Technology meets supplier diversity; CVM DiversityQuest's innovative database helps companies find minority vendors.Imagine a database of 2 million minority-and women-owned companies that large corporations can search to find suppliers in fields ranging from hospitality to computers. Imagine too that some of America's largest businesses, including Dell, Sprint, Marriott Marriott has several meanings:
CVM Diversity Quest's drive to improve the field of supplier diversity Supplier Diversity is a business program that encourages the use of previously underutilized minority owned vendors as suppliers. It is not directly correlated with supply chain diversification, although utilizing more vendors may enhance supply chain diversification. began four years ago, when DePaul University DePaul University[1] is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois, USA. M.B.A. student Mike Anguiano worked at a company that lost a $500 million bid for a contract by failing to meet supplier diversity requirements. Anguiano wrote a paper about how to effectively achieve supplier diversity. He raised startup capital, and in 2001, DiversityQuest was born. Later the company joined forces with another firm, CVM Solutions, to provide vendor management services. CVM DiversityQuest's Classification-Advantage program helps corporate clients save money and adhere to adhere to verb 1. follow, keep, maintain, respect, observe, be true, fulfil, obey, heed, keep to, abide by, be loyal, mind, be constant, be faithful 2. government regulations by comparing the corporation's supplier information against DiversityQuest's consolidated database of more than 9 million small businesses and 2 million diverse or minority-owned companies. It's not just a database but a "tracking and reporting mechanism to detail all the money corporations are spending with diverse businesses," says Anguiano, president of the data division. He estimates that maintaining the database is only about 5% of what the company does. Additionally, it screens resumes that clients receive from potential suppliers and provides a detailed report. The company also offers spending analysis software, which tells clients how much--and in which categories--they spend on supplier diversity. Companies such as the Hilton hotel chain can tell, for example, how much each hotel is spending with Hispanic Hispanic Multiculture A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race Social medicine Any of 17 major Latino subcultures, concentrated in California, Texas, Chicago, Miam, NY, and elsewhere suppliers that provide linens Linens are fabric household goods, such as pillowcases and towels. Originally, many, such as bed sheets and tablecloths, were made of linen. Today, the term "linen" has come to be applied to all related products even though most are made of cotton, various synthetic . Ford Motor Co. started working with CVM DiversityQuest about a year ago, in a collaborative effort to modify a system called MTier, which monitors Ford's first-tier suppliers. By using MTier, Ford and CVM DiversityQuest can verify (1) To prove the correctness of data. (2) In data entry operations, to compare the keystrokes of a second operator with the data entered by the first operator to ensure that the data were typed in accurately. See validate. all the first-and second-tier minority suppliers involved in the process. "They did a great job in helping us educate our suppliers and in communicating the intent of the system," says Debbie Murdie, manager of Ford's supplier diversity development office. "If you don't communicate and educate, then you will fail." |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion