Nanjing Jixing Hulian Technology provides IT services to industrial parks and works with a wide range of self-developed and purchased hardware and software. It commissioned a supplier management system, delivered in three stages, to move supplier information, quotations and technical documents out of Excel and into a system.
Project background
One hardware category often has several brands to choose from, and different suppliers of the same brand differ in price and after-sales service. Managing suppliers in Excel makes information hard to share and leaves documents scattered across individual computers, which is inefficient.
Ready-made supplier suites have plenty of modules, but they ask the company to adapt to the software rather than shaping the process and modules around the company’s own organisation and management model. The company therefore chose custom development: not many features, but a process that grows from its own way of working.
Design goals
- Information in one place — supplier details, quotations and technical documents are filed centrally instead of living in Excel on individual computers.
- One cost definition — engineering cost is counted the same way across marketing and finance, and both read the same numbers.
- Procurement online — tenders and quotation updates move online so the procurement process leaves a record.
Three stages
Stage one
Supplier master data, supplier quotations and product technical documents — putting the three questions of who the suppliers are, what they quote and what material exists in their place.
Stage two
Precise engineering cost management, bringing the marketing, finance and other departments that touch engineering cost into one system with a single cost definition.
Stage three
Tender documents published on the supplier platform, suppliers submitting bids online, and shortlisted suppliers updating their product quotations online.
How it differs from an off-the-shelf product
A general system asks the company to change its habits to fit the software; this one works the other way round — organisation, process chain and quotation definitions are built on the company’s existing model, so staff ramp up quickly and suppliers only need to upload files and fill in prices.
Outcome
- Supplier information, quotations and technical documents are stored centrally instead of living in Excel on individual computers.
- Engineering cost has one definition in the system, so marketing and finance read the same numbers.
- Tendering and quotation updates moved online, leaving a record of the procurement process.
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