It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. – Henry David Thoreau
Many organizations are turning to Supplier Lifecycle Management providers in order to meet their daunting supplier management requirements. Naturally, few are sole-sourced (unless there is an ERP bias of course); therefore, HICX Solutions is often stacked up against the “best of the rest”. What are some of the reasons organizations choose to partner with our organization?
1. The system is not constrained by “old code”
Few will question the rapid pace Supplier Lifecycle Management providers have to keep up with in order to meet the demands of today’s complex, global organizations – many struggle to adapt “old code” to meet new needs.
How many acquisitions has SAP, Oracle, Ariba, or others undertaken in order to try and plug holes – and, once one looks under the covers at these and other solutions, can they meet today’s, and tomorrow’s, needs?
Our state-of-the-art workflows, supplier data models, search algorithms, web interfaces, integration capabilities, and processes were built from the ground up to aggressively meet time-to-market demands, scale appropriately, and serve the needs of the world’s most demanding, large, and complex organizations.
2. The data structure is flexible, providing limitless options
Managing multiple disparate systems, with each leveraging their own version of supplier information, it quickly becomes an insurmountable task in trying to confirm all standards, fields, and hierarchies are mapped and fully-harmonized. Our data model empowers you to easily define fields, and their validations, standards, and permissions - while enforcing all data quality objectives and security standards. Virtually any possibility quickly becomes possible.
3. It’s core leverages proper Master Data Governance
Most Master Data Management efforts are destined to fail, as they lack data ownership structure and workflow – and NO Supplier Lifecycle Management solution can provide efficiencies without understanding and governing a “gold copy” of supplier master data, across initiatives, across platforms, etc. HICX’s roots are Master Data Governance. Without this foundation, the promotion of “a single source of truth” could never achieve reality.
4. Processes can completely model the organizational structure
Others will try, and almost all will fail. The reality is that the supplier onboarding and master data processes are never fully harmonized within a global organization, as business unit and local country requirements differ and are always changing. As such, most employ manual steps and local workarounds in order to survive - which always fall short of delivering operational value. HICX designed an enterprise workflow model, which accounts for the reality of corporate, as well as local/regional needs, while empowering rapid flexibility.
5. The solution was built to handle global needs
Founded in London in 2004, it was vital that our solutions accounted for the variability transnational organizations require. From multi-lingual support (English, versus German, etc.), through scoping of initiatives (e.g., X is required from UK suppliers, versus Y being required from German suppliers, etc.), every aspect of what we built incorporates the flexibility needed and the quickness to adapt across the global organization.
6. The solution leverages a 3rd party ecosystem to leverage other content providers
The world of Supplier Management is ever evolving - and often driven by today’s regulatory environment. As such, successful Supplier Lifecycle Management solutions not only need the ability to adapt to change, but also leverage content and capabilities from alternative sources. HICX, therefore, leverages an ecosystem of relationships, which can quickly plug-in and benefit the customer as needed. Whether a new compliance initiative has arisen, where one wants to leverage an already approved standard, or whether one needs to incorporate 3rd party content (such as Dun & Bradstreet, LexisNexis, OFAC, or other), our solution does not constrain our customers within a set box.
7. It can be deployed either on-premise, hosted, or a combination of both
Lets face it… there are advantages (and disadvantages) to all deployment models. Many are opting for ‘hosted’; however, policies may exist that dictate an alternative path, whether due to security and integration requirements. Others desire an ‘on-premise’ model, but need to leverage the economies of scale and speed of deployment of a ‘hosted’ model. Others may desire both (e.g., master data managed on-premise and non-master data managed in the cloud). Our solution was designed to provide deployment options to fit any scenario - giving you the flexibility to choose the most appropriate deployment model based on your organization’s security, cost, or resource requirements.
8. It is a proven success within the most complicated environments.
There is no real need to elaborate here, as our customer list speaks for itself.
9. The Total Cost of Ownership is better, while still providing more functionality than alternative solutions
Total Cost of Ownership incorporates many factors: software licensing, implementation, training, ongoing maintenance, etc. HICX’s ethos is to provide the absolute best product at the best possible cost. Time and time again, across all factors, organizations discover that our solutions offer a superior product, with the lowest TCO. (Note: though that fact seems obvious against the ERP providers, we are not always measured up against them.)
10. HICX’s experience
Even the best solutions can fail if the project implementation is not executed correctly, on time and on budget. As such, where others may outsource their implementation, our organization invests significant time, money and effort in developing and renewing our process and industry knowledge to ensure we are able to meet our customer’s ever-evolving needs. Further, with regional headquarters in London, Chicago, and Dubai (and teams spread across the globe), our global presence and experience in wide-array of supplier management situations are often leveraged by our customers as a decisive, strategic competitive advantage.
The test... ask us anything, whether implementation plan, industry knowledge, or other.
Winston Churchill stated that, “a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on” – and the reality is that many will direct significant resources towards marketing themselves, whether through analysts, advertisement, or other, in the attempt of convincing organizations they are “the” solution.
Upon review, however, the facts are unwaivering.
At HICX Solutions, we help our customers significantly reduce the costs and risks associated with managing suppliers – and have a history of aggressively meeting the needs of today’s most complex, global, and evolving purchasing/supply chain organizations. Click here to learn more about how our Supplier Lifecycle Management can bring significant positive impact to your organization, and how you can help lead your organization into the future.