Hello, my name is Jim Tompkins, President and CEO of Tompkins Associates and Tompkins International.
I am pleased to welcome back today Bruce Tompkins, the Executive Director of the Benchmarking and Best Practices Supply Chain Consortium.
This is the second podcast in a five-podcast series. In the first podcast in this series, we discussed with Bruce the organization of the consortium.
Today, Bruce and I will discuss the services and activities of the Benchmarking and Best Practices Supply Chain Consortium.
So Bruce, let me begin by asking you, what services do consortium members receive?
Bruce
Supply Chain Consortium members receive a variety of different services as part of their membership. One of the things that they can do is get access to our extensive database. The database includes supply chain metrics, as well as supply chain practices and processes. It is more than just a series of numbers. It also includes the practices and processes that companies use. Another important part of the database that we use is that it is a global database.
So it includes companies throughout the world and it includes companies that are based in North America, but have operations throughout the world. In fact, this morning we had a company join the consortium that is based from India. We are truly a global database, and the data that we collect is a global database. Some of the other things that our consortium members get with their membership is analysis tools that allow them to access the data, so it is a hands-on process where they can get into the information in the database and work with it themselves.
We also do special surveys. These surveys are called Hot Topic surveys; where we get consortium member feedback on hot topics that they would like to hear about. We create a survey and send the survey to our members and the information that is collected as part of that survey then becomes a report. The member benefits from the knowledge that we gain from that survey.
We do a lot of reporting on various aspects of the database and the special surveys that we do, so one our the key functions and one of the key things that members get out of this is a lot of learning about what’s happening in the supply chain, what are the important topics, and then a lot of data about what the other consortium members are doing and seeing as they work on their supply chains. The last part of what we do really at a high level is networking. We can talk about that further Jim, but really the bottom line is bringing our members together so that they are learning from each other, as well as learning from Tompkins Associates.
Jim
Thank you. How does this process work?
Bruce
Essentially the way the process works is that when a consortium member joins the consortium, they begin a process of entering data into different parts of the database, and it is very much a hands-on, pick what you want to participate in kind of process.
So our members decide which topics, which sections, which areas they want to involve themselves with. They put some data into the system through our web-based process, they then have access to see that information, as well as use the tools that we have to access the data to get some real benefit from that. All of our tools are easy to use and provide a means of either downloading the information into Excel or you can print copies of the reports. It is all very customized to the individual company.
Essentially the way it works is you can create different filtering mechanisms that allow you to slice and dice the data the way that you want to. It really is a user friendly, hands-on type of process. So essentially from someone becoming a member to when they have access to the tools and can begin using the benefits of the database can be within a number of weeks or it can potentially take a couple of months depending on their data collection.
Jim
Bruce, how do members access the consortium information?
Bruce
The process that companies use to gain access to our database is really one of a website we host, and each company is given as many IDs and passwords as they wish. These are tied to individuals and of course we track who enters the system, who leaves the system, and where they go. But the process is really set up so that companies can come and go within the database as they wish, as well as people within a company.
We have some companies that have 20-30 different people that have access to the database. Now this is all done in a confidential manner in terms of no one can see your data, but you, and the way that we generate the reports and information that individual companies can see, is always based on a segregation of the data, based on the filters.
But it doesn’t report back what any other individual company’s responses are. Access is secured with the IDs and passwords, and then the information is always segregated, based on whatever kind of information was used to create the data. We do not list individual companies that are responding. One of the other security measures that we take is that no data is shown unless there are at least four companies that have completed a particular question. So what that really does is make sure that no one can reverse engineer the information and decide or compute what someone else’s metrics or processes are.
Basically that’s how the companies access the information. Everything is accessed through a website that we control through our servers.
Jim
Bruce, what is the process of the Consortium where members network with each other?
Bruce
The networking that our members do is really an important aspect of being part of this consortium. It is a different kind of organization than anyone that we know of that does benchmarking. Because this interaction takes place between our members, there are several formal ways that we do the interaction. One is with our annual conference and it is called the Leadership Forum. The whole basis and philosophy for our conference is one of networking.
So we have simultaneous break-out sessions where our members go into rooms that are discussing a given topic, and they will have a little bit of information that is provided by a moderator. Then it really becomes an open forum about that particular topic. That is the basis of our Leadership Forum event. We hold that event in September every year. Next year it’s going to start at the very end of August. Another formal way that we use consortium members networking is to have them ask us to arrange for meetings with other companies. We readily do that. We can have them bring together different companies where they are discussing different topics, where we are moderating the session or not. Those are also interesting ways for companies to learn from each other.
Another thing that we do, and this is semiformal, but is done in an informal way, we use LinkedIn for our networking activity, and we allow our consortium companies to join a group that was created just for the Supply Chain Consortium. In that way, they can communicate with each other and share information if they wish, and of course we post information and items and things that we think would be newsworthy on that site for them to read and review, as well as make comments on. But it is also another way for them to reach out to each other.
Membership in that group is limited to those that are members in the consortium, so it’s not generally open and we control access to those who are only consortium members. So that is a little bit about what we do, and the process that we follow for our new members and how they get access to the information, and the networking process that we use. Thanks Jim, back to you.
Jim
Thank you very much Bruce, I believe the podcast listeners will benefit by understanding more fully the consortium services and activities. In the third part of this podcast, Bruce and I will be talking about the Leadership Forum. This absolutely is my favorite event of the entire year. Look forward to speaking to you again real soon.
