Supply Chain Brain

The 10 most common qualities that users looked for in their vendors are:

1. Reliability—Without doubt, the sin-gle-most important element readers value is reliability. These readers’ customers will not accept excuses for service failures, so neither should they. And when a vendor has proven itself to be rock-solid reliable, an enduring partnership is assured.

2. Excellence—While good performance is expected, the vendors receiving accolades for service always went over and above what was required.

3. Value & cost savings—Readers said their key motivation for purchasing any new technology or outsourced service was cost savings, but the most the important financial measure was value in terms of increasing sales, production or other rev-enue-related metric.

4. Expertise and knowledge base— Manufacturers and retailers increasingly look to their providers for best practices specific to their industry, market or product.

9. Global reach—As supply chains become more global, companies of all sizes are looking for technologies and services that allow them to operate with trading partners all over the world

10. Strong management—Nothing can damage the relationship between a company and its partners faster than an erosion of commitment from the partner’s management. Leadership is monitored very carefully by companies that depend on their supply chain partners.

Finally, here are some important points to keep in mind:

• The methodology for exactly how the 100 Great Supply Chain Partners nominating process was conducted is spelled out on this page. However, very simply, the companies listed here are completely based on voluntary responses from readers. No one at SupplyChainBrain had anything to do with which companies were nominated.

• We have included 100 vendors just because it is a manageable number. We

nology and services that help you achieve your supply chain goals, you not only give them the recognition that they deserve, but you point out to all vendors the qualities that you admire—and expect. That effort helps the entire industry. Thank you again, and we look forward to your participation next year.

To access the following case studies online, visit www.SupplyChainBrain.com.

The notion of competitive advantage didn’t
stop them from nominating partners who
helped them compete any time, anywhere.

Vendors that have this expertise quickly become trusted advisers.

5. Problem-solving—Year after year, this continues to be a major theme because companies experience emergencies. Partners that effectively handle such events are highly valued by their customers.

6. Continuous improvement— Companies want to see a plan for product development (especially in technology) so they know their needs will be met in the future.

7. Support—The downsizing of most companies means that they have greater dependence on their vendors to implement, train, maintain and support the technologies and service provided. The support component is almost as important as the technology or service itself.

8. Positive culture—The greatest accolades were bestowed on those vendors that took on any challenge and found a way to accomplish a goal without complaints or excuses.

actually received nominations for more than 500. The companies included just had more, and more in-depth nominations than the others. The comments offered for these unmentioned companies clearly reflect their customers’ appreciation, but we had to draw the line somewhere. For better or for worse, the number 100 has become the standard for any list of this type.

This year we’ve added another component, something we call Spotlights. In them, we simply let the comments of some of the satisfied customers of 11 providers tell why they nominated them as Great Supply Chain Partners.

Conclusion
We thank all of the readers of Supply-
ChainBrain magazine who participated in
the 2009 edition of the 100 Great Supply
Chain Partners nominations. By voicing
your appreciation for the vendors of tech-

The list accompanying this report is based entirely on the entries voluntarily submitted to SupplyChainBrain.com, where the official nomination form has been posted since the early spring. Over the last few months, many readers received emails asking them to participate and directing them to the form. Other readers and users of the web site independently found a link to the official nomination form on the home page.

Nominations could only be made using the official web-enabled form that required nominators to identify themselves, their position, their company, their email address and a phone number where they could be reached to verify their responses. For their nomination to be counted, the participants had to provide adequate identifying information to verify their identify and their legitimate role in the industry. Nominations from participants selecting their own companies or closely allied entities were disqualified, as were multiple nominations from the same customer company.

Participants could nominate up to three companies and could support their nomination with as much or as little commentary as they wished. To provide more in-depth information for this report, some nominators were interviewed after they submitted their completed forms. We received over 2,700 qualified responses nominating more than 500 different companies. The final list presented here includes the 100 companies that received the most nominations. In the case of ties, the nominations with the most detailed justification were selected.