Supplier Onboarding on a Massive Scale

Supplier onboarding is just one of the many tasks that may need to be completed when you begin the mobilisation process. The first thought you need to understand is the procurement landscape. By this I mean you have to gather Client intelligence about the suppliers currently servicing the contract and looking after the buildings.

Why is this important?

To some this maybe obvious however, you cannot develop a procurement strategy and confirm which suppliers will need to be onboarded without input from your Client.

Why does this matter?

Change and transitioning a new contract is challenging enough without added complexities of trying to understand what the supply chain looks like. Above all continuity of services to all Client sites across all their locations is an absolute priority.

You will fail at the first hurdle if you do not have a supply chain in place for day 1 of your new contract. Why go to all the effort of securing a contract only to fail on delivery at the beginning?

How can you ensure a robust process is in place and contingencies are in place to reduce and or eliminate the risk of no supply chain to deliver your service obligations.

Let’s break it down and then I will talk about practical steps you can take to onboard suppliers on mass (if this is the procurement strategy that gives you the best solution).

I mentioned obtaining supplier intelligence from your new Client as soon as you can.

What does this look like? What type of information should you be asking for?

You will need the following as a guide and as a minimum from your Client to get started;

I find this is best presented in a simply excel table format making it easy to add new information as you go through this discovery stage.

1- Region the suppliers operate in - UK, EMEA, APAC or US

2 Country in each region

3 City where services are being delivered

4 site, location and address?

5 the supplier name

6 category of service is it hard services or soft services

7 type of service the supplier delivers

8 description of the services

9 locations the supplier is currently covering

10 is there a contract in place

11 what are the terms ? At this stage you only need high level I.e. the length of the contract, termination period, are there any penalty clauses, are there any special provisions, are there any warranties in place?

11 cost of the services

12 is the service deemed critical to the Client and the location

13 who is the key point of contact for the contract

14 who is the key point of contact for the operations

Obtaining the minimum amount of supplier data is a great start to understanding your onboarding requirements .

What do you do with this information when received?

1. Review the information and ask questions if you uncover any gaps - if any details are missing related to the service, this will impact on the effectiveness and success development of your procurement strategy
2. Get permission if you have not already to engage with the current suppliers who are known as the incumbents - this is usually a written instruction from the Client to the supply chain informing them of your appointment, commencement date and advising that all information pertaining to the contract can be shared.
3. Assess each category and determine it’s level of priority - for example fire, security, building systems, critical services such as catering, vending, cleaning, building maintenance will carry a priority level , 1 being high, 2 medium and 3 low, these will be explained in a moment
4. Consider the options and type of procurement activity that will be needed to deliver the services from day one - ask yourself will you need to tender certain services? Is there sufficient time to execute a tender process? Can you negotiate a new contract and can you obtain all costs from the incumbent and your preferred suppliers. What will the procurement plan look like you will need to create a roadmap l
5. Start to formulate the procurement strategy by region, country based on criticality and what your company has committed to deliver as a solution to the Client.

Defining Your Priorities:- As a guide to how to define your priorities, priority 1 would be high risk, critical suppliers you cannot do without for day 1. These suppliers are typically single source, manufacturers and maintainers of highly specialised your buildings. remember to check with with your Client to understand what they deem as their priority services, what you perceive to be critical and a priority one may not be in your clients eyes, often than not you are not far off.

Top tip here, engage with your identified critical suppliers at your earliest opportunity once you get the go ahead to engage.

A side note here, even if you have your own preferred supplier partners that may have been part of your bid process, you still need to understand the details of every single service and develop your procurement strategy around your findings as well as your company procurement objectives.

Okay back to the priorities, priority 2 these will typically be suppliers that deliver essential services , no. Critical meaning you have medium risk, lots of options and alternatives to cover the service if the current supplier does not want to engage.

An example of these services are landscaping and interior planting, cleaning services, vending services, fabric maintenance.

Priority 3 suppliers I would class as low risk. These suppliers are often remote, infrequent advocates services, periodic services where the supplier only visits site on a six monthly or annual basis. The litmus test here is to ask if we did not have this service on day one what would the impact be? Examples of these types of services are; the bakery, key holding services, locksmiths, archiving companies, storage companies.

Now you understand the priorities and you have permission and data from your Client is time to convert what you know into action.

Engage internally and arrange meetings with suppliers for validating information shared. With your stakeholders discuss and understand whether there are any fundamental changes to the delivery of the services as part of the new agreement that is being implemented.

Some questions you can ask;

1. Will the service be the same day 1 or change?
2. What savings (if any) have been committed to the Client ?
3. What are the terms agreed with the Client? - i.e. will the Client terminate existing contracts allowing you to freely choose your supply chain?
4. Can you use your own supply chain or are you mandated to take on all existing suppliers?
5. Do we have a preferred supplier who can cover the services?
6. What type of procurement activity is required?
7. If a supplier refuses to contract with us do we have a contingency in place to cover the service?
8. Scaling:- Can existing suppliers cover more services and geographies currently being serviced?
9. Commercials what was in the bid? what are the current costs?
10. What are the scopes and requirements we need to implement?
11. How soon can we get supplier proposals, review and analyse?

These questions are not exhaustive however, when you know, you can further define your procurement strategy.

Mass Supplier Onboarding

Fast forward, you have conducted your assessments and have a pretty good understanding of what services and suppliers need to be onboarded. Eek!! we have about 50 suppliers it could be 100 the fact remains you are working to a tight mobilisation deadline and need support to get this vital piece done.

The best approach is to ensure your prime key stakeholders who are part of the onboarding approval process about what is coming down the line and approximately when. Number of suppliers, who they are and services they are covering.

Set up your flash meetings and calls weekly and then increase to daily as you approach go live. Attendees will be administrators and stakeholders who will be managing the supplier relationship once you have mobilised.

Set up a tracker to record the onboarding journey; total suppliers, status of onboarding, (% not started, % in progress, % completed, % escalated) ensure you report on your tracker as part of your mobilisation reporting sessions with the mobilisation team.

If you a supplier, at this point you should have received notification about the onboarding process and onboarding documentation that enables you to be set up in new Client's system, if not then ensure you make an enquiry as soon as you are aware of the changes.

Call suppliers, follow up with emails until you make contact. The brief guide below can be shared with your teams to assist with the process.

Always confirm your internal onboarding processes and the time is takes to onboard as this may vary from one organisation to the next.

Thank you.

Maxcene Crowe is a facilities management and procurement industry expert specialising in mobilisation and transition. Maxcene can be contacted here on LinkedIn| https://bit.ly/3Yv4oIA or you can schedule a 15minute consult for us to understand your needs | https://bit.ly/3KpGxWU