“Industry leaders from Selerant's User Conference are already projecting estimates on how SCP will change their current vendor management capabilities, with the majority projecting 40% or higher ROI,” according to data from fact-based marketing firm TechValidate that Selerant shares in its statement to the press.
Custom options
The basic idea of the tool is that if all vendor inputs are standardized for a given manufacturer’s workflow, the whole process will move faster and more efficiently. "Typically, vendor data is received by several different ways, such as spreadsheets, emails, and actual paper communication," notes Jacopo Colombo, the company’s CTO.
"Manually entering all of the data creates several issues, not the least being data accuracy,” observes Colombo. “One error can lead to a significant cascade and can result in non-compliance, serious cost controls, delays, and quality control."
The new portal lets users tailor the system to their company needs by first configuring how vendors will need to enter data. That requirement can be universal among a company’s vendors or not.
Security issues
Giving over any semblance of access to or control of proprietary systems to industry partners may seem daunting. Selerant acknowledges that concern: "The most critical aspect in integration is securing intellectual property rights," Colombo tells the press.
"We specifically designed SCP so it is completely separated from the DevEX database. Any data updates can only be initiated by an approved vendor and go through a firewall. So no vendor or supplier can ever have any access to the confidential formulations in DevEX," he explains.
Helping hands
The Selerant Collaboration Portal also lets users establish if-then notifications as needed. And promises better data “visibility and traceability as each data upload is indexed, version-controlled, and immediately accessible to DevEX users.”
Personal care and cosmetics is one of six industries the company serves. And their webpage for the business boasts that “Selerant provides solutions that improve new product success rates with greater collaboration, leveraging formulations in a centralized database, visualizing product portfolios, and complying with government legislations.”