Making choices
Despite budgetary shortfall, skills shortages, and rising energy costs, local authorities are doing an excellent job at keeping environmental issues high on the agenda. In an effort to stay ahead of government net zero targets, local authority leaders are beginning to look at all areas of the organisation through the lens of sustainability.
The buyer journey is one such area; not only should senior leaders ensure goods are manufactured ethically and sustainably, but they should also have systems in place to ensure their suppliers are living up to their green credentials.
Any system for supplier management must provide the requisite level of detail on current suppliers and give procurement professionals the option to choose potential new suppliers based on the local authority’s values, objectives, and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets. The optimal system should be centralised, intuitive and user friendly.
Aligning strategies
For guidance in implementing a successful procurement strategy, the UK government recently released the National Procurement Strategy for Local Government. A number of the key aims of the strategy are based on social and environmental measures, including:
- Fulfilling social value priorities through procurement
- Building local connections
- Tackling climate change and reducing waste.
Additional aims include improving supplier diversity, innovation and resilience, effective supplier management, and exploiting technology and data.
Mitigating risk
By implementing Supplier Management software from OneAdvanced, procurement professionals can get a clear understanding of their suppliers and help align their organisation with the aims and objectives of the UK government’s procurement strategy.
Supplier Management gives the user the tools to assess, manage, and mitigate supplier risk. Using public, private, and supplier-direct sources, the software provides a wealth of data for practitioners looking to update or maintain their supply chain.
With data on legislative and environmental compliance, and supplier integrity (including any negative media), the user gets a complete risk assessment in one centralised platform. Supplier information is updated in real time, ensuring complete accuracy, while saving employees countless hours of research and manual input.
Prioritising performance
With Supplier Management, practitioners can ensure that their immediate suppliers – and those further down the chain – are in line with the organisation’s ESG policies. The software makes it easy to set up customised evaluations of supplier performance, offering a comprehensive analysis from all angles.
Supplier Management allows for the creation of scoring cards, making it easy to compare suppliers at a glance, based on key metrics. By presenting your supplier with performance metrics, this gives them a clear oversight on where improvements can be made – it may be that a number of easy fixes can be made with little disruption.
With Supplier Management, the user can classify and tier suppliers based on priority. If suppliers with demonstrated green credentials are a priority in a specific department (or throughout the entire organisation), these can be classified accordingly. The user simply tags these priority suppliers, and Supplier Management automates the associated plans and tasks.
Discover our powerful Supplier Management software today – powering the world of work in local government.