Canada: Six Key Performance Areas for 2016

• Scott Kelley, Vice President of North American Sales and Marketing

The 2015 Canadian Industry Stakeholder Meeting (October, 2015 in Mississauga, ON) brought together over 150 participants from supplier, provider, GPO and distributor organizations to share experiences and learn from one another.

Meeting topics focused on contract management, price alignment and performance measurement. Throughout the day, presenters from both provider and supplier organizations shared the tools and processes they use to effectively track these core business functions. Following the presentations, participants broke into smaller groups for further discussion.

These questions were discussed within the breakout groups:

• How does your organization conduct performance measurement with your business partners?
• What KPIs does your organization use?
• How do you measure compliance?
• What limitations and challenges do you face in achieving your performance goals?

It was clear during discussions that measurement priorities were very similar between both providers and suppliers. For both, compliance was the overriding goal of all performance tracking activities. For supplier organizations, business compliance equaled the effective balance between revenue and volumes. For provider organizations, business compliance equaled the effective balance of budget/plan versus actual spend.

The six key performance areas identified by participants as priorities for continued action and improvement in 2016 include:

1. Workflow Efficiency. Performance measures related to direct customer experience, financial effectiveness and procurement process efficiencies.
2. Utilization of EDI. The measurement of increasing EDI capabilities between trading partners.
3. Contract Management. Compliance to contract terms, in particular, ensuring accurate contract prices are used.
4. Business Reviews. Monitoring performance by coming together for scheduled, ongoing business reviews with trading partners.
5. Pricing Accuracy. Ensuring accurate price compliance throughout procurement transactions.
6. Data Accuracy. Data accuracy was a critical discussion point towards the maintenance of good performance levels. Data accuracy concerns ranged from order entry accuracy to GTIN capabilities and readiness.

Fundamentally, participants agreed that collaboration among partners, and continuous learning and application of EDI solutions and processes were key actions in moving forward.

The Canadian Provider and Shared Services Advisory Group (PSSAG), a group of leaders from both provider and supplier organizations that collaborate to address common supply chain challenges, will be looking at ways to improve these six key performance areas in 2016. The Canadian Session at the 2016 Supply Chain Summit is a key event where these performance discussions will be continued to effect actionable solutions.

The full breakout report from the 2015 Canadian Industry Stakeholder Meeting can be viewed here.

Scott Kelley

Vice President of North American Sales and Marketing