Who is it for?

The introduction to supplier relationships bite-size course has been desiged to support those individuals working within the procurement function to explore the varied elements of relationship that can be formed with suppliers, including the life cycle of relationships from establishing new suppliers through to the termination of the relationship. The course, although bite-size provides each learner with an enhanced insight to help you establish, maintain, and streghten relationships with suppliers within the modern business landscape in order to achieve the overall objectives of your organisation, regardless of the size or nature of the business.

The Introduction to Supplier Relationships in Procurement bite-size course has been written and developed by experts with combined experience, totalling decades, of working with supplier relationships in procurement and the wider supply chain industry. Using their first-hand knowledge and experience of succeeding within Procurement, the introductory course has been written to support you with expanding your understanding of:

• The relationship spectrum and the relationship life cycle including the stages involved
• Identifying key products and supply sources including category management
• The bargaining power of both buyers and suppliers
• Porters Five Forces Model
• How to identify the external factors that influence procurement decisions
• How to manage supplier metrics for the purpose of a beneficial relationship
• What is involved when it comes to the termination of a supplier relationship

The course begins by exploring what is meant by internal and external suppliers, and the benefits of each before moving on to learning about the relationship spectrum and life cycle, providing you with an interesting insight to both, and how they work alongside each other enabling you to analyse your supplier metrix in order to identify your organisation’s key products and supply sources, helping you to better understand and manager your supplier relationships.

The course also provides an expert introduction into category management and includes examples to demonstrate exactly how it works and the importance of it within business. You will learn all about the bargaining power of both buyers and suppliers and the factors involved in establishing power and leveraging it within negotiation. Porters Five Forces Model is a crucial element of effective supplier relationships and this is explored in-depth in the next section of the course.

Moving on, the next topic of the course explains how to identify external factors that can influence procurement decisions and how to assess the factors and risks using the well-known PESTLE (political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental, ethical) tool. Providing you with the confidence to manage supplier metrics to create mutually beneficial relationship with suppliers. This section of the course also covers important planning tools such as defining the KPI’s and using these to help analyse the buyer-supplier relationship, identify areas for improvement, and using the KPI’s for ongoing monitoring helping you to gain a rounded understanding on risk, performance, and problem management within procurement.

No matter how hard we try not all relationships with suppliers are effective, that why the course concludes by looking at the termination of a supplier relationship. It can be complicated to cease working with a supplier, especially if they provide your organisations with numerous products or services so we break the process down starting with identifying supplier performance issues, when and how you should obtain business approval to terminate, and concluding with the written notice of termination and the exit interview.

Learner Outcomes

Upon completion of the bite-size course you will have the knowledge and understanding needed to effectively manager supplier relationships enabling you to confidently deal with every part of the process a Procurement Professional needs to follow to achieve the strategic aims of their employer.

The bite-size course is an online interactive learning programme, broken down into informative topics to help you progress through the course in a user-friendly way. Throughout your learning, you can use the self-test questions to cement your understanding and can pause and resume your studies whenever it is convenient.

On average the course takes three to four hours to complete, making it the perfect learning tool for professionals with busy lives. In addition to the reading materials, you will find videos and infographics throughout your course to provide you with further insight into the topic you are studying.