- 26
- OCT
- 2011
So what if the reach of social media is limitless, procurement?
Author: Maggie Slowik - Categories: Technology & Apps, Procurement Intelligence
The question of whether procurement should use social media as a form of market intelligence remains controversial. My colleague Kayleigh Ryan recently argued on the PIU blog that while operational-level professional buyers have been quick to adopt social media as a vehicle to gain information about markets and suppliers, CPOs and other top-level procurement professionals are the laggards of this trend.
Earlier this month I attended a workshop in Munich aimed at discussing the need for and use of market intelligence within the procurement function. As I presented various social media applications, I received some unexpected push-back from the audience, made up of mid to senior-level buyers from German-based financial service providers. "All of these social media tools are too Ango-American for me," argued one, quickly followed by another: "What is Twitter?"
A quick poll at the end of the session revealed that, in fact, most workshop attendees didn't have personal experience of the likes of Facebook and LinkedIn, whereas some reported that they used social media tools tailored to German-speaking geographies, such as Xing, as opposed to LinkedIn.
This feedback made me realise that pushing the big global social media applications as a means for procurement to continuously innovate, let alone do its job correctly, is perhaps pushing the envelope a bit too much. We have to keep geographic remit in mind. Why would a medium-sized German retail bank revert to an internal social media application if most of its suppliers happen to be in Germany anyway?
But, then again, why wouldn't it? To stay competitive, our supply chains have to increasingly explore opportunities outside of their usual territories, and as such, have to consider that suppliers may no longer be next door. And even if our suppliers were local, it wouldn't necessarily mean that their sub-suppliers were too.
While the use of social media is obviously at each procurement organisation's own discretion, those who already use it or are considering doing so should not limit themselves to local applications only, but should go for the big names out there. Because rest assured, that's where they are bound to find more information. And isn't that the purpose of market intelligence anyhow?
Comments
Lyn via LinkedIn
Thu 27 Oct 2011 08:17
Social media can be a powerful and useful tool to network and influence others based on upon best practices.
John via LinkedIn
Thu 27 Oct 2011 15:02
For social media to have value to procurement it would need to be strictly controlled and that's counter to the concept of social media. All you have to do is follow any topic on LinkedIn and you will see many of the problems of social media. For example on Procurement Professionals (#1 supply chain & sourcing group).there was a question posed about how to verify a supplier without a site visit. Many of the responses were wrong, some were from companies that wanted to sell services or function and the buyer.
The author of the post who asked the question worked for one of these service companies.
There were a number of good posts and suggestions. There were many where it was obvious that the individual had never read any of the comments already posted and simply went off and gave their own opinion. For it to have had any value to someone that was considering it you would need to wade through the hundreds of posts to determine your own opinion.
Even if you had a social media network that was tightly controlled, there are potential problems. Most buyers consider their lists of approved suppliers to be confidential. They don't want their names associated with suppliers creating a form of endorsement. They don't want negative comments about suppliers published for fear of potential law suits. Where a form of social media would really work for procurement would be if it was used internally by procurement's customers to provide feedback and ratings on non-production purchases so that other customers don't make the same mistake and so if there are problems the supplier manager can learn about them to correct them
Alan via LinkedIn
Tue 1 Nov 2011 15:19
Totally agree with John Tracy on this -
Jaye via LinkedIn
Thu 3 Nov 2011 11:45
Although social media channels don`t seem to be appreciated & used within the procurement function as yet (especially at executive level), I don`t see a valid reason why these channels should be ignored.
As a thought leadership platform, social media has a lot to offer, and it is only a matter of time before procurement start taking full advantage of its numerous benefits.
But the question remains – why is procurem