Supplier Collaboration

Dell Discovers the Hidden Cost of the Status Quo

How can the status quo or ‘business as usual’ lead to significant waste and revenue loss? How has COVID-19 exacerbated this?

That is the central question for a group of procurement industry all-stars that recently came together for a live, interactive SourceDay webinar. Elie Sayegh, Senior Manager of Global Program Management at Dell, Philip Ideson from the Art of Procurement, and Graham Immerman, CMO of MachineMetrics joined SourceDay CMO Sarah Moore to discuss the challenges of and potential solutions for the hidden cost of the status quo.

All four speakers noted how the changing culture of procurement is leading to massive amounts of data that need to be analyzed and understood through an enterprise-wide lens. As Philip pointed out, ”Everything we do in procurement has to be in line with what the business needs.” 

Dell: A Case Study in Resilience

Digital Transformation and Fighting Inertia

Dell adopted SourceDay a few years ago, and Elie still remembers the lack of visibility that plagued their manual processes. “There was no unified platform; it was really brute strength to get it done.” Dell, with 195 million systems in 160 countries and 5 global command centers, is now fully integrated with SourceDay.

When COVID-19 first began disrupting their supply chains, Dell’s response had to be swift and organized. Dell’s Q1 (at the beginning of the pandemic) saw cancellations from buyers and suppliers rise 10% from the previous quarter. Elie immediately began reaching out to buyers and suppliers to optimize the supply chain to prevent revenue loss. He ensured that each supplier was only manufacturing parts that were desperately needed. 

SourceDay allowed both buyers and suppliers to maintain full visibility into each other’s operations. This was key to Dell’s response. This made it relatively seamless to manage cancellations and allowed Dell to prioritize its operations. Dell was able to stretch resources where they counted most by directly collaborating with their suppliers. Therefore, protecting themselves against large losses in revenue. Dell proactively responded to changes and was back up and running within a week or so. Competitors took about 3-4 weeks – a difference Elie attributes to the SourceDay platform. 

In the case of Dell, escaping the procurement status quo meant relying less on manual processes, instead of focusing on full access to data. This centralized visibility allowed Dell to succeed during COVID-19 disruptions.

Working remote was a non-issue and responding to supply chain disruptions was a non-issue. It’s because we laid the foundation 2 or 3 years ago when we implemented SourceDay and changed our processes.

Sayegh, Senior Manager of Global Program Management at Dell

Full Data Visibility and Leaner Operations

Full clarity should be the goal of any supply chain transformation effort. As Graham stated, “supply chain has been notoriously slow to adopt the digital mindset […] operating without data can lead to inefficiencies that affect every component of the business.”

Graham shared the example of a medical device company that was suffering from inefficiencies. MachineMetrics spent time collecting and compiling data on the company’s daily operations. After making improvements based on full data visibility, the company was able to reduce 14,000 hours of downtime and grow its capacity by $4.5 million. 

As all of the event participants agree, the future of procurement lies in the data generated by their operations. Companies need to be able to clearly ‘see’ and understand all of this data.

SourceDay makes it possible to react proactively to changes, minimize risk, and ultimately save money. Learn more about how your ERP system works with SourceDay’s collaboration software.

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