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Outsourcing and supplier management

The case for outsourcing, particularly the outsourcing of business processes that directly interface with your customers, needs careful thought, a full value stream analysis, meticulous preparation and total commitment. Outsourcing is a strategic issue for the Board.

A recent survey showed an expected growth across the UK in outsourcing across all industries and company sizes. No longer is this practice strictly limited to the multinationals! 

Source: Minahan, TA (2003) Aberdeen Group Inc and Penton Media Inc

However, research also indicates that whilst the level of outsourcing is increasing, satisfaction with it has slightly fallen over recent years for the following reasons:

• Unrealistic expectations

• Inadequate resources provided by service providers

• Initial data and information was inaccurate or incomplete

• Commitment to outsourcing was lacking internally
• Poor communication
• Poor contract management

Supplier management

In order to gain competitive advantage and access new markets, more and more companies are looking further afield for their suppliers. Burman Associates has considerable experience in selecting and subsequently developing them on behalf of our clients. Our experiences in Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Far East ensure that the risks associated with selecting and using suppliers from these countries is minimised.

At Burman our team of consultants can assist you with outsourcing and managing supplier relationships by:

• Helping to define your goals and produce realistic expectations

• Undertaking comprehensive data analysis

• Producing the Invitation to Tender
• Producing a short list of potential suppliers
• Planning timescales and response procedures
• Producing evaluation criteria
• Managing the evaluation process
• Preparing and negotiating a suitable Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Assisting in the implementation process
• Undertaking regular supplier audits

Burman Associates is totally independent with no affiliation to any suppliers of logistics services or equipment and therefore you are guaranteed total neutrality in any solution produced.

Copyright © European Logistics Consortium Limited 2001 (all rights reserved)

Burman Associates is a member of the European Logistics Consortium Ltd.