All Aboard? Trade & Supply Chain

A smooth supplier onboarding process can play an important part in determining the success of a supply chain finance programme. Where are the possible pitfalls, how can these be avoided – and how do companies decide which suppliers to include in the first place?

Supply chain finance (SCF) has become an increasingly mainstream solution in recent years, with companies around the world adopting this approach to accelerate supplier payments – often while extending payment terms to improve their own days payables outstanding (DPO). Supply chain finance can also be leveraged to improve supply chain resilience, while boosting key supplier relationships.

But merely putting a supply chain finance programme in place is no guarantee of success. In practice, not all programmes deliver the desired benefits: while 56% of respondents to PwC’s 2017 SCF Barometer said their SCF programmes were a success, 38% said their programmes were only partly successful, with the remaining 6% reported to be unsuccessful.