Most procurement management software wants to put you in a box

When we talk about supply chains, what we’re actually describing is an ecosystem of networked relationships. Buyers can be suppliers, suppliers can be buyers. Relationships are often shared between multiple parties. Definitions are misleading as they create two-dimensional labels in a three-dimensional world.

Even the term “supply chain” can be unhelpful, implying that business relationships are a series of disconnected islands rather than the complex network of interconnectivity we know them to be.

Enterprise software vendors typically struggle with the concept that businesses can be diverse and multi-faceted. It plays havoc with carefully calibrated Ideal Customer Profiles that product teams use to develop and market their software solutions. And since investments in digitization are largely driven by large enterprise businesses, benefits, and specifications are built to suit.

Times may have changed, but when it comes to ‘traditional procurement ’, it’s a buyer’s world; suppliers just live in it. In the past, the big buyer held all the power. So much power that suppliers would relocate to serve their customers better . Not anymore. Suppliers can find customers all over the place, and competition for sources of supply is fierce.

Buyer-centric software has left the user experience for suppliers as an afterthought at best. One-to-one connections that place a single large buyer at the center of the universe have led to a proliferation of portals and log-ins suppliers are asked to juggle just to get paid.

Some suppliers will end up begrudgingly doing what they’re told. Many more will weigh up all that extra hassle of a new portal or new method and decide that it’s cheaper to continue sending paper invoices or PDFs by email. Can you blame them? If the boot were on the other foot (and it may well be someday), what would you do?

It’s only human to see ourselves as the center of our own universe. But it pays to see the bigger picture if you’re looking at engagement that extends beyond a handful of suppliers. .

The hub-and-spoke approach to supplier engagement is a relic from a bygone era, one where supply chains were reliant on a small coterie of suppliers operating within the buyer’s “walled garden.”

For a picture of what it could (and indeed should) look like, we can learn a lot from the business social network LinkedIn. What’s great about LinkedIn is that there is no barrier to entry: you just need an email address, and away you go.

That’s exactly how supply chain relationships should be. No need for investment or new infrastructure; just plug into a universal platform and start digitizing any and every aspect of your relationship, from invoicing to purchasing to payments.

This easy, low-cost, and modular path to digitalization might well be enough to encourage suppliers to join a digital supply chain ecosystem, but it only scratches the surface of what such platforms can bring.

Like LinkedIn, businesses can build their own trading networks, recommending suppliers and buyers to each other. They can collaborate around different transactions, achieving full visibility into related documents.

Open platforms like Tradeshift’s B2B Marketplace also offer access to a range of commercial and financial services embedded into the network, providing better opportunities for cash flow management and business growth. It’s a model designed to bring value to every participant, not just the buyer.