BROWZ Contractor Management Bridges Gap Between Sourcing and Safety with Supply Chain Prequalification Portal

• 

BROWZ Simplifies Contractor Selection

Using patented technology, BROWZ is able to pre-qualify contractors and suppliers based on the hiring organization’s standards.

Salt Lake City, Utah (PRWEB) April 03, 2014

Thirty-four percent of buyers believe their procurement department is understaffed according to a survey conducted by Source One Inc. Given today’s economy, it’s not surprising that procurement is being asked to do more with less, including the added responsibility of managing risk throughout a diverse, global supply chain.

BROWZ, a leading provider of Supply Chain Solutions, is addressing this challenge along with a number of other challenges shared between departments.

According to Shane Neve, Vice President of Professional Services at BROWZ, “Enterprise organizations get a flood of requests from contractors and suppliers interested in working for them, even before work is available. Sourcing work from the best qualified members of the supply chain can be an enormous drain on resources. This ultimately impacts an organizations ability to focus on the day–to-day business.”

Neve continues, “Those challenges don’t go away once work is awarded. What we typically see is a huge gap between departments as the responsibility for supplier management, shifts from procurement to safety and operations. Procurement managers should not only be working to reduce costs of service and materials, they must also work alongside safety and operations to ensure compliance issues are being addressed. Doing this they can improve safety performance and reduce costs associated to workplace injury or litigation. What we do is provide relevant data to all departments, creating a collaborative compliance process.”

Using patented technology, BROWZ is able to prequalify contractors and suppliers based on the hiring organization’s standards and then, once work is awarded, BROWZ continues to monitor supply chain data. This brings transparency to the compliance process and improves collaboration between, procurement, operations, and safety personnel who are typically responsible for compliance monitoring once work is awarded.

Besides identifying which contractors and suppliers meet a client’s compliance standards, the prequalification process can help further corporate diversity objectives, by identifying women and minority owned businesses, a common requirement of highly regulated businesses.

In 2011, IndustryWeek asked the question, “Does a business case exist for establishing programs that target minority- and women-owned suppliers?” The article went on to explain, “Manufacturers that have implemented supplier diversity programs say the payoff has come in the form of stronger relationships with their supply base, new business opportunities and a more agile supply chain.”

Vice President of Product Development, Aaron Rudd, points out, “BROWZ can create an online portal to help employers easily screen and onboard contractors and suppliers. This prequalification portal is a web-based assessment that contractors complete which allows employers to evaluate potential suppliers prior to awarding work. We have the ability to integrate this into our clients existing website or direct prospective contractors to the BROWZ site where the assessment takes place.”

During the implementation process, BROWZ consults with clients to define and create screening criteria for prospective supply chain members to meet before being awarded work. The complexity of the data requested can be tailored based on the contractor work type.

“Most importantly,” says Rudd, “is the ability to seamlessly transition to an ongoing compliance management tool once work is awarded to a contractor. For the remainder of the relationship, BROWZ monitors the supply chain to ensure that data is kept current and compliant with our clients requirements, which we define based on industry benchmarks and best practices. The result is greater transparency, risk reduction, and improved workplace conditions through contractor management.”

Learn more about the BROWZ Contractor Prequalifcation Portal.

PDF Print