Category Archives: Supply Chain

Logistics, News, Supply Chain

Vizibl Launches Innovation Hub at COLLABORATE 2021 Summit

New Innovation Hub platform powers organisations to drive sustainable growth and increase competitive advantage post pandemic

Vizibl, the leading SaaS platform for Supplier Collaboration and Innovation, today announced its new Innovation Hub. This helps organisations unlock the value of their supplier ecosystems to source ideas, launch new initiatives, and manage the projects that turn ideas into outcomes and deliver on key business goals.

The Innovation Hub enables businesses to source ideas externally through Opportunity Capture Forms. This is important as externally sourced ideas account for around 60% of enterprise innovation, and enjoy a 40% faster time to market, per McKinsey research. These Opportunity Capture Forms allow suppliers and partners to submit project ideas to address business needs or respond to specific ‘problem statements’ posed by the business.

With this, contributors are given a framework for their creativity, encouraging proposals of more mature initiatives. This speeds up their journey to fully realise innovation projects, delivering value back to the business in a shorter time.

Upcoming functionality will allow users to capture these ideas from anywhere, including suppliers that aren’t using the platform. With the Vizibl Innovation Hub, companies can collaborate effectively with stakeholders and lines of business, manage new opportunities at scale, and clearly demonstrate the business impact of all collaborative innovation efforts.

Commenting on the new platform, Mark Perera, founder and CEO for Vizibl said: “The unprecedented nature of COVID-19 has forced companies, and industries, to rethink and transform their supply chain models and supplier ecosystems for good. The new Innovation Hub will allow organisations to drive sustainable business growth across their supplier ecosystems, whilst also increasing competitive advantage and market growth through supplier diversity. This will empower procurement teams with advanced collaboration and innovation capabilities that outperform their industry peers in both top and bottom-line performance, helping them to really add value and drive their procurement initiatives forward.”

Using Vizibl’s platform to gather ideas from suppliers means organisations can collaborate to launch initiatives that drive cost savings, productivity, business growth, and their sustainability agenda. Additionally, these initiatives can support organisational goals around supplier diversity by easily capturing opportunities to work with new suppliers from different communities. In addition to external opportunities, the Vizibl platform can be used to engage different functions within an organisation, allowing procurement teams to drive cross-functional business agendas internally.

Vizibl is taking a phased approach to releasing new features in the Innovation Hub roadmap in order to provide valuable tools to customers, sooner. There are several features that are already available, such as the standalone Opportunity Capture Forms, allowing procurement teams to receive all the information they need when existing suppliers submit ideas. Once an opportunity is accepted, Vizibl enables the easy transition from an idea into a fully-fledged project. The platform’s real-time dashboards enable procurement teams to see all potential supplier innovation initiatives, alongside reports that track the progress of approved opportunities and the value they are generating.

Over the next two iterations of the Innovation Hub, Vizibl will release an ‘Initiatives’ component, which allows organisations to automate the process of inviting suppliers to submit opportunities. The following version will allow idea capture from suppliers that aren’t yet working withVizibl, enabling their collaboration via a secure external submission portal.

The Innovation Hub platform is being announced at COLLABORATE 2021, which has a host of high-level industry speakers exploring the value of supplier ecosystems. Topics on the agenda include sustainability, innovation, social impact, and cost-savings. Highlight speakers at this one-day virtual summit include:

  • Marc Engel, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Unilever
  • Magali Anderson, Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer, LafargeHolcim
  • Ninian Wilson, CEO, Vodafone Procurement Company
  • Cesare Guarini, Director Sustainability Procurement, Philip Morris
  • Louise Koch, Director of Global Social Impact, Dell
  • Justin Goldston, Professor and Co-Ordinator of Project and Supply Chain Management, Penn State University
  • Deborah Dull, Circular Economy Expert and Principal for Manufacturing Product Management, General Electric Digital
  • Karina Larsen, Former EMEA Supply Chain Head, Johnson & Johnson
  • Industry leaders from Santander, IBM, Novartis, Mars, & more

“We have a plethora of industry experts delivering thought provoking presentations and ideas, advice and direction to participants looking to change their supplier ecosystem, transform their supply chain models and drive sustainability and growth. Our COLLABORATE speakers will cover topical subjects such as resetting ecosystems, powering growth through supplier innovation, cost optimisation and supplier collaboration programmes; giving organisations the guidance they need to drive towards a more sustainable future,” concludes Perera.

Building on last year’s inaugural summit which attracted over 900 attendees, COLLABORATE is the world’s leading summit on supplier collaboration. This interactive event experience explores everything around supplier collaboration, delivering keynotes, actionable takeaways and online networking with industry visionaries and experts.

Industry News, News, Supply Chain

Vizibl Launches Vizibl Sustainability at its Inaugural COLLABORATE 2020 Summit

Vizibl, the leading SaaS platform for Supplier Collaboration, will be announcing Vizibl Sustainability, at its new virtual summit, COLLABORATE 2020. This new solution helps organisations align, engage and deliver on their sustainability programmes by collaborating more effectively with key suppliers throughout their global supply chain.

This solution helps organisations – and vendors in their supply chains – accelerate sustainability initiatives through the implementation a tangible framework, enabling all parties to achieve the desired Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) objectives.

Reiterating Vizibl’s focus on achieving true sustainability for its customers, it’s also partnering with EcoVadis. Based on a rigorous methodology covering 21 criteria across four themes, EcoVadis’ rating and scorecards will enable organisations to benchmark and track supplier performance on environment, labour and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. This innovation and resilience, fostered by sustainability, are how organisations and their supply chains will meet their future goals.

Both the launch of Vizibl Sustainability and Vizibl’s partnership with EcoVadis ensure organisations can go beyond simply monitoring supplier compliance, to actively collaborating with suppliers on initiatives to improve environmental, social and economic objectives.

If you would be interested in seeing the release under embargo please do contact me via ellen@c8consulting.co.uk, or for more information on Vizibl Sustainability, please click here

Procurement, Supply Chain

Welsh procurement specialist launches innovative scheme to help churches, schools, charities and care homes secure the PPE they need

A Welsh procurement specialist has launched a unique service to help churches, charities, schools, healthcare providers and other businesses in Wales and England to secure personal protective equipment (PPE) and hygiene and cleaning products in preparation for the easing of lockdown.

The business, which was established in 2009 by chief executive Rob Kissick and operations director Russell Stables, is working with clients including the Church of England, Church in Wales and a range of charities, schools and care homes to ensure they can source the PPE supplies they need.

There is no other company in Wales or the UK offering procurement services for PPE on this scale. Demand for its services that help businesses meet the challenges of COVID-19 has also meant it is one of the biggest recruiters in Wales at present. Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, it has hired 20 new employees increasing the size of its workforce by more than 30 percent. While 2buy2 is a private sector, commercial company, it has a philosophy of making sustainable, but never excessive profits. It also gives 10 per cent of its net profits to charities chosen by its staff every year.

2buy2 will source and purchase PPE for organisations that sign up (by Wednesday June 17). Its innovative service will negotiate preferential prices by buying on behalf of all members (aggregation buying). It will also ensure equipment is quality-assured, ethically sourced and all procurement procedures are correctly followed.

2buy2’s procurement services and specialist advisers support many businesses in the procurement and negotiation of complex contracts as well as coordinating their procurement activities to generate greater buying power across a range of contracts and supplies including energy.

The COVID-19 crisis prompted 2buy2 to add PPE to its offering. It has partnered on the supply with Crown Agents, the well-respected UK-based international development company that helps governments around the world to increase prosperity, reduce poverty and improve health by providing consultancy, supply chain, financial services and training. Critically, this also means it can procure the PPE without impacting on the supply to the NHS.

2buy2 has a track record in this space. The company previously helped source PPE supplies for the UK Government as part of its role in the international response to the Ebola health crisis in West Africa in 2014-15. It also worked with Crown Agents on that project.

2buy2 will be making a range of PPE equipment as well as cleaning and hygiene products available to members. But because 2buy2 creates buying groups to get the best deals, it also works to firm deadlines on members signing up. The first deadline for this is 6pm on Wednesday June 17.

Rob Kissick, CEO, 2buy2, said:

“I am delighted that 2buy2 have been able to launch this response in order to help businesses and organisations of all types to support their collective needs for increased personal protective equipment (PPE) at this incredibly challenging time for everyone.

“Using our experience of running large procurement buying groups, and working in partnership with international procurement agents, Crown Agents, we are procuring supplies of PPE which support members without impacting on the supply to the NHS. Our buying group is available to churches, schools and colleges, charities, care homes, and the wider business sector as we seek to support the Welsh economy and cornerstones of society in preparing for re-opening in the coming weeks and months.

“2buy2 is supporting clients in the procurement of PPE by providing expertise in international sourcing and delivery of high quality, inspected goods.”

Businesses can sign up here: www.2buy2.com/covid-19-response