Procurement Begins with Sourcing: The myConnXion Story

In today’s global supply chain ecosystem, many procurement teams face similar sourcing challenges that begin at the supplier level. The RFP process can be tedious and complex. Conferences are expensive and time-consuming. And there’s a general lack of centralized, up-to-date business information. These factors impede business development as buyers and suppliers miss valuable connections with each other. Sharing these frustrations with many others, our team at ConnXus has researched the components of supplier management success, and we believe the key to developing great relationships begins with the supplier. Our background in supplier development has given us the knowledge and tools to fill the current gap in the market.

To understand procurement and sourcing as a buyer, we must start with the supplier. Small and diverse businesses are often cited as being more nimble, innovative and cost effective, but are often most strained in resources. Suppliers have to register their profiles with many different buyers (sometimes paying to do so, for buyers who adopt the pay-to-play model) and may not even get a contract as a result of their efforts. On the other side, many buyers end up with outdated supplier information and expired diversity certifications, contaminating their supplier database with inaccurate data. Sourcing with unreliable information hampers the abilities of procurement professionals and negatively impacts bottom line.

To solve this problem, our team has developed myConnXion, a new platform that empowers buyers and suppliers to connect in ways they never could before. We help develop suppliers and incentivize businesses to create and maintain an accurate profile, centralizing business intelligence through an intuitive, user-friendly interface. Buyers can receive these shared profiles with insight into suppliers’ business performance and risk factors. As a result, our data repository will have clean, up-to-date information. With a push of a button, we can foster collaboration and connection between buyers and suppliers anytime, from anywhere around the world.

myConnXion enhances our robust supplier management solutions by seamlessly integrating with our products. With a free vendor management system available to suppliers registered on our platform, we can better serve procurement professionals in-application. Buyers will receive access to supplier profiles regardless of location, allowing an early and more thorough vetting process to begin, without the added cost of conferences and trade exhibits. Suppliers can be invited to share their business profiles and register in a connected buyer profile. ConnXus provides useful insights during the data import process and has improved API access to integrate with other ERP and spend data.

Moving forward, we plan to amplify the myConnXion experience by providing additional supplier ratings, so buyers can more easily vet qualified suppliers. Technology has empowered us to revolutionize supplier management and better connect businesses with each other.

Daryl Hammett is general manager and COO at ConnXus. Carrie Hof is director of enterprise and innovation at ConnXus.