won’t waste time manually inputting data into spreadsheets, meaning you can spend your time on the things that matter.
- Improved business reputation: this software will ensure your stakeholders and investors can trust you to effectively manage your supply chain, improving your business’ reputation.
- All data is in one place: this platform creates a single source of truth with all your data safely stored in one place, making it easy to view all your supply chain documentation.
What makes Prosure360 worthy of investment?
Prosure360 is a worthy investment for businesses looking to streamline their supply chain management processes.
Our platform is defined by our state-of-the-arts technology, which is modern, intuitive, and reliable.
We take a flexible approach, working with you to ensure that the platform meets your specific needs—Prosure360 is a system for you, so it needs to deliver on your goals.
Prosure360 allows you to easily see the financial status of your service providers in an accessible, readable format. This means you can keep track of your suppliers’ financial health and ensure you make informed decisions about who you work with.
The platform removes human error by giving you automated notifications when data is due to expire or there is missing information about one of your service providers. This means you have all the information you need to make an informed decision about who you work with.
What sets us apart from the crowd is our integration with Elogs CAFM, a facilities management platform that allows you to streamline the management of your buildings and assets. We are also integrated with the risk management platform, Meridian where you can track and report on the compliance of your property portfolio.
Ultimately, Prosure360 is designed to reduce risk, ensure compliance, and improve business efficiency by ensuring you have total visibility of your supply chain. It’s a cost-effective solution for clients and service providers, giving you a tech driven solution that streamlines the management process.
Make the case for investment with Prosure360 and take your business to the next level-
Get in touch and book a demo today!
