Supplier Diversity Insights

Overview

As customers are becoming aware & sensitive to corporations' environmental and socioeconomic responsibilities, their buying preferences are influenced by how companies address diversity issues in their operations. Organizations set their supplier diversity goals to expand into markets with different demographics, increase market share and gain competitive advantage. Bringing new diverse suppliers into the supply chain naturally promotes competition from potential and existing suppliers, and often minority-owned businesses are more innovative, differentiating themselves from their competitors with disruptive technologies, fresh perspectives, and cutting-edge solutions. But tracking and reporting supplier diversity spend as part of sustainable procurement or responsible sourcing is the biggest issue.

Currently, organizations are managing these activities manually and are governed by regulatory compliance. There is no seamless, integrated process/solution to provide diverse supplier insights and data on demand. Fragmented processes and siloed information makes it difficult to access & maintain data. Standard solutions provide a disjointed experience and limited functionality. Through customer surveys and industry reports, we found that supplier diversity is not only a white space at the product level but a more significant issue for the industry to address; this makes the solution even more unique and appropriately placed.

There is a latent need as:

• Increased focus will be placed on supplier diversity spending data integrity
• Comprehensive quantitative disclosure requirements will become the norm for domestic publicly traded companies
• Diverse supplier relationship management will become a model for broader supplier relationship and risk management
• The focus on Tier 2 spend tracking and reporting is heightened

Key Features & Functionality

Supplier Diversity Insights is a TCS Crystallus Composable Business solution created on Appian's Low Code Platform. Embracing the new-age Composable Business philosophy, the solution is built with TCS' domain expertise, contextual knowledge, and industry next-practices leveraging intelligent technologies like Appian as an Enabler.
Solution leverages Appian Data Fabric to connect systems like core ERP on one side and Dun & Bradstreet diversity database on the other to address industry white space. This provides a holistic view by combining virtualized data with Appian's no-code data modelling and help determine the spend with diverse suppliers within the organization's supplier base to achieve corporate targets.
Solution digitally creates a blanket of information through integration and provides the cloud's flexibility and scalability to be available anytime and anywhere. SDI enables actionable insights for data-driven procurement decision-making and a powerful filtering option to simplify, streamline and easily visualize all types of spend with diverse suppliers.

Features:

• Provides a bird's eye view of supplier diversity
• Monitors spend data within distinct supplier diversity classification
• Identifies areas of improvement through supplier diversity data management
• Enables tracking of diversity certifications & contract expiries
• Insights on diversity spend trends through territorial heat map views

Apart from the core functionality, there is a larger vision to take the solution beyond, creating an eco-system to foster supplier diversity at every stage of the value chain:

• Product/Service segmentation to identify and develop diverse suppliers from the very beginning
• Provision to adjust payment terms for respective suppliers
• Provision to integrate with Supplier Management Solution's business network and create Networks of Network

Benefits & Business Impact

The ultimate use of the innovation is to bring supplier diversity to the front and centre of the organization's strategy to create sustainability in communities and uplift economically backward businesses. Another critical aspect of the solution is that it provides an environment for suppliers to bring their independent expertise and create truly differentiated offerings for the end customers:

• Community empowerment and positive social impact
• Makes the supply chain resilient and responsive creating a sustainable business model
• Promotes innovation through the introduction of new products, services, and solutions
• Provides multiple channels from which to procure goods and services
• Drives competition (on price and service levels) between the company’s existing and potential vendors
• Allows a company to take advantage of new opportunities for business expansion with the emergence of new consumer needs based upon shifting demographic realities