SAP Article Sample

It’s a near-daily occurrence: Companies of all sizes in all geographies are going out of business, which has a ripple effect both upstream and downstream. Additional measures and due diligence are needed in today’s economic turmoil to identify in advance suppliers at risk in a multi-tier supply chain.

Closely monitoring the financial health of thousands of suppliers is a challenge. In fact, 44% of 600 companies don’t have a group of core suppliers, according to a recent AMR Research survey. This means 100% of volume purchased is fairly evenly distributed and relies on a large number of predominantly smaller suppliers, a trend particularly prevalent in consumer products (CP), retail, and high tech. The study also showed that this long tail of suppliers in China, India, and the rest of Asia-Pacific presented the greatest challenges when trying to collaborate.