Technologyis all-too-frequently laudedas the new business hero of the modern era. It’s true, of course: businesses are benefiting from new tech in ways that would be essentially unimaginable to workers only twenty years ago.
The increase in efficiency has been incredible, and it’s been applied across the board in all areas of business operations – from logistics through to customer service. This article looks in particular at supplier relationships, describing those ways in which technology is helping to improve your B2B contact and professionalism.
Improved Communication
The very base of a good business is that it values communication above all else – both in terms ofinternal communication and that communication that it undertakes with other businesses. Technology, of course, helps you communicate instantly – through email and instant messaging, primarily.
Nonetheless new and emerging software packages are able togo a step further to enhance your communicationcapabilities – by giving you the data that’ll help you do the following:
- Take account of fluctuations in your business
- Receive importantalerts when they’re required
- Receive weekly or monthly progress reports
- Provide real-time feedback to help you know your supply chain
There’s no doubt that such technology can be a major bonus for your ability to transmit smart and efficient information across businesses.
More Professionalism
Professionalism is directly correlated to trust in a business environment. In turn, the more trust other businesses regard you with, themore solidyourrelationships will be with them. As such, when evaluating where technology can help you build stronger relationships with your supply chain, the level of professionalism you can extract from tech is animportantfactor to consider.
Take, for instance, forecasting. Forecasting helps businessesmake the following decisions:
- When to notify supplier about a change in demand
- Where you can cut costs on your supply chain
- When you need to invoice or send payments to suppliers
- How to plan with other businesses to facilitate your growth
Collaboration in this way – measured and professional – will help your suppliers grow too, ensuring that you’re operating in a mutually-beneficial business environment. Tech helps provide those insights that’ll help you make savvy decisions that you’ll pass directly on to your suppliers.
Centralized Monitoring
Suppliers are a little kept in the dark regardingwhat they can expect for your business in the long run. It’s in this sense that they deeplyappreciate when you can provide some analytic data to help them plan their ownfutures – and this, of course, will reflect in how suppliers see and deal with you.
By onboarding B2B software such as SAP Supplier Portals from omniaecommerce.com, you can centralize your purchase order management, demand forecasting and so much more. The benefits that your company enjoys from this technology can be passed directly onto your suppliers too – and they’ll respond with their owninformationso that your communication loop is solidand informed – a hugebenefit to B2B relationships.
This short article articulates how technology can directly influence your relationships with other businesses – and especially those that are involved in the supply chain of your business. If you are a small business owner or a professional looking to gain insider knowledge on the leading customer relations softwares, please contact us today. Piedmont Avenue Consulting, Inc., a premier business marketing firm located in the San Francisco Bay Area, would be more than happy to help you succeed in you business endeavors.
