Supplier onboarding shouldn’t take 6 months.

Supplier onboarding shouldn’t take 6 months.

But somehow… it always does.

Not because procurement wants it that way.

We’re not sat in a large, darkened room on a swivel chair, stroking a white cat, thinking:

“Yes… yes… let the onboarding drag…these people can wait, and then wait a little longer.”

It’s because onboarding in most organisations is a heroic quest involving:

• 14 forms, 7 of which look suspiciously similar and are obviously based on a Word document that Dave put together in 2011

• 9 approvals - most from people who don’t know anything about supplier risk; supplier financial statements; our contractual terms; OR HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO GET THIS ‘BLEEDIN’ SUPPLIER ONBOARDED because they started the work 6 weeks ago

• 3 systems that don’t talk to each other

• A risk questionnaire which mentions COVID-19 four times

• And at least one person who says, “Oh, I didn’t know I needed to sign that, so I just deleted it - could you resend it please?”

And someone from HR has just added a new onboarding step called “Supplier Aura Assessment”.

Meanwhile, the business is shouting: “Why isn’t this supplier live yet?”

And procurement is shouting back: “Because “the business” (whoever that is) keeps adding steps like it’s Machu Picchu”

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Slow onboarding isn’t just annoying.

It’s expensive.  It’s wasteful.  It’s frustrating.  It’s missing the point.

When onboarding drags, you get:

• Product launches delayed

• Compliance gaps you only discover when an auditor raises an eyebrow

• No back-up supplier when your primary one spontaneously combusts

• Stakeholders who think procurement is the bottleneck

• Suppliers who lose the will to live halfway through the process

And yes - the ISM stat is real.  Time to first delivery is slow, very slow.

Large companies really do take up to 6 months to onboard a supplier.

Six. Months.

A human child can learn to sit up in that time.

An ERP system can be implemented and rolled out.

China can add power generation capacity equivalent to hundreds of large-scale power stations, with renewables dominating the new installations - more than all of the power of Poland, Sweden, or the UAE.

Ok, we lied about the ERP one.

The best Procurement teams don’t accept this as normal.

They streamline qualification.

They automate the boring bits.

They stop asking suppliers to upload the same certificate 4 different times, and send a copy by email just in case.

They give stakeholders visibility so nobody has to ask, “Where are we up to?” for the 47th time.

Procurement Says No is proudly sponsored by @Kodiak Hub, and our arrangement means we can say whatever we want about them, and they won’t get upset.

We like @Kodiak Hub because they’ve built a supplier management platform that turns onboarding from a marathon into… well… something that doesn’t require electrolytes and a medical tent.   More like a 5k park run.   Fun for all the family, and off to the pub for lunch.

If your onboarding process currently involves spreadsheets, email chains, and a prayer circle, take a look

Curious…What’s your actual supplier onboarding lead time these days?