While it might appear that supply chains have stabilized somewhat since the pandemic, several factors continue to plague and disrupt the global distribution system. Political unrest, raw material shortages, and rising energy costs are still impacting the global supply chain, fueling disruptions that could carry into the middle of next year, warns Jake Varghese of ConnectWise.
A recent SAP survey Opens a new window of 400 U.S.-based senior decision-makers revealed that more believe their supply chains still need “much improvement,†and nearly half expect supply chain issues that started during the pandemic will extend to the end of this year. A third expect issues to linger until the summer of 2023.
When it comes to supply chain issues, they are not new or unique to any industry. However they are felt especially by IT solution providers as they seek to secure and manage software and services. One can often have an impact by eliminating manual, time-consuming tasks and gaining greater access to more products and vendors.
Here are four steps TSPs (technology service providers) can take to minimize supply chain issues while simplifying areas such as searching and quoting, procurement, subscription management, client billing, and customer relations.
1. Centralize Your Product Sourcing
Sales and procurement teams can spend days combing through websites when looking for new suppliers. It can be very time-consuming as well as a tedious process especially when trying to findÂ
find the best price and availability. Luckily there are tools that can help in centralizing the product sourcing. With the help of these tools, one can easily do a price comparison as well as find out the availability of vendors. Think of it as a travel website service that lists hotels and flights on the same page.Â
Identifying vendors with product availability can be greatly simplified by filtering options. These tools can continuously update your sourcing to help you stay current. This is especially important if a product is sourced for sale and the sales cycle lasts longer than expected. This approach can save time with side-by-side product comparisons, including real-time pricing and availability from top distributors and vendors in a single quote. Â
 See More: Three Ways Tech Can Make Supply Chain Solutions More Agile
2. Planning Ahead
Spontaneity has never been a strong point when it comes to supply chain management. And that is why forecasting plays a crucial role as this will help in streamlining the sales process. Streamlining sales processes helps sales teams to make predictions about what one has in the pipeline and will help them close the deal. With the help of forecasting, sales teams can also predict trends and keep track of your sales funnel.
Comprehensive planning also means preparing for the worst—even for disruptions that don’t seem particularly likely but are still theoretically possible. If we’ve learned anything these last few years, it’s that reality will always outpace our concerns. That means ordering things well in advance of when you think you’ll need them and building stockpiling into your budget. It also means running at least semi-regular simulations to determine exactly how your business would react to the loss of this or that supplier and drawing up specific backup or contingency plans. It might seem like a lot of work in the moment, but if and when things go haywire, you’ll be glad you planned ahead.
Tied to this is the notion of antifragility, which was first advanced by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering. In Taleb’s conception, antifragility is something very distinct from resiliency. Resiliency is the ability to recover from failure; antifragility is the ability to grow from failure, absorb the shock of the unexpected and subsequently blossom into some newer, better iteration of your business.Â
Obviously, this is something you can’t exactly plan for—the nature of a shock is that it’s random and unexpected. Think of it more like a mindset—an ability to break down old models of thinking and evolve to meet the moment. On a day-to-day basis, our minds grow accustomed to traveling the same paths; without even realizing it, we travel the same stale mental circuits over and over again. Failure can lift us out of those ruts. The jolt of failure can – in the antifragile model – bring businesses into new, exciting, and ultimately beneficial territory.
3. Be Sure of Your Inventory Numbers
Know what you have and be confident in that knowledge. A proper inventory count can be one of the best ways to help source products. While managing inventory during supply chain interruptions and customer demand swings can be challenging, standardized inventory count processes can help immensely with product sourcing.Â
One way to make sure and avoid product shortages is by checking regular stock inventory. This also means the shipments are not delayed, and customers don’t have to wait.Â
See More: How Data Can Help the Supply Chain for Real-Time Disaster Preparedness
4. Investing in Customer Service Is Always Good Idea
Ultimately, no matter how thoroughly you prepare for every eventuality, some things will be out of your business’s control. In cases where real delays really can’t be helped, it’s imperative to have robust customer service operations in place to deal with frustrated clients and clearly relay problems, timetables, etc. Luckily, everyone knows that we’re in the midst of a supply-chain crisis, and more than ever, clients are willing to afford some latitude when problems arise—but if those problems aren’t communicated clearly and personably, companies are still at risk of alienating their clients.
IT inventory management software can help to provide real-time updates helping suppliers to make quicker decisions in regard to stock volume. Automation of inventory management also helps in centralizing products. This helps improve inventory and deliver customer needs and could enable scaling for the future.Â
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