Sourced from the SAP website Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) Software from SAP Supplier relationship management is a comprehensive approach to managing an enterprise’s interactions with the organizations that supply the goods and services it uses. The goal of supplier relationship management (srm) is to streamline and make more effective the processes between an enterprise and its suppliers just as customer relationship management (crm) is intended to streamline and make more effective the processes between an enterprise and its customers.
Srm includes both business practices and software and is part of the information flow component of supply chain management (scm). Srm practices create a common frame of reference to enable effective communication between an enterprise and suppliers who may use quite different business practices and terminology. As a result, srm increases the efficiency of processes associated with acquiring goods and services, managing inventory, and processing materials. According to proponents, the use of srm software can lead to lower production costs and a higher quality, but lower priced end product.
Srm products are available from a number of vendors, including 12 technologies, manugistics, peoplesoft, and sap. Sap srm simplifies and automates procurement. The sap srm process integrates supplier qualification, negotiation, and contract management more tightly and cost-effectively with other enterprise functions and their suppliers’ processes – through a single framework with support for multichannel suppliers. Features & Functions: Procurement Software for Your SRM System
SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) provides the insight and analysis you need to manage your source-to-pay process. Procurement organizations are given a variety of deployment options for purchase order management and can perform manual requisitioning in SAP SRM and conduct receiving and financial settlement in SAP SRM or the ERP back-end. Plus, by integrating catalog-based requisitioning with the traditional procure-to-pay process, your company can gain the benefits of e-procurement without losing our back-end ERP processes. SAP SRM provides the resources you need to execute operational activities in the following procurement areas: * Requisitioning – Create requisitions automatically with SAP ERP through a materials requisition process run, or create them manually with SAP SRM using shopping carts, based on text descriptions, material numbers, or catalog entries. * Order management – Assign sources of supply, validate restrictions, and perform order generation and tracking. Receiving – Capture the process of receiving goods and services to prepare for follow-on processes such as automated financial settlement. Purchasers can use self-service functions in SAP SRM and back-office functions in SAP ERP. * Financial settlement – Handle financial transactions through SAP SRM and SAP ERP to make financial settlement more efficient by using tools for invoice management, evaluated receipt settlement, and invoice payment Catalog Management The catalog in SAP SRM provides effective master data management for spend and supplier data.
With SAP SRM, you can effectively manage catalog data and integrate with business processes, as well as support complex hierarchies. The catalog in SAP SRM enables effective master data management through: * Master data consolidation – Perform data cleansing and de-duplication; data normalization, including categorization and taxonomy management; and interactive consolidation. * Master data harmonization – Automate synchronization of master data information and distribution capabilities. Centralized master data management – Create central data and conduct ongoing data quality checks. * Product content management – Implement powerful capabilities for loading, aggregating, and searching product data and supporting intelligent image management and Web/print publishing. * Global data synchronization – Exchange trade item data with retailers via data hubs. Centralized Sourcing SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) enables you to automate your sourcing processes and expand the role of procurement to the next level of added value in the complete purchasing cycle.
The application provides visibility into the demand for sourceable goods and services from multiple back-end systems, aggregates spend and streamlines bidding processes, and enables collaboration with suppliers for faster and more efficient savings capture. SAP SRM can help you optimize supplier evaluation, bidding events, and business planning by supporting centralized sourcing processes, including: * Supplier qualification – Identify and qualify new suppliers.
With SAP SRM, you can perform ongoing evaluations and select preferred suppliers for particular products and categories. SAP SRM supports demand and market analysis, specification development, and approved-vendor list management. * Supplier negotiation – Assess suppliers and select the right supplier for a certain product or service. SAP SRM enables you to use auction and bidding techniques for event preparation, requests for quotation, and reverse auctions. * Bid evaluation and awarding – Conduct robust bid evaluation, including weighted score analysis.
The application enables side-by-side comparison of bids to evaluate proposals based on price as well as delivery times, experience with the supplier, dependability, and ability to deliver Centralized Contract Management SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) enables access to all contracts in a secure repository, enabling procurement to monitor, identify, and reduce maverick buying. When integrated with the SAP ERP application, SAP SRM can serve as a centralized repository for all operational procurement contracts.
SAP SRM assesses requirements and identifies the optimal contract to fill a specified need, taking into consideration such factors as price, delivery time, and location. The application can account for different types of discounts, such as value discounts, quantity-based stepladder discounts, group discounts, or rebates based on aggregated released values. SAP SRM supports the following contract management processes: * Contract creation – Create an operational contract from a bidding event, renewal, or net new.
SAP SRM enables mass updates and appending of contracts based on a winning bid via an easy wizard interface. * Contract execution – Use contracts as a “source of supply” across SAP SRM and one or more integrated back-end systems, track contract usage, and drive compliance to negotiated terms – achieving realized savings. * Contract monitoring – Track contract performance and compliance to agreed-upon terms and conditions using configurable alerts. Supplier Collaboration SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) enables you to link suppliers to your purchasing processes through the supplier portal.
With SAP SRM, you can choose the optimal interaction channel for numerous business processes and documents, and you can collaborate more effectively with suppliers in supplier-facing processes, including: * Document exchange – Exchange any document in any format smoothly across heterogeneous systems through general-purpose adapters that facilitate messaging between SAP and non-SAP systems – both internally and externally. * Supplier portal management – Give suppliers direct access to their customers’ SAP and non-SAP applications through content provided by a suite of Web-enabled services.
Provide the pre-assembled content on the SAP supplier portal for collaboration. * Supplier collaboration – Collaborate with suppliers throughout the life cycle and make integration with suppliers of all sizes economical and easy to manage. With SAP SRM’s supplier self-services, suppliers can access supply-side transactions and other relevant information and update their catalog data, process acknowledgements, track payment status, suggest changes to orders, and receive information on inventory and supply-and-demand plans. Supplier Evaluation
SAP SRM enables you to better manage suppliers – improving quality, enhancing collaboration, and reducing supplier risk – by supporting the following supplier evaluation processes: * Reporting and response monitoring – Improve operations, reduce costs, and improve efficiency via flexible reporting and response monitoring. * Supplier development and performance management – Track qualitative and quantitative supplier performance data using a variety of data collection methods, including event-triggered surveys, qualitative questionnaires, and ad-hoc surveys.
Business Benefits SAP SRM provides companies with the tools to drive superior results through an end-to-end procurement process. Activities such as spend analysis, category management, requisitioning, sourcing, contract life-cycle management, invoicing, and supplier management, are part of an integrated platform. SAP SRM enables your organization to achieve the following business benefits: * Sustainable cost savings – SAP SRM enables tight process integration. As a result, companies are able to achieve a closed loop from source-to-pay.
Aggregating spend in a single platform leads to optimized spend and supplier relationship management. * Contract compliance – SAP SRM provides visibility into enterprise expenditures and enables the procurement organization to effectively demonstrate that spending activities, contracts, and supplier interactions adhere to corporate guidelines. * Competitive advantage – SAP SRM gives you the tools to partner with key suppliers to differentiate in your market, define your supplier management approach, and determine the key metrics that are used to determine supplier success.
